Image schema

An image schema (both schemas and schemata are used as plural forms)
is a recurring structure within our cognitive processes which establishes
patterns of understanding and reasoning. As an understudy to embodied
cognition, image schemas are formed from our bodily interactions,[1]
from linguistic experience, and from historical context. The term is
introduced in Mark Johnson's book The Body in the Mind; in case study 2
of George Lakoff's Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: and further
explained by Todd Oakley in The Oxford handbook of cognitive
linguistics; by Rudolf Arnheim in Visual Thinking; by the collection Figure 1 - containment
From Perception to Meaning: Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics image schema
edited by Beate Hampe and Joseph E. Grady.

In contemporary cognitive linguistics, an image schema is considered an embodied prelinguistic structure

of experience that motivates conceptual metaphor mappings. Learned in early infancy they are often
described as spatiotemporal relationships that enable actions and describe characteristics of the
environment. They exist both as static and dynamic version, describing both states and processes,[2]
compare Containment vs. Going_In/Out, and they are learned from all sensorimodalities.

Evidence for image schemas is drawn from a number of related disciplines, including work on cross-
modal cognition in psychology, from spatial cognition in both linguistics and psychology,[3] cognitive
linguistics,[4] and from neuroscience.[5] The influences of image schemas is not only seen in cognitive
linguistics and developmental psychology, but also in interface design[6] and more recently, the theory
has become of increased interest in artificial intelligence[7] and cognitive robotics[8] to help ground
meaning.

Johnson: From image schemas to abstract reasoning via

metaphor
Image schemas are dynamic embodied patterns—they take place in and through time. Moreover, they are
multi-modal patterns of experience, not simply visual. For instance, consider how the dynamic nature of
the containment schema is reflected in the various spatial senses of the English word out. Out may be
used in cases where a clearly defined trajector (TR) leaves a spatially bounded landmark (LM), as in:

(1a) John went out of the room.

(1b) Mary got out of the car.
(1c) Spot jumped out of the pen.

In the most prototypical of such cases the landmark is a clearly defined container. However, out may also
be used to indicate those cases where the trajector is a mass that spreads out, effectively expanding the
area of the containing landmark:

(2a) She poured out the beans.

 (2b) Roll out the carpet.
(2c) Send out the troops.

Finally, out is also often used to describe motion along a linear path
where the containing landmark is implied and not defined at all:

(3) The train started out for Chicago.

Experientially basic and primarily spatial image schemas such as the

Containment schema and its derivatives the Out schemas lend their logic
to non-spatial situations. For example, one may metaphorically use the
term out to describe non-spatial experiences:

(4) Leave out that big log when you stack the firewood.
(Schema used directly and non-metaphorically.)
(4a) I don't want to leave any relevant data out of my
argument. (Schema metaphorically projected onto Figure 2 - containment
argumentation.) image schema (as applied to
(4b) Tell me your story again, and don't leave out any details. the English word out)
(Schema metaphorically projected onto story-telling.)
(4c) She finally came out of her depression. (Schema
metaphorically projected onto emotional life.)

Johnson argues that more abstract reasoning is shaped by such underlying spatial patterns. For example,
he notes that the logic of containment is not just a matter of being in or out of the container. For example,
if someone is in a deep depression, we know it is likely to be a long time before they are well. The deeper
the trajector is in the container, the longer it will take for the trajector to get out of it. Similarly, Johnson
argues that transitivity and the law of the excluded middle in logic are underlaid by preconceptual
embodied experiences of the Containment schema.

Lakoff: Image schemas in Brugman's The story of Over

In case study two of his book Women, Fire and Dangerous Things, Lakoff re-presented the analysis of the
English word over done by Claudia Brugman in her (1981) master's thesis. Similar to the analysis of out
given by Johnson, Lakoff argued that there were six basic spatial schemas for the English word over.
Moreover, Lakoff gave a detailed accounting of how these schemas were interrelated in terms of what he
called a radial category structure. For example, these six schemas could be both further specified by
other spatial schemas such as whether the trajector was in contact with the landmark or not (as in the
plane flew over the mountain vs. he climbed over the mountain). Furthermore, Lakoff identified a group
of "transformational" image schemata such as rotational schemas and path to object mass, as in Spider-
Man climbed all over the wall. This analysis raised profound questions about how image schemas could
be grouped, transformed, and how sequences of image schemas could be chained together in language,
mind, and brain.
Relationships to similar theories
Johnson indicates that his analysis of out drew upon a 1981 doctoral dissertation by Susan Lindner in
linguistics at UCSD under Ronald Langacker, and more generally by the theory of cognitive grammar put
forth by him.[9] For the force group of image schemas Johnson also drew on an early version of the force
dynamic schemas put forth by Len Talmy, as used by linguists such as Eve Sweetser. Other influences
include Max Wertheimer's gestalt structure theory and Kant's account of schemas in categorization, as
well as studies in experimental psychology on the mental rotation of images.

