Abstract
This study examined the embodied realization of the Persian term dæqi:qæn (exactly) when embodied through gestures. A group of thirty Persian native speakers were asked to express their opinions about six subjects in an interview setting. During the interview, the interviewer used some techniques to elicit the term dæqi:qæn from the participants. The types of gestures produced when participants used the term dæqi:qæn were analyzed. The results showed that the term dæqi:qæn was embodied primarily by forward hand gestures and to a lesser degree by forward head gestures. This suggests that a given term can be embodied across various parts of the body, but degree of realization of this embodiment process is not the same in all involved body parts. While some body parts are strongly involved and actively employed to embody a concept in gestures, other parts may be less involved or not involved at all. We call this process distributed embodiment. The term dæqi:qæn was strongly embodied in forward hand gestures, less strongly (but still significant) embodied in forward head gestures, and almost not embodied in the leg.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability statement
The data of this study are available at: https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Distributed_embodiment_of_the_Persian_term_em_dæqi:qæn_em_in_forward_gestures/22794791
Code availability
Not applicable.
References
Alcaraz-Carrión, D., Alibali, M. W., & Valenzuela, J. (2022). Adding and subtracting by hand: Metaphorical representations of arithmetic in spontaneous co-speech gestures. Acta Psychologica, 228, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103624
Ansah, G. N. (2014). Culture in embodied cognition: Metaphorical/metonymic conceptualizations of FEAR in Akan and English. Metaphor and Symbol, 29(1), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2014.85948
Borghi, A. M., Binkofski, F., Castelfranchi, C., Cimatti, F., Scorolli, C., & Tummolini, L. (2017). The challenge of abstract concepts. Psychological Bulletin, 143(3), 263–292. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000089
Borghi, A. M., Shaki, S., & Fischer, M. H. (2022). Abstract concepts: External influences, internal constraints, and methodological issues. Psychological Research Psychologische Forschung, 86(8), 2370–2388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01698-4
Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought? Mandarin and English speakers’ conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.2001.0748
Boroditsky, L., Fuhrman, O., & McCormick, K. (2011). Do English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently? Cognition, 118(1), 123–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.09.010
Boulenger, V., Hauk, O., & Pulvermüller, F. (2009). Grasping ideas with the motor system: Semantic somatotopy in idiom comprehension. Cerebral Cortex, 19(8), 1905–1914. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhn217
Boulenger, V., Shtyrov, Y., & Pulvermüller, F. (2012). When do you grasp the idea? MEG evidence for instantaneous idiom understanding. NeuroImage, 59, 3502–3513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.11.011
Casasanto, D. (2009). Embodiment of abstract concepts: Good and bad in right- and left-handers. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138(3), 351–367. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015854
Casasanto, D., & Dijkstra, K. (2010). Motor action and emotional memory. Cognition, 115, 179–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2009.11.002
Crawford, L. E., Margolies, S. M., Drake, J. T., & Murphy, M. E. (2006). Affect biases memory of location: Evidence for the spatial representation of affect. Cognition and Emotion, 20(8), 1153–1169. https://doi.org/10.1080/0269993050034779
Desai, R. H. (2021). Are metaphors embodied? The neural evidence. Psychological Research Psychologische Forschung. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-021-01604-4
Desai, R. H., Binder, J. R., Conant, L. L., Mano, Q. R., & Seidenberg, M. S. (2011). The neural career of sensory-motor metaphors. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 23(9), 2376–2386. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2010.21596
Dove, G. (2016). Three symbol ungrounding problems: Abstract concepts and the future of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 23(4), 1109–1121. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-015-0825-4
Eikmeier, V., Alex-Ruf, S., Maienborn, C., & Ulrich, R. (2015). How strongly linked are mental time and space along the left-right axis? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41(6), 1878–1883. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000129
Gallese, G., & Lakoff, G. (2005). The brain’s concepts: The role of the sensory-motor system in conceptual knowledge. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 22(3), 455–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643290442000310
Horchak, O. V., Giger, J. C., & Pochwatko, G. (2014). Simulation of metaphorical actions and discourse comprehension. Metaphor and Symbol, 29(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2014.859045
Hostetter, A. B., & Alibali, M. W. (2008). Visible embodiment: Gestures as simulated action. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15(3), 495–514. https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.15.3.495
Hostetter, A. B., & Alibali, M. W. (2018). Gesture as simulated action: Revisiting the framework. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 26(3), 721–752. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-018-1548-0
Khatin-Zadeh, O. (2023). Embodied metaphor processing: A study of the priming impact of congruent and opposite gestural representations of metaphor schema on metaphor comprehension. Metaphor and Symbol, 38(1), 70–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2022.2122830
Khatin-Zadeh, O., Banaruee, H., Reali, F., et al. (2023). Metaphors of time across cultures. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-023-00125-3
Khatin-Zadeh, O., Eskandari, Z., & Marmolejo-Ramos, F. (2022). Gestures enhance executive functions for the understating of mathematical concepts. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-022-09694-4
Khatin-Zadeh, O., Farsani, D., Hu, J., Farina, M., Banaruee, H., & Marmolejo-Ramos, F. (2023). Distributed embodiment of metaphorical hope in hand, head, and eyebrow gestures. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1139881. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1139881
Khatin-Zadeh, O., Hu, J., Banaruee, H., & Marmolejo-Ramos, F. (2023). How emotions are metaphorically embodied: Measuring hand and head action strengths of typical emotional states. Cognition and Emotion, 37(3), 486–498. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2023.2181314
Khatin-Zadeh, O., Hu, J., Marmolejo-Ramos, F., & Farsani, D. (2023). The impact of gestural representation of metaphor schema on metaphor comprehension. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 59(1), 117–131. https://doi.org/10.1515/psicl-2022-1056
Khatin-Zadeh, O., & Yazdani-Fazlabadi, B. (2023). Two mechanisms for understanding mathematical concepts in terms of fictive motions. Mind, Brain, and Education, 17(2), 86–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12358
Knoeferle, P. (2019). Predicting (variability of) context effects in language comprehension. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 3(2), 141–158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-019-00025-5
Kövecses, Z. (1990). Emotion concepts. Springer.
