Cognitive Semantics. Embodied Cognition and Dynamic Mental Representations in Language Comprehension

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Bonn (IAAK), language: English, abstract: This work aims to add to the body of research in the field of cognitive semantics py hypothesizing that the comprehension of a sentence auditorily presented describing a motion should facilitate the perception of a matching motion event presented visually.
To investigate dynamic representation in language comprehension an experiment was created in which 20 participants had to listen to a sentence which was followed by two pictures after which they had to judge whether the objects presented in the pictures were the same or not. Both the sentence and pictures implied the motion of a ball toward or away from the participants. In critical trials, the two pictures always presented the same ball e.g. tennis ball, which was also mentioned in the previous sentence and further either matched or mismatched the direction implied in the previous sentence. To imply motion in the pictures, the object in the first picture was either slightly smaller or larger than the second picture, thus implying a motion away or toward the participant.

The paper will start with a comprehensive overview of embodiment theory followed by an introduction to research and findings regarding dynamic mental representations in language comprehension. Afterwards, the methodology of this study will be described including information on the instrument and material used, experimental procedure and informants. The paper will then present most important findings which are relevant to answer the research questions posted. In the following discussion the results will be discussed in the light of previous findings and method used. At last, the paper will summarize all noteworthy results and limitations of the study and will then give an outlook for further related research.