In addition to the dissertation on over by Brugman, Lakoff's use of image schema theory also drew
extensively on Talmy and Langacker's theories of spatial relations terms. Other theories making use of
similar conceptual primitives to capture meaning include Jean M. Mandler's spatial primitives, Anna
Wierzbicka's semantic primes[10], Leonard Talmy's conceptual primitives, Roger Schank conceptual
dependency theory and Andrea A. diSessa's phenomenological primitives (p-prims).

Image schemas have also been proposed to be descriptors of Gibsonian affordances. An object like a cup
affords the image schema Containment to liquids and an abstract concept like transportation offer the
affordance of moving something from one point to another as an image-schematic combination of
Source-Path-Goal and Containment (alternatively Support).

Formal specification of image schemas and role in artificial

intelligence
While originally a theory for cognitive linguistics, the theory
of image schemas and the underlying ideas behind embodied
cognition have become of increased interest in artificial
intelligence and cognitive robotics to help solve issues with
natural language comprehension and the application of
affordances. The research on formal accounts (e.g.[13][14]) of
these abstract patterns date back several decades and has been
proposed as a way to deal with geographical information
science ,[15] natural language comprehension, automatic
ontology generation[16] and computational conceptual
Some members of the Source-Path-Goal
blending.[17]
family.[11] [12]

As a direct relation to embodied cognition, and more

specifically embodied construction grammar, formal approaches to image schemas often limit the
research area by looking at image schemas exclusively as spatiotemporal relationships. This provides a
feasible foundation for knowledge representation to represent each individual image schema as well as
their interconnection as relationships in a 3D space. One formal language to describe them is the ISL
(Image Schema Language), a logic language combined by different formal calculi and first-order logic
that builds on creating hierarchical families of logical micro-theories that is able to represent different
degrees of specification of the image schemas.[14]
In artificial intelligence, image schemas are also used as an inspiration to advance natural language
comprehension of metaphors, conceptual blending and creative language use. This is extended to also
include non-linguistic reasoning such as commonsense reasoning (e.g. see Davis' Egg cracking problem
(http://www-formal.stanford.edu/leora/commonsense/eggcracking.html) and the approach made to
describe it image-schematically[18]) and the formal structure of events[19] prototypical as some of the
biggest challenges in AI.

Lists of image schemas

While Johnson provided an initial list of image schemas in The Body in the Mind (p. 126), his diagrams
for them are scattered throughout his book and he only diagrammed a portion of those image schemas he
listed. In his work, Lakoff also used several additional schemas.

Schemas discussed by Johnson

Spatial motion group
Containment
Path
Source-Path-Goal
Blockage
Center-Periphery
Cycle
Cyclic Climax
Force Group
Compulsion
Counterforce
Diversion
Removal of Restraint
Enablement
Attraction
Link
Scale
Balance Group
Axis Balance
Point Balance
Twin-Pan Balance
Equilibrium

Schemas listed, but not discussed, by Johnson

Contact
Surface
Full-Empty
Merging
Matching
Near-Far
Mass-Count
Iteration
Object
Splitting
 Part-Whole
Superimposition
Process
Collection

Additional schemas discussed by Lakoff

Transformational group
Linear path from moving object (one-dimensional trajector)
Path to endpoint (endpoint focus)
Path to object mass (path covering)
Multiplex to mass (possibly the same as Johnson's undefined Mass-Count)
Reflexive (both part-whole and temporally different reflexives)
Rotation
Spatial group
Above
Across
Covering
Contact
Vertical Orientation
Length (extended trajector)

Schemas proposed and discussed by others

Rough-smooth/Bumpy-smooth (Rohrer; Johnson and Rohrer)

Straight (Cienki)

Mandler and Canovas' image schema hierarchy

Source:[20]

1. Spatial primitives. The first building blocks that allow us to understand what we perceive:
PATH, CONTAINER, THING, CONTACT, etc.
2. Image schemas. Representations of simple spatial events using the primitives: PATH TO
THING, THING INTO CONTAINER, etc.
3. Schematic integrations. The first conceptual representations to include non-spatial
elements, by projecting feelings or non-spatial perceptions to blends structured by image
schema

See also
Affordances
Artificial consciousness
Cognitive architecture
Commonsense reasoning
Conceptual space
Construction grammar
Embodied philosophy
 Schema (psychology)

Notes
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References
Johnson, Mark (1987). The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination,
and Reason, University of Chicago.
Lakoff, George (1987) Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About
the Mind Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 Rohrer, Tim (2006) "Image Schemata in the Brain", in Beate Hampe (ed.) From Perception
to Meaning: Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Online
version (http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.88.2382&rep=rep1&type
=pdf) (PDF) — A recent book chapter which explores the evidence from cognitive
neuroscience and cognitive science for the neural underpinnings of image schemas.

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