Kövecses, Z. (2000). Metaphor and emotion. Cambridge University Press.
Kövecses, Z. (2005). Metaphor in culture: Universality and variation. Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. Basic Books.
Lowe, E. D. (2020). Are shared models always cultural models? A study of the cultural model of affect and emotion in Chuuk. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 4(5), 31–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-019-00052-2
McNeill, D. (2005). Gesture and thought. University of Chicago Press.
Meier, B. P., & Dionne, S. (2009). Downright sexy: Verticality, implicit power, and perceived physical attractiveness. Social Cognition, 27(6), 883–892. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2009.27.6.883
Moore, K. E. (2011). Ego-perspective and field-based frames of reference: Temporal meanings of front in Japanese, Wolof, and Aymara. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(3), 759–776. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.003
Napoli, D. J. (2022). Stimuli for initiation: A comparison of dance and (sign) language. Journal of Cultural Cognitive Science, 6(3), 287–303. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-022-00095-y
Núnez, R. E., & Sweetser, E. (2006). With the future behind them: Convergent evidence from Aymara language and gesture in the crosslinguistic comparison of spatial construals of time. Cognitive Science, 30(3), 401–450. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0000_62
Omori, A. (2008). Emotion as a huge mass of moving water. Metaphor and Symbol, 23(2), 130–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926480801944277
Özçalışkan, Ş. (2007). Metaphors we move by: Children’s developing understanding of metaphorical motion in typologically distinct languages. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(2), 147–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926480701235429
Rolke, B., Ruiz Fernández, S., Schmid, M., Walker, M., Lachmair, M., Lopez, J. J. R., Hervás, G., & Vázquez, C. (2013). Priming the mental time-line: Effects of modality and processing mode. Cognitive Processing, 14(3), 231–244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-013-0537-5
Santiago, J., Lupiánez, J., Pérez, E., & Funes, M. J. (2007). Time (also) flies from left to right. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14, 512–516. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194099
Schlosser, L., Hothorn, T., Stauffer, R., & Zeileis, A. (2019). Distributional regression forests for probabilistic precipitation forecasting in complex terrain. Annals of Applied Statistics, 13(3), 1564–1589. https://doi.org/10.1214/19-AOAS1247
Sell, A. J., & Kaschak, M. P. (2012). The comprehension of sentences involving quantity information affects responses on the up-down axis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19(4), 708–714. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-012-0263-5
Stasinopoulos, M. D., Rigby, R. A., & Bastiani, F. D. (2018). GAMLSS: A distributional regression approach. Statistical Modelling, 18(3–4), 248–273. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471082X18759144
Torralbo, A., Santiago, J., & Lupiánez, J. (2006). Flexible conceptual projection of time onto spatial frames of reference. Cognitive Science, 30(4), 745–757. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0000_67
Wilson, N. L., & Gibbs, R. W. (2007). Real and imagined body movement primes metaphor comprehension. Cognitive Science, 31(4), 721–731. https://doi.org/10.1080/15326900701399962
Funding
This study received no funding.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
OK-Z collected the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. The rest of authors commented on it and revised it.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethics approval
The study was carried out according to the declaration of Helsinki (WMA 2013) and was approved by the local ethics committee.
Consent to participate
All participants participated voluntarily and gave their written informed consent.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Khatin-Zadeh, O., Banaruee, H., Farsani, D. et al. Distributed embodiment of the Persian term dæqi:qæn in forward gestures. J Cult Cogn Sci 8, 87–97 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-023-00136-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-023-00136-0