Perspectives on Abstract Concepts
Cognition, language and communication
Editors
Human language is the most powerful communication system that evolution has produced. Within this system, we can talk about things we can physically see, such as cats and tables, but also about more abstract entities, such as theories and feelings. But how are these abstract concepts grounded in human cognition and represented in the mind? How are they constructed in language? And how are they used in natural communication settings?
This book addresses these questions through a collection of studies that relate to various theoretical frameworks, ranging from Conceptual Metaphor Theory to Words as Social Tools. Contributors investigate how abstract concepts are grounded in the mind, represented in language, and used in verbal discourse. This richness is matched by a range of methods used throughout the volume, from neuroimaging to computational modeling, and from behavioral experiments to corpus analyses.
[Human Cognitive Processing, 65] 2019. xii, 315 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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List of contributors | pp. ix–x
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Acknowledgments | pp. xi–xii
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IntroductionMarianna Bolognesi and Gerard J. Steen | pp. 1–13
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Part I. Abstract concepts in the mind: Conceptual processing and cognitive grounding of abstract concepts
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Chapter 1. The relevance of specific semantic categories in investigating the neural bases of abstract and concrete semanticsFelix R. Dreyer and Friedemann Pulvermüller | pp. 17–42
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Chapter 2. Abstract concepts and the activation of mouth-hand effectorsClaudia Mazzuca and Anna Maria Borghi | pp. 43–58
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Chapter 3. Inferential processing with concrete vs. abstract words and visual cortexFabrizio Calzavarini | pp. 59–74
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Chapter 4. Are abstract concepts grounded in bodily mimesis?Anna Jelec | pp. 75–99
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Chapter 5. Is the acoustic modality relevant for abstract concepts? A study with the Extrinsic Simon taskElisa Scerrati, Luisa Lugli, Roberto Nicoletti and Anna Maria Borghi | pp. 101–118
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Part II. Abstract concepts in language: Insights from psycholinguistics and lexical semantics
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Chapter 6. Determinants of abstractness and concreteness and their persuasive effectsLettica Hustinx and Wilbert Spooren | pp. 121–144
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Chapter 7. Acceptability properties of abstract senses in copredicationElliot Murphy | pp. 145–165
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Chapter 8. Different degrees of abstraction from visual cues in processing concrete nounsFrancesca Franzon and Chiara Zanini | pp. 167–184
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Chapter 9. Cognitive and linguistic aspects of composition in German particle verbsSylvia Springorum, Hans Kamp and Sabine Schulte im Walde | pp. 185–214
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Chapter 10. Metaphor in action: Action verbs and abstract meaningAlessandro Panunzi and Paola Vernillo | pp. 215–238
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Part III. Abstract concepts in communication: Corpus analyses and spontaneous production of words referring to abstract concepts
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Chapter 11. Abstract concepts in development: Spontaneous production of complex words in Swedish child languageMaria Rosenberg | pp. 241–261
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Chapter 12. The development of the abstract scientific concept of heat energy in a naturalistic classroom settingSally Zacharias | pp. 263–286
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Chapter 13. Time domain matrix modeling in cognitive linguistic researchIevgeniia Bondarenko | pp. 287–311
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Analytical index | pp. 313–315
Erratum
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Cited by
Cited by 5 other publications
Bolognesi, Marianna & Gerard Steen
2018. Editors' Introduction: Abstract Concepts: Structure, Processing, and Modeling. Topics in Cognitive Science 10:3 ► pp. 490 ff. 
Cabling, Mark L., Fabrizio Drago, Jeanine Turner, Alejandra Hurtado-de-Mendoza & Vanessa B. Sheppard
2022. Revisiting agency and medical health technology: actor network theory and breast cancer survivors’ perspectives on an adherence tool. Health and Technology 12:6 ► pp. 1071 ff.
Steen, Gerard J.
Strik Lievers, Francesca, Marianna Bolognesi & Bodo Winter
2021. The linguistic dimensions of concrete and abstract concepts: lexical category, morphological structure, countability, and etymology. Cognitive Linguistics 32:4 ► pp. 641 ff.
[no author supplied]
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFD: Psycholinguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009040: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Psycholinguistics / General