Séminaire de Recherche en Linguistique

Cognitive linguistics' primary finding--that not just metaphor but language use in general is embodied--has given rise to much broader methodological questions about how we should do linguistic analysis, the role of linguistics vis-a-vis the other cognitive sciences, and the general movement in cognitive science now known as "embodied cognitive science." However, and in all practicality, there are always dangers lurking in any new grand unifying scientific narrative. One all-too-frequent one is that the more physiologically-based studies of embodiment eclipse the more socioculturally-based studies of embodiment, either by asserting some for of a reductionism to the physical body, the brain, or genetics, or at other times by the sheer discrepancies in funding expenditures. Tracing research on language and metaphor through multiple levels of investigation, I show how this is a false dichotomy, and how socio-cultural forces are present even in the fMRI brain scanning room. My examples are drawn from studies of mental rotation, gesture, fMRI imaging, metaphor, developmental studies, research on turn-taking and other communicative practices in dialogic settings. I conclude by showing how all of these coalesce in the performance of the major US bank CEO's as they testified and attempted to "save face" (in a Goffman-esque sense) in front of televised US Congressional hearings into the "causes" of the 2008 fiscal crisis.