In her doctoral dissertation Technology, language and thought: Extensions of meaning in the English lexicon, Marlene Johansson Falck. LuleƄ University of Technology, in Sweden, treats the impact of technological inventions and discoveries on how we structure our thoughts and our language. The three technological spheres she has looked at are the steam engine, electricity, and vehicles and roads.
Since these have played, or still play, a major role in our lives, they constitute familiar reference points that we make use of in structuring our experiences of what is abstract to us.
Just as we use abacuses, fingers, and pebbles, etc., to learn how to count, we utilize clear, concrete objects in our environment to structure abstract concepts like time, feelings, and actions. With the aid of the steam machine, for instance, we can structure our experiences of, and speak about, economic growth, people exerting themselves to the limit, and peopleās anger.
āElectricity and our experiences of it help us sort out our impressions of, and to speak about, peopleās actions and feelings, such as tense feelings and excitement. Vehicles and roads make it possible for us to see our lives and the actions we carry out as a journey: to start something is to get the show on the road, and to terminate something is to reach the end of the road,ā says Marlene Johansson Falck.
Further examples of English expressions are:
Steam up the economy
Electrify the audience
Take to the road
Further information: Marlene Johansson Falck, phone: +46 90-19 92 00; cell phone: +46 70-322 11 55; marlene.johansson@ltu.se or the universityās press officer Lena Edenbrink, phone: +46 920-49 16 22; cell phone: +46 70-679 16 22, lena.edenbrink@ltu.se
18 January, 2011 - LuleƄ tekniska universitet
Carbon nanotubes, which are extremely small fibers used in many new light and strong materials, may present health risks if inhaled, in the worst case leading to cancer, according to new research from LuleƄ University of Technology.
24 March, 2010 - LuleƄ tekniska universitet
A mini-laboratory that makes it possible, among other things, to study how brain cells in stroke patients are affected by lack of oxygen is being developed by a research team at LuleƄ University of Technology (LTU) in Sweden. Lab on a Chip is what the scientists are calling their mini-lab, which is expected to facilitate studies of all sorts of biological cells and how they are affected by different medicines, chemical substances, etc.
18 December, 2008 - LuleƄ tekniska universitet
Why does gold occur where it does in the bedrock? If we understood that we would be able to make new finds also in areas where we had not looked for it. In his research into the FƤboliden gold deposit along the so-called Gold Line in VƤsterbotten in northern Sweden, Glenn Bark has studied the geological features that are important to the formation of gold deposits. What’s more, the results are proving to be directly useful to the project’s industrial partner and its current gold prospecting.
12 May, 2008 - LuleƄ tekniska universitet
LuleƄ University of Technology has gained a contract from the European Commission for an ICT project entitled Networking for Communications Challenged Communities: Architecture, Test Beds and Innovative Alliances (N4C).The N4C project, within the EC Seventh Framework Program has a budget of 3,650 000 euro over three years.
Expertsvar, The Swedish Research Council, Hantverkargatan 11B, Stockholm SWEDENPhone +46(0)8 546 44 000
P.O. Box 1035, SE-101 38 Stockholm, expertsvar@vr.se
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