Abstract:

Weight metaphor exists in many cultures, the most recent research have found that the metaphor of importance based on the body experience of weight. The perception of weight will affect the judgment of importance, the importance information will also influence weight perception, which suggests that the neural basis for the perception of weight and the related metaphors may be overlap. The embodied theories of conceptual representation and conceptual metaphor provides theoretical foundation to explain this phenomenon. Future research needs to explore the range which weight metaphor can work, and the role of diverse culture in the formation of weight metaphor.

Key words: embodied cognition, conceptual representation, metaphor, weight, importance