This chapter shows that language works as a physical tool by impacting how we perceive our body (interoception) and how we perceive and interact with the external world (perception and action). First, I contend that language might help us detect bodily inner signals and states . Then, I show that language recruits object affordances, the opportunities to act objects offer us, but that it does so in its own distinctive way. Language exploits previously originated structures and mechanisms, those of the motor system, but uses them flexibly. Consistent with this, I show that language shapes perception and object manipulation, extends the space we perceive as near, and modulates our perception of objects in space. Finally, using an example of the concept of color, I suggest that not only the faculty of language but also the different languages we use, through spoken words or signs, shape our world differently.

Chapter 5 is the first chapter of the second part of the book and focuses on abstract concepts – more generally, on abstractness. I first define abstract concepts and illustrate their main characteristics, comparing them with concrete ones. I contend that there is no major opposition between concrete and abstract concepts and that many concepts have both abstract and concrete components. In addition, different varieties of abstract concepts exist. Thus, the different kinds of concrete and abstract concepts can be conceived of as points in a multidimensional space, defined by various features and dimensions. I then focus on the different subkinds of abstract concepts, including emotions and mental states, numerical and spatiotemporal concepts, self and social concepts, and spiritual and philosophical concepts. Finally, I outline the central tenets of the Words As social Tools (WAT) theory on abstractness. According to the WAT view, abstract concepts evoke perception and action but especially activate inner bodily experiences, including interoceptive, emotional, and metacognitive ones. Crucially, the WAT view ascribes a unique role to language and social interaction for abstract concept acquisition and use. Finally, it underscores the flexible and context-dependent character of abstract concepts.

Chapter 3 shows how we can intend language as a social tool. The first part focuses on language and interaction; the second part on how we outsource our knowledge benefiting from others’ knowledge. First, I show that the traditional separations between phonetics, phonology, syntax, and semantics and between production and comprehension do not hold. Rather, language is profoundly interactive. Then I overview innovative approaches that investigate real-time linguistic interactions, illustrating new methods, such as hyperscanning. In the second part , I contend that language is also a social tool because it allows us to strengthen our knowledge by relying on others. I introduce the notion of "community of knowledge," show that we outsource part of our knowledge, and illustrate how children develop the ability to defer toward experts in acquiring and mastering linguistic meaning. Finally, I discuss the possible theoretical consequences of outsourcing knowledge.

Chapter 4 shows how language has evolved through interaction. The first part focuses on the role that hand gestures, mouth movements, vocal actions, and the interplay of different modalities, together with the development of imitation capabilities, play in the evolution of language. In the second part, I show how language has evolved from interaction among people who progressively converged on the same meanings. I illustrate several new interdisciplinary approaches and methods adopted to study the emergence and evolution of language in dyads, groups, and populations, from agent-based simulations to experimental semiotics to culturomic approaches. Finally, I show how a combination of iconicity and arbitrariness might drive the cultural evolution of language. Iconic words, that is, words with a resemblance between form and meaning (e.g., "boom"), will emerge first, followed by more abstract ones, which are grounded in other words.

Chapter 7 shows that abstract concepts are inner/cognitive tools. Inner speech is potent in enhancing our cognition, imagination, and motivation. In this chapter, I propose that we use inner speech more extensively with more abstract concepts, during both their acquisition and use, while monitoring our knowledge during their processing and referring to others to complement and enrich it. I review several studies with children and adults showing that the mouth motor system is more engaged during abstract concept acquisition and elaboration. This mouth activation suggests that language is implicitly activated during abstract language processing. Also, while low numbers engage the hand effector more, the processing of larger numbers might involve language, hence the mouth, more extensively. I overview research on the neural underpinning of abstract concepts, which confirms the importance of linguistic and social neural networks for their representation. Finally, I illustrate studies on abstractness in conditions characterized by impairments in social interaction and inner and overt speech abilities, such as autism, schizophrenia, and aphasia. Overall, the studies reviewed support the idea of a determinant role of language as an inner tool supporting the acquisition and use of abstract concepts.

This book will tell the story of the power of words and of how this power is particularly crucial for abstract concepts and the words that express them – words like “fantastic,” “freedom,” “furious,” and “ideas.” In recent years, the topic of abstract concepts has become increasingly debated, as testified by the special issues on the subject (e.g., Borghi et al., 2018, 2022; Bolognesi & Steen, 2018), and by a recently edited book (Bolognesi & Steen, 2019) and two monographs focusing on the theme (Borghi & Binkofski, 2014; Dove, 2022).

This book is a book on neither language nor abstract concepts. I treat language in its relationship with abstractness and abstract concepts in relation to language. One of the main reasons it has been written is to highlight the prominence of language for cognition and, more generally, our life. Although no theory has totally neglected the role of language, embodied and grounded theories of cognition have typically underlined the role of sensorimotor experience, semantic distributional views have considered language mainly in terms of word associations, and pragmatic views have not emphasized the transformative role that language has on cognition. Here I propose a holistic view of language, in which words are considered physical tools that influence our physical environment, inner and cognitive tools that impact our cognition, and social tools that transform our social environment. While the book’s first part focuses on language, the second part deals with abstract concepts and the words that express them. These words are intriguing because, among all words, their meaning is more subjective, variable, and open. They exemplify well the freedom language grant to us. In addition, more than other words, they demonstrate that conceptualization and language are social constructions.

Chapter 2 develops the idea that language operates as an inner tool, enhancing cognition. The first part focuses on inner speech, and the second on language as a way to access meaning. I describe inner speech and outline the history of the concept focusing on the traditions started by Vygotsky and Baddeley. I describe the main methods to investigate it, from questionnaires to experiments, the debate on whether inner speech involves articulation, and its functions for memory and metacognition. I then illustrate inner speech’s neural bases and evidence that different kinds of inner speech exist. In the second part, I discuss how embodied/grounded, distributional, and hybrid views intend meaning. Language might work as a shortcut to access meaning and enhance our cognition, providing an efficient way to access simulations, respond to contextual challenges, and, more generally, a new way of being in the world.

Chapter 8 shows that the idea that words are social tools particularly suits abstract concepts. I first review studies on conceptual acquisition in infants and children, highlighting the crucial role social and linguistic experiences play, particularly for abstract concepts. I then review studies showing that contexts referring to social situations are more effective for processing abstract than concrete concepts. The importance of social and linguistic experiences makes it necessary to adopt new methods for studying abstract concepts. These methods, which consider language a form of participatory sense-making, focus on online dialogic interactions. The final section outlines the proposal that abstract concepts have an essential social function, enhancing social cohesion. One of the possible reasons why they are so common might be linked to our need to share and co-construct our world with others. This need is particularly evident with words, like abstract ones, the meaning of which is less anchored to perceptual stimuli and more debatable and flexible.

Chapter 6 illustrates why abstract concepts can be physical tools that modify our perception and interaction with the environment. It focuses on the relationship between abstract concepts and perception, both of the external world and the body. In section 6.1, I describe studies showing the importance of interoception, the ability to detect inner bodily signals for abstract concepts, particularly emotional ones, and contend that they might enhance this capability. The second section illustrates research showing how abstract concepts rely on sensorimotor experience through a metaphorical mapping mechanism. Although metaphorical mapping is powerful, other mechanisms beyond it, and primarily linguistic and social experience, might contribute to explaining abstractness. Finally, I describe how languages and cultures differently influence abstract concepts. A variety of examples, spanning from the concrete concept of container to the abstract concept of time, suggest that abstract concepts are more flexible and variable across languages than concrete concepts.