spatialization metaphors

"Thus UP is not understood purely in its own terms but emerges from the collection of constantly performed motor functions having to do with our erect position relative to the gravitational field we live in. Imagine a spherical being living outside any gravitational field, with no knowledge or imagination of any other kind of experience. What could up possibly mean to such a being? The answer to this question would depend, not only on the physiology of this spherical being, but also on its culture." (#60 1063)

"what we call "direct physical experience" is never merely a matter of having a body of a certain sort; rather, every experience takes place within a vast background of cultural presuppositions." (#60 1067)

"It can be misleading, therefore, to speak of direct physical experience as though there were some core of immediate experience which we then "interpret" in terms of our conceptual system." (#60 1068)

"Most of our fundamental concepts are organized in terms of one or more spatialization metaphors." (#60 358)

"Our physical and cultural experience provides many possible bases for spatialization metaphors. Which ones are chosen, and which ones are major, may vary from culture to culture." (#60 388)

"Because we conceptualize linguistic form in spatial terms, it is possible for certain spatial metaphors to apply directly to the form of a sentence, as we conceive of it spatially. This can provide automatic direct links between form and content, based on general metaphors in our conceptual system. Such links make the relationship between form and content anything but arbitrary, and some of the meaning of a sentence can be due to the precise form the sentence takes. Thus, as Dwight Bolinger (1977) has claimed, exact paraphrases are usually impossible because the so-called paraphrases are expressed in different forms." (#60 2187)