How does the body get into the mind? 1 Prepared for submission to How does the Body get into the Mind? How does the Body get into the Mind?

Abstract In this article, we propose that gestures play an important role in the connection between sensorimotor experience and language. Gestures may be the link between bodily experience and verbal expression that advocates of 'embodied cognition' have postulated. In a developmental sequence of communicative action, gestures, which are initially similar to action sequences, substantially shorten and represent actions in metonymic form. In another process, action sequences are based on kinesthetic schemata that themselves find their metaphoric expression in language. Again, gestures enact kinesthetic schemata that are correlated with verbal expressions. Examples from a large database are used to illustrate the various processes by means of which language arises when students conduct school science investigations. How does the body get into the mind? 3 Our consciousness and rationality are tied to our bodily orientations and interactions in and with our environment. Our embodiment is essential to who we are, to what meaning is, and to our ability to draw rational inferences and to be creative. The way humans know and learn is central to the pursuits in many disciplines including psychology, neurobiology, sociology, and cognitive science. While researchers in each of these domains focus on different dimensions, many remain either silent about or disregard altogether the role of the body in cognition. In contrast, Johnson (1987) holds bodily experience as central to the way we know, think, and make sense of the world; in particular, there is some evidence that object manipulations lead to symbolizing gestures It has been argued that psychology 'has assumed all too eagerly the split between the mind and the world ' (Ibáñez, 1994: 375, emphasis in the original). And despite efforts to mend the great schism of body and mind (e.g. Johnson 1987