Anna Jelec

Adam Mickiewicz University | UAM · Faculty of English

The human nervous system evolved for the control of complex physical actions. Yet, we are far from understanding the human capacity for complex abstract thought. One theory suggests that both abstract and concrete thinking is based on a single perceptual mechanism grounded in physical experience. Asking the question posed by psychologist Daniel Cas...

The theory of embodiment (Lakoff and Johnson 2003; Gibbs et al. 2004) explains the origin of meaning by postulating that thought is influenced by sensorimotor experience (Robbins and Aydede 2009). However, the relation between the body, mind and environment is not unidirectional. Not only do we derive information from the world, but we are also abl...

This paper proposes an adjustment in metaphor typology within Contemporary Theory of Metaphor (Lakoff 1993) to accommodate for insight drawn from the theory of objectification (Szwedek 2002, 2007, 2011) and embodied experience. It is the aim of this paper to investigate the abstract/ concrete distinction in a manner that will provide insight with r...

It may seem obvious that the events of life should be meaningful for human beings, yet there is no widely accepted theory as to how do we derive that meaning. The most promising hypothesis regarding the question how the world is meaningful to us is that of embodied cognition (cf. Turner 2009), which postulates that the functions of the brain evolve...

This paper investigates the types of relationships occurring between spontaneous gestures and speech, aiming to answer the question: how do we know the meaning of gestures that co-occur with speech. Out of the four types of gestures accompanying speech (metaphorical, iconic, beats, and deictic gestures, after McNeill 1992), we focused on iconic an...

The present study asks how members of the LGBT+ community understand the concept of coming out. Coming out may be described as “the process through which lesbian, gay and transgender people accept and publicly affirm their sexual orientation or gender identity” (Molnar 2018: 52). In the study, we analysed a series of coming out stories published on...

Language is an inherently multimodal phenomenon, which constructs meaning through various modes: verbal, vocal and gestural. For certain types of gesture, the frequency matters just as much as the form. In the studies investigating gesture frequency, the traditional unit of analysis is gesture per word (de Ruiter et al., 2012), gesture per minute (...

Studies investigating the relationship between phonological short term memory, phonological awareness and vocabulary in L2 child learners yield mixed results. Those differences may be caused by the vocabulary assessment tools used in research. Tailor-made vocabulary tests based on the input the L2 learners receive may deliver different results than...

The first and second authors contributed equally to this article and should be considered co–first authors. We regret this omission and any problems it may have caused.

To acquire a new word, learners need to create its representation in phonological short-term memory (STM) and then encode it in their long-term memory. Two strategies can enable word representation in STM: universal segmentation and phonological mapping. Universal segmentation is language universal and thus should predict word learning in any langu...

presentation for the Polish Scientific Networks conference in Wrocław - narrated version can be found here: https://youtu.be/KhZRALkJw8I

W jaki sposób ludzki umysł radzi sobie ze zrozumieniem pojęć, które nie występują w fizycznej rzeczywistości? Teoria ucieleśnionego poznania mówi, że ciało pełni decydującą rolę w konstruowaniu umysłu a rozumienie pojęć i zjawisk fizycznych opiera się na naszych doświadczeniach wynikających z interakcji z nimi. Dotychczas nie jest jednak zupełnie j...

The theory of embodied cognition aims to explain the origin of meaning by going against the philosophical notion that thought and motor processes are independent, and can be studied as such. Cognition is considered embodied when mental processes depend on the physical body, or “when aspects of the agent's body beyond the brain play a significant ca...

Language is a reflection of human psychological experience (Radden and Dirven, 2007). It has been studied as such in cognitive linguistics, an approach to studying language, mind and embodied experience. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, 1999) was one of the first attempts to systematise the relationship between language, experien...

Embodied simulations or entries in the mental lexicon? Abstract concepts in the language and gesture of blind and visually impaired children. Despite a plethora of research on the subject, the human capacity for abstract thought remains a mystery. We may know brain activation patterns evoked by the word love, but we are far from understanding how...

Investigating the dual function of co-speech gestures in blind and visually impaired speakers. Co-speech gesture research explores the role of gesture in communication, i.e. whether gestures are intended for the listener/audience (e.g. Mol et al. 2009; Alibali et al., 2001; Holler & Beattie, 2003) or support the process of speech production (Kita &...