Although all of these models are relatively different in regard to a cognitive basis, it is Lakoff’s ‘Idealized cognitive models’ (ICMs) may grasp metonymic courses best of all.                                                                                  

2.2 Definition of Embodied Cognition                                                                                

     In philosophy, embodied cognition holds that an agent’s cognition is strongly influenced by aspects of an agent’s body beyond the brain itself. In their proposal for an enactive approach to cognition, Varela et al. defined ‘embodied’:                                

     “By using the term embodied we mean to highlight two points: first that cognition depends upon the kinds of experience that come from having a body with various sensomotor capabilities, and second, that these inpidual sensomotor capabilities are themselves embedded in a more encompassing biological, psychological and cultural context.”                                                           

     The Varela’s definition is broad enough to overlap the views of extended cognition and situated cognition, and indeed, these ideas are not always carefully separated. For example, according to Michael Dawson, the relationship is tangled:                                                                                  

     “In viewing cognition as embedded or situated, embodied cognitive science emphasizes feedback between an agent and the world. We have seen that this feedback is structured by the nature of an agent’s body…This in turn suggests that agents with different kinds of bodies can be differentiated in terms of degrees of embodiment…Embodiment can be defined as the extent to which an agent can alter its environment.”                                                                           

     Some authors describe the dependence of cognition upon the body and its interactions with the environment by saying cognition in real biological systems is not an end in itself but is constrained by the system’s goals and capabilities. However, Milkowski argues, such constrains do not mean cognition is set by adaptive behavior alone, but cognition requires “some kind of information processing…the transformation or communication of incoming information”, the acquiring of which involves “exploration and modification of the environment.”                                              

     George Lakoff and his collaborators have developed several lines of evidence that suggest that people use their understanding of familiar physical objects, actions and situations (such as containers, spaces, trajectories) to understand other domains. Lakoff argues that all cognition is based on knowledge that comes from the body and that other domains are mapped onto our embodied knowledge using a combination of conceptual framework, image schema and prototypes.                                            从体验认知角度简析转喻内在机制(4):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_74510.html