Aguirre Fernández De Lara, Roberto

Research interests

Mind, Language and Action (MAL)

Working area

PRESENTATION
Through its different projects, our line of research is dedicated to the study of modal semantics, both with empirical descriptive studies (of language and cognitive processing) and with semiotic-philosophical studies. That is to say, we are interested in finding out the extent and way in which the processing of meaning, even in language, is formed through schematizations and synthesis of the similarities and relationship structures collected by perceptual-motor experiences and not just cognitive mechanisms. high level that can be explained as systems of rules. Our studies start from a theoretical framework that understands the processing of meaning linked to perception, attention, action and enhanced by the computational capacities of linguistic competence. Although we mainly conduct basic research, we expect and invite you to develop applied research projects. The fields of education and mental health are potential beneficiaries of our results.

​

More in detail, in human cognitive experience, there are some particularly powerful alternatives for studying such modal semantics. One of them is abstract concepts. The other is the gestures and the indicated language. The peculiarity of abstract concepts (eg, time, potentiality, joy, happiness, goodness, badness) resides in that for their processing we lack the perceptual and motor experience that sustain the synthesizing schemes of those similarities and relationship structures. So how do we access or process those concepts? To answer, various approaches have been proposed that propose what we can call conceptual projection mechanisms. In many cases, space is a major provider of these relationship schemas and structures. For example, metaphors, analogies or metonyms and different forms of conceptual mixing.



Additionally, the indicated languages and gestures are produced through visually perceptible body movements and configurations with representation and communication functions. In gestures and sign languages, both in terms of motor and perceptual aspects, space is also a main substrate of these relationship patterns and structures. This condition makes, unlike oral languages, the phonology-semantic interface powerfully transparent to study the scopes and forms of modal semantics within human cognition. Regarding gestures, these allow access to patterns generated in motor skills associated with semantic content.