Embodiment in Language and Thought – a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective

The study attempts to answer the question of how we make the world and language meaningful for ourselves. The answer to the question is provided from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, according to which it is image schemas that play a primary role in the process of making the world and language meaningful. We examine the role of image schemas in relation to metaphors, and we ask whether the metaphors based on image schemas are universal or not. This question is essential in deciding whether our metaphorical conceptualization of the world is universal or culture-specific.