The Mind’s Blueprints: How Image Schemas Build Meaning

How do you grasp an idea? How do you fall in love, feel down, or work towards a goal? These aren’t just quirks of the English language; they are windows into the very architecture of human thought. We talk about abstract concepts—love, ideas, time, and morality—as if they were physical objects we can hold, places we can be, or paths we can walk. But why?

The answer, according to cognitive linguists like George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, lies in something called image schemas. These are the mind’s fundamental blueprints, the pre-linguistic, recurring patterns of experience that form the invisible scaffolding for our abstract thoughts. They are the simple, powerful link between our physical bodies and our complex minds.

What Exactly Is an Image Schema?

Before you can have a thought about something, you must have an experience of something. As infants, we interact with the world in a very direct, physical way. We experience gravity, we move our bodies through space, we see things as being inside or outside of containers, and we feel the difference between balance and falling.

These repeated bodily experiences create basic, skeletal mental patterns. An image schema is not a detailed mental picture—it’s not an “image” in that sense. Instead, it’s a dynamic, simplified structure of an experience. It’s the feeling of in-ness, not a picture of a specific box. It’s the sense of a path, not a memory of a particular road.

Some of the most common and foundational image schemas include:

• CONTAINER: The schema of being inside, outside, or on the boundary of a bounded space. Think of your body as a container for your organs, a room as a container for furniture, or a cup as a container for coffee.
• UP-DOWN (or VERTICALITY): This comes directly from our experience with gravity and our upright posture. We know intuitively that what goes up must come down.
• SOURCE-PATH-GOAL: This schema structures any experience of moving from a starting point (Source) along a trajectory (Path) to an endpoint (Goal).
• LINK: The simple, powerful experience of connection, whether it’s the physical link of an umbilical cord or holding someone’s hand.
• CENTER-PERIPHERY: The understanding that some things are central and important, while others are on the fringes. Think of the nucleus of a cell or the core of a group.

These schemas are so basic that we don’t even notice them. They are the water we swim in, the automatic, non-conscious structures that give shape to our raw experience.

From Body to Metaphor: Building Abstract Thought

So, we have these physical blueprints. How do they help us understand something as non-physical as “justice” or “power”? The magic happens through conceptual metaphor, where we map the logic of a physical image schema onto an abstract concept.

This isn’t just poetic flair; it’s the primary way our brains make sense of the abstract. Let’s look at how it works.

The CONTAINER Schema: Ideas, Emotions, and States

We constantly use the CONTAINER schema to talk about things that have no physical boundaries.

• Emotions: “He is in a foul mood”. “She was bursting with joy”. “I’m trying to get my anger out“. (EMOTIONS ARE CONTAINERS)
• Ideas: “Your argument doesn’t have much content in it”. “I need to get my thoughts out on paper”. “Let’s unpack this concept”. (IDEAS ARE CONTAINERS)
• Relationships: “They are in a healthy relationship”. “He can’t seem to get out of the toxic friendship”. (RELATIONSHIPS ARE CONTAINERS)

By mapping the logic of a container (it can be full or empty, you can be in or out) onto these concepts, we give them structure and make them easier to reason about.

The UP-DOWN Schema: More is Up, Good is Up

The VERTICALITY schema is one of the most pervasive in our language, grounded in the simple fact that we stand up straight against gravity.

• Quantity & Status: “The prices are rising“. “Turn the volume up“. “She’s at the top of her field”. (MORE IS UP, HIGH STATUS IS UP)
• Health & Mood: “He’s in peak condition”. “I’m feeling up today”. Conversely, “He fell ill”. “I’m feeling down“. (HEALTHY IS UP, HAPPY IS UP)
• Morality & Virtue: “She has high moral standards”. “He’s an upstanding citizen”. In contrast, “That was a low blow”. “He stooped to a new low“. (GOOD IS UP, BAD IS DOWN)

These metaphors feel natural because they are tied to direct physical experiences. A healthy person stands tall; a sick person lies down. A larger pile of objects is physically higher than a smaller one.

The SOURCE-PATH-GOAL Schema: Life, Love, and Arguments

How do we talk about progress, time, and purpose? We map them onto a journey.

• Life and Career: “She’s at a crossroads in her life“. “He’s well on his way to a promotion”. “I don’t know where I’m going“. (LIFE IS A JOURNEY)
• Arguments: “Do you follow my logic”? “We have arrived at a conclusion”. “This line of reasoning isn’t getting us anywhere“. (AN ARGUMENT IS A JOURNEY)
• Time: “The deadline is approaching“. “The holidays are just around the corner“. “The years flew by“. (TIME IS MOTION ALONG A PATH)

Universal Blueprints, Cultural Overlays

Because all humans share similar bodies and interact with the same physical laws (like gravity), many image schemas are thought to be universal. The logic of a CONTAINER is likely the same for a speaker in Tokyo as it is for a speaker in Toronto.

However, the way these schemas are applied can vary culturally. A fantastic example comes from the Aymara people of the Andes. In English and many other languages, we use a SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema where the future is in front of us (“We look forward to the future”) and the past is behind us (“That’s all behind me now”).

In Aymara, it’s the reverse. The past is in front of them (`nayra pacha` – “front time”) because it has been seen and is known. The future, being unknown and unseen, is behind them (`qhipa pacha` – “back time”). It’s the same PATH schema, but the metaphorical mapping is based on a different priority: sight and knowledge, rather than movement.

Conclusion: The Embodied Mind

Image schemas reveal a profound truth about human cognition: our minds are not abstract, disembodied computers. We think with and through our bodies. The most sophisticated, ethereal concepts we have—from love and justice to time itself—are built upon the simple, sturdy foundations of our earliest physical experiences.

The next time you hear someone talk about climbing the corporate ladder, falling in love, or being in trouble, take a moment to appreciate the hidden architecture. You’re not just hearing a figure of speech; you’re witnessing the mind’s blueprints at work, masterfully building a cathedral of abstract thought from the humble bricks of embodied life.