Mind Metaphors in Japanese Sign Language: Culture-Specific and Spatial Understandings of the Mind

Abstract

A set of conceptual metaphors of the mind in Japanese Sign Language (JSL) is explored from the perspectives of universality and cultural specificities, considering the influences of Eastern Asian and Deaf cultures. The image-schematic metaphors, ideas are objects and mind is acontainer, are common in JSL, similar to other spoken and sign languages (SLs). Conversely, the locations associated with mental activities in JSL are unique to the culture, with meanings, memory, and understanding being located beneath the surface, in the head, and around the chest, respectively. This differs from the structures reported in extant Western studies on SLs. Notably, the abdomen-centering conception of understanding is a cultural-specific feature that is shared by JSL and spoken Japanese. Additionally, the mind metaphors in JSL are not often shared with the ambient hearing culture. Our results reveal that (1) the metaphorical mapping from vision to cognition, as well as the use of visual-spatial representation, are specific to the metaphors in JSL and that (2) an etymological understanding of mental activity based on the experience of deaf people is manifested in the sign meaning, “to learn,” denoted by the action, “to steal the techniques by eyes.”.