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The enactment of language: Decades of interactions between linguistic and motor processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2014

Sarah E. Anderson  and
Michael J. Spivey
Sarah E. Anderson*
Affiliation:
Cornell University University of California, Merced
Michael J. Spivey
Affiliation:
Cornell University University of California, Merced
*
Correspondence addresses: Sarah Anderson, Psychology Department, Uris Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. E-mail: sec57@cornell.edu.
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Abstract

Many long-standing predominant theories of cognition have viewed higher levels of processing, such as language and cognition, as free from the influence of lower levels of processing, such as action and perception. However, many recent experiments have found evidence that the delineation between traditional modules is not so clean or precise, with motor output and language comprehension interacting much more fluidly than traditional theories predict. Evidence for this account includes findings of systematic activation of motor cortex while processing action words, as well as functional consequences of language on action and of action on language. It is worth noting that this recent spate of interest in the embodiment of cognition is not without historical precedence. Here, we will review such evidence coming from previous decades of research on the interaction between language and action, in addition to exploring the empirical results of these more recent experiments and methodologies. It seems to be the case, as evidenced from research in cognitive neuroscience and modeling, that motor representations and actions can influence language processing in predictable ways. Not only is there continuous competition between simultaneously active representations in language processing, with multiple sources of information interacting immediately, this competition is apparent in the motor output produced as a response to language.

Keywords

actionlanguageembodiment
Type
Research Article
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 87 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2009

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