Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:40:26.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Embodied intersubjectivity, sedimentation and non-actual motion expressions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2016

Jordan Zlatev  and
Johan Blomberg
Jordan Zlatev
Affiliation:
Centre for Languages and Literature, Box 201, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden. [email protected]
Johan Blomberg
Affiliation:
Centre for Languages and Literature, Box 201, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden. [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

As part of a long-term project investigating the relevance of phenomenology for (cognitive) linguistics we analyse two central, interrelated concepts: embodied intersubjectivity (intercorporeality) and sedimentation. With respect to the first, we spell out a number of different intercorporeal structures, emanating at the most fundamental level from the dual Leibkörper nature of the body. Further, we demonstrate that sedimentation is more than a ‘geological metaphor’ as meaning is intrinsically layered in human experience. This is first illustrated by reviewing evidence from ontogenetic semiotic development within the framework of the Mimesis Hierarchy model (Zlatev 2013). Then, we focus on the linguistic construal of situations lacking actual motion in dynamic terms through expressions of non-actual motion such as The road goes through the forest and He was uplifted by her smile. We review studies of non-actual motion in Swedish, English, French, Bulgarian and Thai extending and re-formulating previous analyses. We argue that the present analysis is more adequate than cognitive linguistic explanations in terms of ‘mental simulation’ and ‘conceptual metaphor’. We conclude by pointing out how our phenomenological investigation can help resolve a number of classical dilemmas in semantics: Is language primarily grounded in the body or in society? Is the ontology of linguistic meaning mental or social? What is the relationship between pre-linguistic experiences and linguistic conventions?

