Learning Phrasal Verbs through Image

Schemas: a New Approach

ANTONIO SUAREZ ABREU & SARAH BARBIERI VIEIRA

One of the greatest difficulties in teaching English for foreign

students is the explanation of phrasal verbs. It can be told that for people
who use English as a lingua franca this kind of knowledge is almost superfluous. Actually, in international meetings among non English native
speakers, when Brazilian and Japanese entrepreneurs, for instance, are discussing an issue, phrasal verbs are expected to be present as much as a snow
house in the Sahara desert. Despite of that fact, communication is carried
on and nobody complains about the lack of those idiomatic constructions.
However, considering another side of the problem, there is the cultural
viewpoint: if one of those foreign entrepreneurs, for example, starts talking
to an American or even reading an American newspaper or magazine during
the meeting coffee break to relax, he will trip on several unknown phrasal
verbs. The same situation will happen if he decides to leaf through a book
of economy or business administration. So, the conclusion is that everybody who wants to have a domain of the English language, as a cultural
product, must acquire and know how to use phrasal verbs.
There are some traditional didactic approaches used to teach these
idiomatic expressions. The most common and ineffective approach employs the alphabetical order. Another employs category patterns such as
(in)separable, (in)transitive phrasal verbs. The most effective traditional
approach employs the semantic field activator, which groups phrasal verbs
around a topic area such as CLOTHES, COMPUTERS, and so on. Despite
all the efforts, the results are very poor. In this work we propose the introduction of the image schemas approach to teach phrasal verbs. Actually,
we have used this framework to teach this subject to some classes of students who were interested in taking the Michigan-ECPE (Examination for

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1491689

2 / ABREU & VIEIRA

the Certificate of Proficiency in English) and the TOEFL (Test of English

as a Foreign Language), and compared to the traditional approaches, we
have obtained forty percent more effectiveness in terms of acquisition and
correct pragmatic use.
The study of image schemas is related mainly to Lakoff (1990) and
Lakoff & Johnson (1999). According to them image schemas are recurring
structural patterns of our sensory motor everyday experience that are used
to structure complex concepts. Its origin is linked to our physical structure
according to Johnson (2005). Based on our physical features, we create
concepts as right and left, front and back, near and far. As human beings
able to walk, we create concepts as source, path, and goal. On account of
being confronted by forces that can pull or push us (wind, animals, and
other human beings) we created concepts as compulsion, attraction and
blockage of movement. As a consequence of our orthostatic upright position, we incorporate concepts as balance and verticality. The main image
schemas are:
SOURCE-PATH-GOAL
CONTAINER
LINK
FORCE-DYNAMICS
BALANCE
PART-WHOLE
CENTER-PERIPHERY
Several linguists have added new image schemas to the initial list
proposed by its forerunners. Nonetheless, a recent paper caught our attention due to its interrelation description account: the work of Pea (2008),
which establishes a kind of general topological net of image schemas, building a hierarchy among them. The primary schema as stated by her is called
BOUNDED REGION. If this region has only one dimension, we have the
SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema. If it has two dimensions, we have the
SURFACE schema. Finally, if it has three dimensions, we have the CONTAINER schema. This new topological framework is innovative, because
it solves situations in which the CONTAINER schema is insufficient. A
room, for instance, would be the prototypical example of a CONTAINER,
but a table would be also a CONTAINER. However, how could we establish the difference between those two containers? According to Peas

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1491689

PHRASAL VERBS / 3

framework, a table should be a SURFACE. It has been created a more

flexible concept of enclosure and separation. An entity on a SURFACE is
partially enclosed in it, but there is relative closeness. However if this
entity is placed into a CONTAINER, it will be completely enclosed or separated from the outside. Departing from these images, it is possible to raise
subsidiary images. From the CONTAINER image we can raise two subsidiary images: FULL-EMPTY and EXCESS as in sentences as She is full
of confidence or She has an excess of confidence. Linked to the SOURCEPATH-GOAL schema, we can get the FRONT-BACK image as in a sentence as I think we need to step back from this situation. Linked to the
SURFACE schema, we can get still NEAR-FAR and CONTACT.
When there is no distance, there is CONTACT. Therefore, CONTACT is an image schema subsidiary to NEAR-FAR schema, as in: Be in
touch. Another schema linked to SURFACE is CENTRE-PERIPHERY,
increasing the value of the centre and decreasing the value of the periphery,
as in: She was, eventually, the center of attention. This is a peripheral issue. There is also the LINK image schema that consists of two entities that
can be either equal or one of them can take control over the other as in She
is much linked with her boss.
We can summarize Pea's framework in the following diagram:
BOUNDED REGION

