“Language is Spatial”: Experimental Evidence for Image Schemas of Concrete and Abstract Verbs

Cognitive linguistics and experimental psychology have produced tantalizing hints that a substantial portion of language is encoded in the mind in the form of spatial representations that are grounded in perception and action. Researchers represent these spatial aspects using "image schemas" that depict verbs of motion or spatial prepositions via a 2-D layout of generic icons. In two experiments, we tested naïve subjects' intuitions about such image schemas for concrete action verbs as well as abstract action verbs and psychological predicates. A substantial agreement across subjects was observed in both a forced choice task and a free form computer-based drawing task, for both concrete verbs and abstract verbs. In addition to providing support for the generality of image schemas, the data provide a set of norms for future online studies of spatial representations underlying real-time language processing.