The Embodied Theory of Language: Evidence and Constraints

In the last decade, the notion of “embodiment” has increased its importance in the field of cognitive (neuro)science. According to the embodied view of cognition, there is no separation between “low” level cognitive processes (action and perception), and “high” level cognitive abilities (abstract thought and language comprehension). The theory of embodied language has recently begun to challenge the traditional main-stream in cognitive linguistics, stating that our conceptual system is largely constrained by the kind of body we possess and by our sensorimotor ex-pertise.