[SEM] The Semantics of Abstraction: Linguistic and Embodied Factors

ABSTRACT:

Abstraction is a natural consequence of metaphor. For example, in the metaphor language is a bridge, an abstraction of the concrete word bridge is computed, which allows the metaphorical meaning to emerge. However, words vary in their potential to create metaphorical abstractions. In this talk, I will describe several semantic factors are associated with metaphorical abstraction. In particular, I will focus on key semantic variables I have identified in my research program. The semantic variables in question are associated with both bodily and linguistic experience and contribute to a word’s overall semantic richness. Words can be semantically rich because they denote concrete concepts that are easy to imagine, such as pen, or less-rich because they denote abstract concepts that are relatively difficult to imagine, such as idea. Moreover, some concrete concepts are semantically rich because they denote concepts that are easy to interact with, such as bicycle whereas others are less-rich because they denote concepts that are relatively difficult to interact with such as butterfly. Finally, some words are semantically rich because they have many semantic neighbors, such as castle whereas others are less-rich because they have few semantic neighbors, such as lighthouse (for example, castle’s semantic neighbors, such as fortress and palace are highly related, whereas lighthouse’s semantic neighbors, such as tower and pier are less related). In this talk, I will describe behavioural and neuropsychological experiments that characterize how the aforementioned variables are accessed in real-time and interact to create metaphorical abstractions, concluding that semantic richness is detrimental to metaphorical abstraction.