The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis

Borghi, Anna M.; Capirci, Olga; Gianfreda, Gabriele; Volterra, Virginia

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00811

Cited by 45 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…In an fMRI study by Romero Lauro et al (2013), similar results were obtained, supporting the view that the involvement of motor areas in action language processing is gradual, ranging from strong in literal stimuli to weak or no involvement in idiomatic sentences (Romero Lauro et al, 2013). Alternatively, it has been suggested that concrete and abstract concepts both rely on sensorimotor systems but beyond that abstract words evoke more emotional and linguistic representations (Borghi, Capirci, Gianfreda, & Volterra, 2014;Scorolli et al, 2012). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

EEG beta-power changes reflect motor involvement in abstract action language processing

2017

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language Action verbs Beta-oscillation Event-related desynchronization (ERD) a b s t r a c tBrain oscillations in the a-and b-range become suppressed during motor processing and motor imagery.It has recently been discussed that such power changes also occur during action language processing. In our study, we compared b 2 -oscillations (16-25 Hz) during the observation of prototypical arm movements (revealed via motion tracking) as well as during semantic processing of concrete and abstract sentences containing arm-related action verbs. Whereas we did find a strong desynchronization in the b 2 -range during action observation, the processing of action sentences evoked a rather weak desynchronization. However, this desynchronization occurred for action verbs in both concrete and abstract contexts. These results might indicate a tendency for abstract action language to be processed similar to concrete action language rather than abstract sentences. The oscillation patterns reflect the close relationship between language comprehension and motor functions -one of the core claims of current theories on embodied cognition.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

EEG beta-power changes reflect motor involvement in abstract action language processing

2017

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“…One further limitation of our stimuli could consist in their generalizability: we choose to focus on relational concepts, which are more abstract than concrete single object concepts, but further research is needed to determine whether these results can be generalized to all abstract concepts. Recent evidence namely suggests, that different kinds of abstract concepts might exist ([ 28 ], [ 29 ]).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Naming a Lego World. The Role of Language in the Acquisition of Abstract Concepts

2015

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While embodied approaches of cognition have proved to be successful in explaining concrete concepts and words, they have more difficulties in accounting for abstract concepts and words, and several proposals have been put forward. This work aims to test the Words As Tools proposal, according to which both abstract and concrete concepts are grounded in perception, action and emotional systems, but linguistic information is more important for abstract than for concrete concept representation, due to the different ways they are acquired: while for the acquisition of the latter linguistic information might play a role, for the acquisition of the former it is instead crucial. We investigated the acquisition of concrete and abstract concepts and words, and verified its impact on conceptual representation. In Experiment 1, participants explored and categorized novel concrete and abstract entities, and were taught a novel label for each category. Later they performed a categorical recognition task and an image-word matching task to verify a) whether and how the introduction of language changed the previously formed categories, b) whether language had a major weight for abstract than for concrete words representation, and c) whether this difference had consequences on bodily responses. The results confirm that, even though both concrete and abstract concepts are grounded, language facilitates the acquisition of the latter and plays a major role in their representation, resulting in faster responses with the mouth, typically associated with language production. Experiment 2 was a rating test aiming to verify whether the findings of Experiment 1 were simply due to heterogeneity, i.e. to the fact that the members of abstract categories were more heterogeneous than those of concrete categories. The results confirmed the effectiveness of our operationalization, showing that abstract concepts are more associated with the mouth and concrete ones with the hand, independently from heterogeneity.

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“…By examining the gestures produced when communicating abstract concepts, the present study will build on the findings of previous research that has examined how abstract concepts are conveyed in sign languages (e.g. [34,35]). For instance, based on their analysis of Italian Sign Language, Borghi et al [34] concluded that many signs for abstract concepts were based on underlying metaphors, in keeping with Conceptual Metaphor Theory.…”

Section: (B) Gestures and Abstract Meaningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating abstract meaning: concepts revealed in words and gestures

Zdrazilova¹,

Sidhu²,

Pexman³

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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words refer to concepts that cannot be directly experienced through our senses (e.g. ,). How we ground the meanings of abstract words is one of the deepest problems in cognitive science today. We investigated this question in an experiment in which 62 participants were asked to communicate the meanings of words (20 abstract nouns, e.g. ; 10 concrete nouns, e.g.) to a partner without using the words themselves (the taboo task). We analysed the speech and associated gestures that participants used to communicate the meaning of each word in the taboo task. Analysis of verbal and gestural data yielded a number of insights. When communicating about the meanings of abstract words, participants' speech referenced more people and introspections. In contrast, the meanings of concrete words were communicated by referencing more objects and entities. Gesture results showed that when participants spoke about abstract word meanings their speech was accompanied by more metaphorical and beat gestures, and speech about concrete word meanings was accompanied by more iconic gestures. Taken together, the results suggest that abstract meanings are best captured by a model that allows dynamic access to multiple representation systems.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain'.

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The body and the fading away of abstract concepts and words: a sign language analysis

Cited by 45 publications

References 85 publications

EEG beta-power changes reflect motor involvement in abstract action language processing

EEG beta-power changes reflect motor involvement in abstract action language processing

Naming a Lego World. The Role of Language in the Acquisition of Abstract Concepts

Communicating abstract meaning: concepts revealed in words and gestures

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