Figurative Meaning Construction in Thought and Language.

This volume showcases twelve chapters that profile current research on figurativeness as is explored from the Cognitive Linguistics perspective. Figurativeness is not merely a device for the embellishment of communication as was seen until a few decades ago, but it is, first and foremost, the pivot around which our thinking ability revolves. The opportunity is seized in this introduction to briefly take stock of how meaning is constructed in the mind of the language users, and to delineate how figurative language is the outcome of semantic information grounded in the action-perception system of the human brain, and embodied in our mind through the sensori-motor system that guides our interaction with the world. The set of original chapters in this volume offer their unique take on the complex interplay between figurative thought and figurative language. The interesting insights in each chapter undoubtedly contribute to advancing our understanding of how meaning is constructed figuratively and how deep the influence of our body is involved in such a process. The contributions to this volume surely testify to the fruitfulness of a Cognitive Linguistics approach to figurative meaning construction.