ABSTRACT
Cognitive linguistics emerged in the early 1980s as a field of linguistics to study figurative language. It introduced new analytical notions that have become central to such study, including the concept of image schemata (mental outlines of abstract concepts based on concrete experiences), idealized cognitive models (the inherent connectivity among these concepts), and blending (which claims that such concepts are forged by amalgamating different regions of the brain). This chapter will discuss these notions in terms of what they tell us about linguistic relativity, in particular, and semiotic relativity, in general. It looks at conceptual metaphor theory as a template for viewing how concepts are formed in specific cultural situations and how these affect people’s perceptions and, even, actions and behaviors.
