Friday Lunch Seminar (English)
July 14, 2023
12:15 〜 13:00

Sing-up for participation  by noon, July 13.
On-line:
In-person:
You will be notified of participation details by e-mail on July 13.

Talk Title:

Comparative cognitive approach onto human language evolution -from a perspective of crossmodal correspondences

Ikuma Adachi
Associate Professor
Center for the Evolutionary Origins of Human Behavior
Kyoto University

Host PI: Nobuhiro Hagura

Abstract:

“High” vs “Low Status”, “Top of the Heap”, “Bottom of the Barrel”.  Similar expressions are widely observed across cultures and languages. The cross-modal correspondence between the visuospatial domain (e.g. high or low) and an abstract domain (e.g. rank) has been described as a conceptual metaphor, a linguistic construction, and therefore uniquely human. A conceptual metaphor takes one concept and connects that to another concept to better understand that concept. The way we think and act is largely influenced by such conceptual metaphors, even without being aware of them. The question remains if conceptual metaphorical mapping is indeed uniquely human or if it appears in other primates and thus predates language. To address this question, we examined if non-human primates have conceptual metaphors as we humans do. In this talk, I will present our findings and discuss primate origins of cross-modal correspondences.