Understanding of Pain Metaphor: Embodied Simulation

The first generation of cognitive linguists believe language comprehension is a process of representation of abstract and amodal symbols. Language understanding is seen as internal and disembodied activity. Increasing studies prove that human cognition is based on embodied experience instead of symbolic information. Language comprehension is grounded on bodily states and interaction with the world. Perception, mental image, felt experience can shape human cognition and language comprehension. Like non-figurative language, metaphor understanding also involves the real or imagined bodily experience or states language describes. This paper discusses three models of embodied comprehension, and how people understand an abstract emotion domain-pain-metaphorically. Pain is understood in terms of imagined action or state both in English and Chinese. In spite of the uncertainty of metaphor understanding due to the complexity and heterogeneity of metaphors, embodied simulation motivates metaphor understanding as one of the powerful explanations.