Is Container a Natural and Embodied Image Schema? A Developmental, Pragmatic, and Cultural Proposal

Abstract

Conceptual metaphor theory showed, from embodiment, the importance of metaphor as a cognitive process. This influential theory assumes the existence of primitive but powerful mental structures called image schemas. In this paper, we conduct a critical inquiry about these structures from the developmental perspective of the pragmatics of the object and show they have serious problems. Taking the CONTAINER image schema as a case, we discuss the plausibility of image schemas in early childhood. We suggest that children do not interact with objects as if a basic and generic CONTAINER cognitive structure preexisted. Instead, in everyday life, they use ?container? objects to fulfill very different functions. As object function is construed by children´s participation in triadic child-adult-object experiences through semiotic mediation, we propose image schemas are not natural or direct, do not exist in early childhood, and are a developmental, pragmatic, and cultural product. As empirical illustration, we analyze a child-mother-objects interaction at home.