Objet and substance metaphors: how ‘things’ help us think

Résumé En

Our experience of physical matter provides a firm experiential basis for the conceptual organization of language and its functional uses in narrative and argumentative contexts. Nouns typically denote UNITS OF THOUGHT AND EXPERIENCE – the THINGS we perceive, the THINGS we have in mind, the THINGS that we talk and reason about. “Ontological metaphors” (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 1999) and “conceptual reification” (Langacker 2000, 2008) accordingly play a central role in human cognition. They are essential components of semiotic expression, in all its verbal, written or gestural manifestations. Gesture research, in particular, confirms that reflection is physically and metaphorically enacted as a type of OBJECT MANIPULATION that gives visibility and substance to invisible thoughts (Lapaire 2016). That is why our experience and understanding of MATTER matters so much; why THINGS, not just our HANDS, “help us think” (Goldin-Meadow 2003).