Properties of image schemas
In this section, we further develop the notion of image schema by outlining a number of properties associated with this aspect of the conceptual system.
Image schemas are pre-conceptual in origin
According to Johnson, image schemas like the CONTAINER schema are directly grounded in embodied experience: they relate to and derive from sensory experience. This means that they are pre-conceptual in origin. Mandler (2004) argues that they arise from sensory experiences in the early stages of human development that precede the formation of concepts. However, once the recurrent patterns of sensory information have been extracted and stored as an image schema, sensory experience gives rise to a conceptual representation. This means that image schemas are concepts, but of a special kind: they are the foundations of the conceptual system, because they are the first concepts to emerge in the human mind, and precisely because they relate to sensory-perceptual experience, they are particularly schematic. Sometimes it is more difficult to grasp the idea of an image-schematic concept than it is to grasp the idea of a very specific concept like CAT or BOOK. This is because these specific concepts relate to ideas that we are aware of ‘knowing about’. In contrast, image schemas are so fundamental to our way of thinking that we are not consciously aware of them: we take our awareness of what it means to be a physical being in a physical world very much for granted because we acquire this knowledge so early in life, certainly before the emergence of language.
An image schema can give rise to more specific concepts
As we have already seen, the concepts lexicalised by the prepositions in, into, out, out of and out from in the passage cited above are all thought to relate to the CONTAINER schema: an abstract image-schematic concept that underlies all these much more specific lexical concepts. As we have seen in previous chapters, a lexical concept is a concept specifically encoded and externalised by a specific lexical form.
Of course, cognitive semanticists face the same problems that semanticists of any theoretical persuasion face in attempting to describe linguistic meaning in an economical and memorable way. There are a limited number of options available to us. Most semanticists, including cognitive semanticists, use words from natural language to represent pre-linguistic elements of meaning. Our use of words in small capitals to represent concepts is an example of this strategy. As we have already mentioned, some semanticists use a formal metalanguage, usually logic, to represent the meaning of larger units like sentences or propositions. Cognitive linguists often attempt to support their formal representations of meaning elements by using diagrams. Although concepts are labelled with ordinary words, the advantage of a diagram is that it can represent a concept independently of language.
For example, the CONTAINER schema is diagrammed in Figure 6.2. This image schema consists of the structural elements interior, boundary and exterior: these are the minimum requirements for a CONTAINER (Lakoff 1987). The landmark (LM), represented by the circle, consists of two structural elements, the interior– the area within the boundary – and the boundary itself. The exterior is the area outside the landmark, contained within the square. The container is represented as the landmark because the boundary and the exterior together possess sufficient Gestalt properties (e.g. closure and continuity) to make it the figure, while the exterior is the ground (recall our discussion of Gestalt principles in Chapter 3).
Of course, the reason why this diagram does not resemble any specific type of container (like a teacup, a house or a bad mood) is precisely because of its schematic meaning. The idea behind this type of diagram is that it ‘boils down’ the image-schematic meaning to its bare essence, representing only those properties that are shared by all instances of the conceptual category CONTAINER.
Although Figure 6.2 represents the basic CONTAINER schema, there are a number of other image schemas that are related to this schema which give rise to distinct concepts related to containment. For instance, let’s consider just two variants of the CONTAINER schema lexicalised by out. These image schemas are diagrammed in Figures 6.3 and 6.4, and are illustrated with linguistic examples. The diagram in Figure 6.3 corresponds to example (1). The trajector (TR) John, which is the entity that undergoes motion, moves from a position inside the LM to occupy a location outside the LM. The terms ‘TR’ and ‘LM’ are closely related to the notions of figure and reference object or ground that we discussed in Chapter 3. The terms ‘TR’ and ‘LM’ derive from the work of Langacker (e.g. 1987), and have been widely employed in cognitive semantics by scholars including Lakoff and Johnson, among others.
The image schema in Figure 6.4 corresponds to example (2). In this example, the meaning of out is ‘reflexive’, which is a technical way of saying that something refers to itself: we could paraphrase example (2), albeit redundantly, as The honey spread itself out. In other words, liquid substances like honey, because of their physical properties, can simultaneously be the LM and the TR. The LM is the original area occupied by the honey, while the honey is also the TR because it spreads beyond the boundary of its original location.
The image schemas shown in Figures 6.3 and 6.4 represent two concepts that are more specific and detailed than the image schema diagrammed in Figure 6.2, because they involve motion as well as containment. This shows that image schemas can possess varying degrees of schematicity, where more specific image schemas arise from more fundamental or schematic ones.
