Hans Geisler - Sensory-motor foundation and development of functional concepts

European languages like French offer a great number of nouns to denote functional concepts. These special concept type assigns an aspect or dimension with a value to a possessor argument (cf. Löbner 1979, 1985, 1998). Functional concepts normally show up as definite abstract nouns in a constructional head-noun position with their referent in dependent possessor argument position and the value realized as predicate, “object of measurement” or the like:

(1)     La température de l’eau monte à trente degrés.
[température = FUNCTIONAL CONCEPT, eau = POSSESSOR, monte à = OPERAND, trente = VALUE, degré = DIMENSION UNIT]

Functional concepts seem to reflect a comparatively young achievement in language history which correlates with a transition to abstract, inferential reasoning. A thorough etymological investigation gives the surprising result that many nouns denoting them can be traced back to an exclusive group of verbs standing for sensory-motor concepts which seem to be firmly grounded in human perception and action. By means of associative cognitive processes, like metaphor and metonymy, they gradually transform into abstract functional concepts:

(2) Lt. capere ‘to grasp, to take’ -> Lt. concipere ‘to take together (with/in a recipient)’ -> ‘to take (in one’s head)’ -> Lt. conceptus [PP resultative] ‘*taken together’ –[metonymy] -> Lt. conceptus [verbal noun] ‘*the (thing) taken together (in one’s head)’ -> ‘idea, thought, concept’ –[1404] -> Fr. concept ‘concept’

(3) Gr. keisthai ‘to lie’ -> hypokeisthai ‘to lie under’ -> hypokeímenon ‘lying under’ –[metonymy] -> to hypokeímenon ‘s.th. lying under, forming the basis of (an attribute)’ -> Lt. (loan translation) substantia –[1532] -> Fr. substance ‘substance, matter’
As functional concepts start from perceptual experience they seem to be at the basis of image schemas which rely on PERCEIVING and DOING to appropriate them for COGNIZING, UNDERSTANDING and KNOWING. Some very frequent schemas are founded in grasping an object and ensuing activities of manipulation like ‘collecting objects to form a whole’, ‘dividing an object in its parts’, ‘ordering objects relative to others’, etc.:

(4) Gr. legein ‘to collect’ -> logos ‘reason’, Gr. analyein ‘to loosen up’ -> analysis ‘dissolution’, Gr. krínein ‘to separate’ -> krísis ‘judgement’, Lt. abstrahere ‘to pull away’ -> abstractio ‘abstraction’, etc.
A restricted set of perception and action verbs, combined with a handful of locational and directional particles, seem to be a convenient remedy for all denotational needs when creating abstract concepts. The following example shows proliferation of French functional concepts from a single sensory-motor base in Latin:

(5) Lt. capere ? 1. concept, 2. conception, 3. conceptualisation, 4. conceptualisme, 5. préconception, 6. percept, 7. perception, 8. perceptibilité, 9. perceptionnisme, 10. apperception, 11. acception, 12. acceptation, 13. acceptabilité, 14. anticipation, 15. principe, 16. emancipation, 17. participe, 18. participation, 19. capacité, etc.A functional concept, once created, can easily be transferred to other languages and cultures. The history of Western thought gives ample evidence for this astonishing handing down of functional concepts from Ancient Greek and Latin to modern European standard languages.