Between CONTACT and support : Introducing a logic for image schemas and directed movement

Cognitive linguistics introduced image schemas as a missing link between embodied experiences and high-level conceptualisation in language and metaphorical thinking. They are described as the abstract spatio-temporal relationships that function as conceptual building blocks for everyday concepts and events. Although there is increasing interest in the area of cognitively motivated artificial intelligence, where image schemas are suggested to be a core piece in the puzzle to model human-level conceptualisation and reasoning, so far rather few formal logical approaches can be found in the literature, in particular regarding attention to the dynamic aspects of image schemas. A fundamental problem here is that the typical mainstream approaches in contemporary KR do not map well to various scenarios found in image schema modelling. In this paper, we introduce a spatio-temporal logic for ‘directed movement of objects’, with the aim to model formally image schematic events such as Blockage, Caused_Movement and ‘bouncing’.