Resemblance metaphors and embodiment as iconic markers in medical understanding and communication by non-experts

Abstract

This paper analyses resemblance metaphors as a cognitive device that can enhance understanding of medical realities, upholding their relevance in terminological work. It deals with metaphorical images as facilitators of comprehension of medical entities, from the perspective of embodiment. A twofold study was carried out: a spontaneous production task in which drawings of depression were made, and resemblance metaphors analyzed, and a corpus-based analysis of embodied views of depression. The drawings are made through embodied representations of concepts or perceptual symbolic simulations having their parallels in language use as observed in the CanFor corpus of online discussions about cancer.