Metaphorical Representations of the Concept of Meaning of Life: Evidence from Size, Up, Down, and Weight

DING Fengqin; ZHAO Yumeng; ZHANG Rong

Journal of South China normal University (Social Science Edition) > 2025 > (1): 106-119.

DING Fengqin, ZHAO Yumeng, ZHANG Rong. Metaphorical Representations of the Concept of Meaning of Life: Evidence from Size, Up, Down, and Weight[J]. Journal of South China normal University (Social Science Edition), 2025, (1): 106-119.

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Metaphorical Representations of the Concept of Meaning of Life: Evidence from Size, Up, Down, and Weight

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Received Date: January 19, 2024

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People often use the words "life is great", "human life is Paramount", "human death is inevitable, or heavier than Mount Tai, or lighter than a feather" to process and understand the concept of the meaning of life. However, it is unclear whether there is a metaphorical connection between the concept of life meaning and the embodied perception of size, up and down and weight. This paper explores the metaphorical representation of the meaning of life from the perspective of embodied metaphor. Stroop priming paradigm was used in experiment 1 and experiment 2 to explore the metaphorical connection between size, up and down and meaning of life respectively. In experiment 3, the balance paradigm was used to explore the metaphorical representation between weight and meaning of life. The results show that there are metaphorical representations between size, up and down, weight and meaning of life, and there are metaphorical congruence effects. Theoretically, it enriches the embodied theory of conceptual metaphorical representation; In practice, it is helpful to provide reference value for embodied cognition of life meaning, and also to provide a reference basis for individual life education intervention.
- life meaning concept,
- conceptual metaphor representation,
- size metaphor,
- up and down metaphor,
- weight metaphor

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