Metaphors are Embodied, and so are Their Literal Counterparts
Open accessAbstract
This study investigates whether understanding up/down metaphors as well as semantically homologous literal sentences activates embodied representations online. Participants read orientational literal sentences (e.g., she climbed up the hill), metaphors (e.g., she climbed up in the company), and abstract sentences with similar meaning to the metaphors (e.g., she succeeded in the company). In Experiments 1 and 2, participants were asked to perform a speeded upward or downward hand motion while they were reading the sentence verb. The hand motion either matched or mismatched the direction connoted by the sentence. The results showed a meaning-action effect for metaphors and literals, that is, faster hand motion responses in the matching conditions. Notably, the matching advantage was also found for homologous abstract sentences, indicating that some abstract ideas are conceptually organized in the vertical dimension, even when they are expressed by means of literal sentences. In Experiment 3, participants responded to an upward or downward visual motion associated with the sentence verb by pressing a single key. In this case, the facilitation effect for matching visual motion-sentence meaning faded, indicating that the visual motion component is less important than the action component in conceptual metaphors. Most up and down metaphors convey emotionally positive and negative information, respectively. We suggest that metaphorical meaning elicits upward/downward movements because they are grounded on the bodily expression of the corresponding emotions.
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Even 'offline' and seemingly abstract cognitive processes, such as number representation and metaphor, appear to be 'body based'.
“Even ‘offline’ and seemingly abstract cognitive processes, such as number representation and metaphor, appear to be ‘body based’ [31,129], and many allegedly abstract, centralized cognitive processes recruit distributed sensory–motor systems that evolved to control bodily movement [31].”
From Embodied cognitive evolution and the cerebellum (2012) · cites this paper as [129]
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Embodied cognitive evolution and the cerebellum
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- Authors
- Santana, E., & de Vega, M.
- Affiliations
- Universidad de La Laguna (ES)
- Venue
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media SA
- Published
- 2011
- Volume
- 2
- Pages
- 90-90
- ISSN
- 1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3110336
- OpenAlex
- W2150482569
- Cited by
- 60
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 7.01
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
- Vedecká Grantová Agentúra MŠVVaŠ SR a SAV
- European Regional Development Fund
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Keywords
- conceptual metaphor, embodied cognition, vertical dimension, emotional valence, visual motion, hand movement, metaphor comprehension
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