Image schemas derive from interaction with and observation of the world
As we have seen, because image schemas derive from embodied experience, they derive from the way in which we interact with the world. To illustrate this idea, consider the image schema for FORCE. This image schema arises from our experience of acting upon other entities, or being acted upon by other entities, resulting in the transfer of motion energy. Johnson illustrates the inter actional derivation of this image schema (in other words, how it arises from experience) as follows:
[F]orce is always experienced through interaction. We become aware of force as it affects us or some object in our perceptual field. When you enter an unfamiliar dark room and bump into the edge of the table, you are experiencing the interactional character of force. When you eat too much the ingested food presses outwards on your taughtly stretched stomach. There is no schema for force that does not involve interaction or potential interaction. (Johnson 1987: 43).
The idea of FORCE is also central to Talmy’s theory of conceptual structure, as we will see later in the chapter (section 6.2.2).
Image schemas are inherently meaningful
Because image schemas derive from interaction with the world, they are inherently meaningful. Embodied experience is inherently meaningful in the sense that embodied experiences have predictable consequences. Let’s illustrate this point with another example. Imagine a cup of coffee in your hand. If you move the cup slowly up and down, or from side to side, you expect the coffee to move with it. This is because a consequence of containment, given that it is defined by boundaries, is that it constrains the location of any entity within these boundaries. In other words, the cup exerts force-dynamic control over the coffee. Of course, this seems rather obvious, but this kind of knowledge, which we take for granted, is acquired as a consequence of our interaction with our physical environment. For example, walking across a room holding a cup of coffee without spilling it actually involves highly sophisticated motor control that we also acquire from experience: we would be unlikely to ask a two-year old to perform the same task. This experience gives rise to knowledge structures that enable us to make predictions: if we tip the coffee cup upside-down, the coffee will pour out.
The force-dynamic properties just described for the CONTAINER schema also show up in linguistic meaning, as illustrated by the meaning of the preposition in. Consider the diagram in Figure 6.5, drawn from the work of Claude Vandeloise (1994).
Vandeloise observes that the image depicted in Figure 6.5 could either represent a bottle or a lightbulb. Observe from example (3) that we can use the preposition in to describe the relation between the lightbulb (TR) and the socket (LM).
In contrast, we cannot use the preposition in to describe the relation between a bottle and its cap, as example (4) shows. (The symbol preceding this example indicates that the sentence is semantically ‘odd’.)
Vandeloise points out that the spatial relation holding between the TR and LM in each of these sentences is identical, and yet while (3) is a perfectly accept able sentence, (4) is semantically odd. Vandeloise suggests that it is not the spatial relation holding between the TR and LM that accounts for the accept ability or otherwise of in. He argues that the relevant factor is one of force dynamics: ‘[W]hile the socket exerts a force on the bulb and determines its position, the opposite occurs with the cap and the bottle’ (Vandeloise 1994: 173). In other words, not only is the position and the successful function of the bulb contingent on being in (contained by) the socket, but the socket also pre vents the bulb from succumbing to the force of gravity and falling to the ground. In contrast, the position and successful function of the bottle is not contingent on being in the cap. This suggests that our knowledge of the functional consequences associated with the CONTAINER image schema affects the contextual acceptability of a preposition like in.
Image schemas are analogue representations
Image schemas are analogue representations deriving from experience. In this context, the term ‘analogue’ means image schemas take a form in the conceptual system that mirrors the sensory experience being represented. In other words, although we can try to describe image schemas using words and pictures, they are not represented in the mind in these kinds of symbolic forms. Instead, image schematic concepts are represented in the mind in terms of holistic sensory experiences, rather like the memory of a physical experience. Let’s illustrate this idea with an analogy: learning to drive a car properly cannot simply be achieved by reading a driving manual, or even by listening to a driving instructor explain the ‘rules’ of driving. At best, these provide very rough clues. Instead, we have to ‘learn’ how it ‘feels’ to drive a car by experiencing it at first hand. This learning is a complex process, during which we master an array of interrelated sensori motor routines. Because image schemas derive from sensory experience, they are represented as summaries of perceptual states which are recorded in memory. However, what makes them conceptual rather than purely perceptual in nature is that they give rise to concepts that are consciously accessible (Mandler 2004). In other words, image schemas structure (more complex) lexical concepts.
Image schemas can be internally complex Image schemas are often, perhaps typically, comprised of more complex aspects that can be analysed separately. For example, the CONTAINER schema is a concept that consists of interior, boundary and exterior elements. Another example of a complex image schema is the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL or simply PATH schema, rep resented in Figure 6.6. Because a path is a means of moving from one location to another, it consists of a starting point or SOURCE, a destination or GOAL and a series of contiguous locations in between which relate the source and goal. Like all complex image schemas, the PATH schema constitutes an experiential Gestalt: it has internal structure but emerges as a coherent whole.
One consequence of internal complexity is that different components of the PATH schema can be referred to. This is illustrated in example (5), where the relevant linguistic units are bracketed. In each of these examples, different components of the path are profiled by the use of different lexical items.