Keywords

bodyconstrualconventionsembodimentemotionsintersubjectivityLeibkörpermetaphormotivationsphenomenology
Type
Research Article
Information
Nordic Journal of Linguistics , Volume 39 , Special Issue 2: Discourse, Grammar and Intersubjectivity , October 2016 , pp. 185 - 208
Copyright
Copyright © Nordic Association of Linguistics 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Andrén, Mats. 2010. Children's Gestures between 18 and 30 Months. Lund: Media Tryck.Google Scholar
Bates, Elizabeth, Benigni, Laura, Bretherton, Inge, Camioni, Luigia & Volterra, Virginia. 1979. The Emergence of Symbols: Cognition and Communication in Infancy. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Blomberg, Johan. 2015. The expression of non-actual motion in Swedish, French and Thai. Cognitive Linguistics 26 (4), 657–696.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blomberg, Johan & Zlatev, Jordan. 2014. Actual and non-actual motion: Why experientialist semantics needs phenomenology (and vice versa). Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 13 (3), 395–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohnemeyer, Juergen. 2010. Path, fictive motion, and time relations. In Barbara, Malt & Wolff, Philip (eds.), Words and the Mind: How Words Capture Human Experience, 111–137. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandt, Line. 2009. Subjectivity in the act of representing: The case for subjective motion and change. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 8 (4), 573–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruner, Jerome. 1983. Child's Talk: Learning to Use Language. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Coseriu, Eugenio. 1985. Linguistic competence: What is it really? The Modern Language Review 80 (4), xxv–xxxv.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeLoache, Judy S. 2004. Becoming symbol-minded. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8 (2), 66–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dor, Daniel. 2015. The Instruction of Imagination: Language as a Social Communication Technology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Nick & Levinson, Stephen C.. 2009. The myth of language universals: Language diversity and its importance for cognitive science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32 (5), 429–448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fuchs, Thomas. 2005. Corporealized and disembodied minds: A phenomenological view of the body in melancholia and schizophrenia. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 12 (2), 95–107.Google Scholar
Fuchs, Thomas. 2012. The phenomenology of body memory. In Koch et al. (eds.), 9–22.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Shaun. 2005. How the Body Shapes the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, Shaun & Schmicking, Daniel (eds.). 2010. Handbook of Phenomenology and Cognitive Sciences. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Shaun & Zahavi, Dan. 2008. The Phenomenological Mind: An Introduction to Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gibbs, Ray W. 2005. Embodiment and Cognitive Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibson, James J. 1979. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grady, Joseph E. 1997. Foundations of Meaning: Primary Metaphors and Primary Scenes. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Gratier, Maya, Devouche, Emmanuel, Guellai, Bahia, Infanti, Rubia, Yilmaz, Ebru & Parlato-Oliveira, Erika. 2015. Early development of turn-taking in vocal interaction between mothers and infants. Frontiers in Psychology 6, 1167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harder, Peter. 2010. Meaning in Mind and Society: A Functional Contribution to the Social Turn in Cognitive Linguistics. Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilbrink, Elma, Gattis, Meredith & Levinson, Stepphen C.. 2015. Early developmental changes in the timing of turn-taking: A longitudinal study of mother–infant interaction. Frontiers in Psychology 6, 1492.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Husserl, Edmund. [1936]1970. The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Itkonen, Esa. 2003. What is Language? A Study in the Philosophy of Linguistics. Turku: Turku University Press.Google Scholar
Itkonen, Esa. 2016. An assessment of (mentalist) cognitive semantics. Public Journal of Semiotics 7 (1), 1–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Mark. 2010. Metaphor and cognition. In Gallagher & Schmicking (eds.), 401–414.Google Scholar
Koch, Sabine C., Fuchs, Thomas, Summa, Michela & Müller, Cornelia (eds.). 2012. Body Memory, Metaphor and Movement. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolter, Astrid, Ladewig, Silva, Summa, Michela, Müller, Cornelia, Koch, Sabine & Fuchs, Thomas. 2012. Body memory and the emergence of metaphor in movement and speech. In Koch et al. (eds.), 201–226.Google Scholar
Kövecses, Zoltan. 2000. Metaphor and Emotion: Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark. 1980. Metaphors we Live by. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark. 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 2006. Subjectification, grammaticization, and conceptual archetypes. In Angeliki Athanasiadou, Costas Canakis & Bert Cornille (eds.), Subjectification: Various Paths to Subjectivity, 17–41. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Mandler, Jean. 2004. The Foundations of Mind: Origins of Conceptual Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Matlock, Teenie. 2010. Abstract motion is no longer abstract. Language and Cognition 2 (2), 243–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCune, Lorraine. 2008. How Children Learn How to Learn Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeill, David. 2005. Gesture and Thought. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzoff, Andrew & Moore, Michael. 1983. Newborn infants imitate adult facial gestures. Child Development 54, 702–709.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. [1945]1962. Phenomenology of Perception. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Moran, Dermot. 2005. Edmund Husserl: Founder of Phenomenology. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Möttönen, Tappani. 2016. Construal in Expression: Intersubjective Approach to Cognitive Grammar. Helsinki: University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Piaget, Jean. 1962. Play, Dreams, and Imitation in Childhood. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Popper, Karl. 1979. Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Reddy, Vasu. 2003. On being an object of attention: Implications of self–other-consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7 (9), 397–402.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richardson, Daniel & Matlock, Teenie. 2007. The integration of figurative language and static depictions: An eye movement study of fictive motion. Cognition 102 (1), 129–138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rochat, Philippe. 2011. Primordial sense of embodied self-unity. In Slaughter, Virginia & Brownell, Celia A. (eds.), Early Development of Body Representations, 3–18. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohrer, Tim. 2007. The body in space: Dimensions of embodiment. In Ziemke et al. (eds.), 339–378.Google Scholar
Sokolowski, Robert. 2000. Introduction to Phenomenology. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stern, Daniel. 2000. The Interpersonal World of the Infant: A View from Psychoanalysis and Developmental Psychology. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Suddendorf, Thumas, Oostenbroek, Janine, Nielsen, Mark & Slaughter, Virginia. 2013. Is newborn imitation developmentally homologous to later social-cognitive skills? Developmental Psychobiology 55 (1), 52–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Summa, Michela 2012. Body memory and the genesis of meaning. In Koch et al. (eds.), 23–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talmy, Len. 2000. Toward a Cognitive Semantics, vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Evan. 2007. Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology and the Sciences of Mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. 1999. The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. 2009. Constructing a Language: A Usage-based Theory of Language Acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Trevarthen, Colywn. 1979. Communication and cooperation in early infancy: A description of primary intersubjectivity. Bullowa, In Margaret (ed.), Before Speech: The Beginning of Interpersonal Communication, 321–347. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Varela, Francisco, Thompson, Evan & Rosch, Eleanor. 1991. The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verhagen, Ari. 2005. Constructions of Intersubjectivity: Discourse, Syntax, and Cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Werner, Herbert & Kaplan, Bernard. 1963. Symbol Formation: An Organismic-Developmental Approach to Language and the Expression of Thought. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Zahavi, Dan. 2001. Beyond empathy: Phenomenological approaches to intersubjectivity. Journal of Consciousness Studies 8 (5–6), 151–167.Google Scholar
Zahavi, Dan. 2003. Husserl's Phenomenology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Zahavi, Dan. 2014. Self and Other: Exploring Subjectivity, Empathy, and Shame. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zelazo, Philip D. 2004. The development of conscious control in childhood. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8 (1), 12–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ziemke, Tom, Zlatev, Jordan & , Roz Frank (eds.). 2007. Body, Language and Mind, vol 1: Embodiment. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Zinken, Jörg. 2007. Discourse metaphors: The link between figurative language and habitual analogies. Cognitive Linguistics 18, 445–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan. 1997. Situated Embodiment: Studies in the Emergence of Spatial Meaning. Stockholm: Gotab.Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan. 2005. What's in a schema? Bodily mimesis and the grounding of language. In Hampe, Beate (ed.), From Perception to Meaning: Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics, 313–343. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan. 2007. Language, embodiment and mimesis. In Ziemke et al. (eds.), 297–337.Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan. 2008. The coevolution of intersubjectivity and bodily mimesis In Zlatev et al. (eds.), 215–244.Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan. 2009. Levels of meaning, embodiment, and communication. Cybernetics and Human Knowing 16, 149–174.Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan. 2010. Phenomenology and cognitive linguistics. In Gallagher & Schmicking (eds.), 415–443.Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan. 2011. From cognitive to integral linguistics and back again. Intellectica 56 (2), 125–147.Google Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan. 2013. The mimesis hierarchy of semiotic development: Five stages of intersubjectivity in children. Public Journal of Semiotics 4, 47–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan, Blomberg, Johan & Magnusson, Ulf. 2012. Metaphors and subjective experience: Motion-emotion metaphors in English, Swedish, Bulgarian and Thai. In Foolen, Ad, Luedke, Ulrike, Racine, Tim & Zlatev, Jordan (eds.), Moving Ourselves, Moving Others: Motion and Emotion in Consiousness, Intersubjectivity and Language, 423–450. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan, Madsen, Elaine, Lenninger, Sara, Persson, Tomas, Sayehli, Susan, Sonesson, Göran & van de Weijer, Joost. 2013. Understanding communicative intentions and semiotic vehicles by children and chimpanzees. Cognitive Development 28, 312–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zlatev, Jordan, Racine, Tim, Sinha, Chris & Itkonen, Esa (eds.). 2008. The Shared Mind: Perspectives on Intersubjectivity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar