21 September 2008

Metaphors that came in from the cold

Further evidence of the fundamental metaphorical nature of language rooted in bodily experience as per Philosophy in the Flesh. In this article An icy stare really does make you feel cold - being-human - 19 September 2008 - New Scientist we are told: "I was given the cold shoulder', 'she froze me out with an icy stare' – such metaphors describe the social isolation we've all felt on occasion. What psychologists didn't expect is that social exclusion can actually make you feel cold, yet that is precisely what a new study finds."
I need to think about this more, but it would seem that both the experience of exclusions leads to physiological or at least perceptual changes and that these changes form the basis of an enbodied metaphor.

No comments:

"Spend and tax" not "tax and spend"

 I got a response from my MP which got me kind of mad. You'll see why as I reproduce it here. Apologies for the strange changes in types...