Image schemas are not the same as mental images
Close your eyes and imagine the face of your mother or father, child or close friend. This is a mental image, relatively rich in detail. Image schemas are not the same as mental images. Mental images are detailed and result from an effortful and partly conscious cognitive process that involves recalling visual memory. Image schemas are schematic and therefore more abstract in nature, emerging from ongoing embodied experience. This means that you can’t close your eyes and ‘think up’ an image schema in the same way that you can ‘think up’ the sight of someone’s face or the feeling of a particular object in your hand.
Image schemas are multi-modal
One of the reasons why we are not able to close our eyes and ‘think up’ an image schema is because image schemas derive from experiences across different modalities (different types of sensory experience) and hence are not specific to a particular sense. In other words, image schemas are buried ‘deeper’ within the cognitive system, being abstract patterns arising from a vast range of perceptual experiences and as such are not available to conscious introspection. For instance, blind people have access to image schemas for CONTAINERS, PATHS and so on precisely because the kinds of experiences that give rise to these image schemas rely on a range of sensory-perceptual experiences in addition to vision, including hearing, touch and our experience of movement and balance, to name but a few.
Image schemas are subject to transformations
Because image schemas arise from embodied experience, which is ongoing, they can undergo transformations from one image schema into another. In order to get a sense of what this means, consider the following example from Lakoff (1987):
Imagine a herd of cows up close – close enough to pick out the individual cows. Now imagine yourself moving back until you can no longer pick out individual cows. What you perceive is a mass. There is a point at which you cease making out individuals and start perceiving a mass. (Lakoff 1987: 428)
According to Lakoff, perceptual experiences of this kind mediate a transformation between the COUNT image schema, which relates to a grouping of individual entities that can be individuated and counted, and the MASS image schema, which relates to an entity that is perceived as internally homogenous. The COUNT and MASS schemas are reflected in the grammatical behaviour of nouns, relating to the distinction between count and mass nouns. Count but not mass nouns can be determined by the indefinite article:
However, count nouns can be transformed into mass nouns and vice versa, pro viding linguistic evidence for the count-mass image-schematic transformation. If a count noun, like tomato in example (7), is conceived as a mass, it takes on the grammatical properties of a mass noun, as shown in (8).
In essence, the grammatical transformation from count to mass, which Talmy (2000) calls debounding, and the transformation from mass to count, which he calls excerpting, is held to be motivated by an image-schematic transformation that underpins our ability to grammatically encode entities in terms of count or mass. As we will see, this distinction is also important in Lakoff’s theory of word meaning, which we examine in Chapter 10. I
mage schemas can occur in clusters
Image schemas can occur in clusters or networks of related image schemas. To illustrate this, consider again the FORCE schema, which actually consists of a series of related schemas. Force schemas share a number of properties (pro posed by Johnson 1987) which are summarised in Table 6.2.
Johnson identifies no fewer than seven force schemas that share the proper ties detailed in Table 6.2. These schemas are shown in Figures 6.7 to 6.13 (after Johnson 1987: 45–8). The small dark circle represents the source of the force, while the square represents an obstruction of some kind. An unbroken arrow represents the force vector (the course taken by the force), while a broken arrow represents a potential force vector.
The first FORCE schema is the COMPULSION schema (Figure 6.7). This emerges from the experience of being moved by an external force, for example being pushed along helplessly in a large dense crowd, being blown along in a very strong wind and so on.
The second force-related image schema is the BLOCKAGE schema (Figure 6.8). This image schema derives from encounters in which obstacles resist force, for example when a car crashes into an obstacle like a tree.
The third force-related image schema is the CONTERFORCE schema (Figure 6.9). This derives from the experience of two entities meeting with equal force, like when we bump into someone in the street. F1 and F2 represent the two counterforces.
The fourth force-related image schema is the DIVERSION schema (Figure 6.10). This occurs when one entity in motion meets another entity and this results in diversion. Examples include a swimmer swimming against a strong current so that she is gradually pushed along the shoreline, or the ricochet of a bullet.
The fifth force-related image schema is the REMOVAL OF RESTRAINT schema (Figure 6.11). This captures a situation in which an obstruction to force is removed, allowing the energy to be released. This describes a situation like leaning on a door that suddenly opens.
The sixth force-related image schema is the ENABLEMENT schema (Figure 6.12). This image schema derives from our sense of potential energy, or lack of it, in relation to the performance of a specific task. While most people who are fit and well feel able to pick up a bag of grocery shopping, for example, few people feel able to lift up a car. It is important to observe that while this image schema does not involve an actual force vector, it does involve a potential force vector. According to Johnson, it is this property that marks the ENABLEMENT schema as a distinct image schema.
Finally, the ATTRACTION schema (Figure 6.13) derives from experiences in which one entity is drawn towards another entity due to the force exerted upon it. Examples include magnets, vacuum cleaners and gravity.
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