The subject line of this note is the title of an article about
relationships between the verbs that children learn by the age of 3
and the body parts that are involved in the actions of those verbs.
(See the URL and abstract at the end of this note.) (01)
Some excerpts from the article: (02)
> The body stands between the mind and the world and thus the properties
> of the body itself may shape knowledge... (03)
> Many common verbs — for example, kiss, hug, kick — seem to be about actions
> performed by specific body parts. Further, imaging studies show that
> merely hearing a verb (e.g., kick) activates the cortical motor areas
> relevant to moving the appropriate body part (e.g., leg and foot) ... (04)
> Behavioral studies also suggest a connection between verbs and movements
> by particular parts of the body. For example, moving the arm away from
> the body slows judgment about the sentence, “Open the drawer” (an action
> involving the movement of the arm toward the body)... Such results
> suggest that the on-line processing of verb meanings may involve or
> interact with some of the same processes that generate bodilyaction... (05)
> The overall acquisition pattern—from relatively many mouth verbs, to
> more hand verbs, to less bodily defined verbs—was unexpected and
> tantalizing in its similarity to traditional Piagetian (Piaget, 1953)
> descriptions of the developmental course of sensory-motor development
> as infants first explore relations in their world. (06)
This study is one of many that show how the semantics of natural
language is grounded in the neural mechanisms of perception and action. (07)
John Sowa
______________________________________________________________________ (08)
Source: http://csjarchive.cogsci.rpi.edu/2008v32/7/HCOG_A_302167_O.pdf (09)
Body Parts and Early-Learned Verbs (010)
Josita Maouene, Shohei Hidaka, Linda B. Smith (011)
Abstract. (012)
This article reports the structure of associations among 101 common
verbs and body parts. The verbs are those typically learned by children
learning English prior to 3 years of age. In a free association task,
50 adults were asked to provide the single body part that came to mind
when they thought of each verb. Analyses reveal highly systematic and
structured patterns of associations that are also related to the
normative age of acquisition of the verbs showing a progression
from verbs associated with actions by the mouth, to verbs strongly
associated with actions by hand and arm, to verbs not so strongly
associated with any one body part. The results have implications
for proposals about embodied verb meaning and also for processes
of early verb learning. (013)
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