SURFACE / SOURCE-PATH-GOAL

CONTAINER

PART-WHOLE
FRONT-BACK
NEAR-FAR
CENTER-PERIPHERY
CONTACT
LINK
FORCE DYNAMICS

FULL/EMPTY
EXCESS

4 / ABREU & VIEIRA

We have placed some image schemas under SURFACE/SOURCEPATH-GOAL because they are subsidiary to both of them.
One important previous reflection allied to this issue is the transparency or opacity of words and expressions. When somebody uses an idiom
to say something as: She always needs a shoulder to cry on., it is not difficult to retrieve the origin of this expression. However, saying something
as: You can trust him; after all he has heard it from the horses mouth., it
demands more than just inference to understand the meaning. It is necessary a research in the horseracing context, in which this idiom was created,
at the beginning of the twentieth century. This notion is linked to the fact
that the most trustworthy authorities on a winner horse are those closer to
the horses, as stable lads, trainers etc. So it is supposed that the horse itself
could be the best authority. In the first example, we have a transparent
metaphor; in the latter, an opaque metaphor.
In everyday life, we use a lot of opaque words and expressions, the
so-called dead metaphors. When we say something as:
I received my salary yesterday.
I am being sincere with you.
He is still ploughing on his research report.
we are never aware of their original meanings. Salary is related originally
to salt, the way the roman soldiers used to be paid. Sincere is related to sine
cira (without wax) in Latin. In roman commerce of columns, some dealers
used to hide the imperfections of the product covering them with wax. In
Latin sine cira was also a metaphor used to feature honest people, who say
only what they really think or feel. Plough is, originally, the name of a
piece of farming used for digging and turning over the soil.
Steen (2006, p. 23) states four cognitive approaches to metaphor,
saying:
I propose that language as use ought to be contrasted with language as system, and that language itself ought to be differentiated from
though. The complete set of cognitive approaches to metaphor, then, consisting of combinations of single perspectives, would be:

PHRASAL VERBS / 5

metaphor in language as system

metaphor in thought as system

metaphor in language as use

metaphor in though as use

For instance, salary and sincere are metaphors in language as system, but not in language as use. When we say, however, to a sloppy student: You must grow up!, this idiom is a metaphor in language as use.
In Steens opinion cognitive linguistics is involved in all of those
approaches, whereas applied linguistics is mostly concerned with the third
and fourth approaches. Even so, he also thinks that there is a benefit in
combining those approaches:
It may be perfectly possible for applied linguists to use other information about metaphor that has come from work done in other approaches that is relevant for the study of metaphor in language use. (p. 25)

It is important for the analysis of phrasal verbs in the image

schema framework, to highlight four more theories: primary metaphors,
frames, projection of a spatial action-story onto a spatial event-story and
verbal context.
PRIMARY METAPHORS are the result of early conflations in our
everyday experience that pair subjective experience and judgment with
sensorimotor experience.
According to Lakoff and Johnson (1999, p. 57)
If you are a normal human being, you inevitably acquire an enormous
range of primary metaphors just by going about the world constantly moving and perceiving.
Here are some of them (ibid. p. 50-54):
Affection is Warmth: They greeted me warmly
Important is Big: Tomorrow is a big day.
Happy Is Up: Im feeling up today.

6 / ABREU & VIEIRA

Intimacy Is Closeness: Weve been close for years, but were
beginning to drift apart.
Difficulties Are Burdens: Shes weighed down by responsibilities.
More is Up: Prices are high.

Categories Are Containers: Are tomatoes in the fruit or

vegetable category?
Similarity Is Closeness: These colors arent quite the
same, but theyre close.
Linear Scales Are Paths: Johns intelligence goes way
beyond Bills.
Organization Is Physical Structure: How do the pieces
of this theory fit together?
Help Is Support: Support your local charities.
Time Is Motion: Time flies.
States Are Locations: Im close to being in a depression
and the next thing that goes wrong will send me over the
edge.
Purposes Are Destinations: Hell ultimately be successful, but he isnt there yet.
Knowing Is Seeing: I see what you mean.
A FRAME consists of a list of two kinds of traces: one considered
as a prototype, its hard core, and another related to elements linked up to
imagination and culture, as says Kovecses (2006, p. 69):
In this sense, frames are constructs of our imagination and not
mental representations that directly fit a preexisting objective reality. In
short, frames are imaginative devices of the mind.
The frames that we use are not only cognitive in nature but also
cultural constructs; hence the term cultural model for the same idea. Cultural models can differ cross-culturally, from group to group, and even
from individual to individual.

An organ, for instance, has hard core traces as: keyboard, tubes,
air, stops. As traces linked to imagination and culture, we can add:
churches, people praying, sounding loud, sounding soft, abilities skills of
an organist etc.

PHRASAL VERBS / 7

Frames as cultural constructs are also historical. Nowadays, a

cross is a Christian symbol, but before Christianity, it was only an instrument of torture and death. If a Roman walked on the streets of Rome before
the first century, wearing a cross hanging from a necklace, he would be
considered as absolutely fool.
Gary Marcus (2008) wrote a very interesting book arguing that the
human brain is a kind of contraption, and proposes that frames are only a
resource for retrieving pieces of information:
We humans rarely if ever know precisely where a piece of
information is stored (beyond the extremely vague somewhere inside the
brain), and our memory evolved according to an entirely different logic.
In lieu of postal-code memory we wound up with what Ill call
contextual memory: we pull things out of our memory by using context,
or clues, that hits at what we are looking for. (p. 21)

Further ahead, he writes:

In the memory of a human being, context is all, and sometimes,
as in this instance, context works against us. Context exerts its powerful
effect sometimes helping us, sometimes not in part by priming
the pump of our memory; when I hear the word doctor, it becomes easier
to recognize the word nurse. (p. 24)

It is not difficult to realize that what he calls context actually

means frames.
PROJECTION OF A SPATIAL ACTION-STORY ONTO A SPATIAL EVENT-STORY is a resource employed to turn inanimate entities
into actors. According to Turner (1996:29):
We can say of a sailor exposed to the elements as sea that the sun tortured
him ant that he was beaten mercilessly by savage winds. The story on an
actor who tortures someone by burning him is projected onto the story of
the sailors becoming sunburned. The story of a savage actors mercilessly beating a victim is projected parabolically onto the story of forcible
gusts of wind impinging on the sailor.

8 / ABREU & VIEIRA

Many everyday event-stories lack causal actors.

EVENTS ARE AC-

TIONS can turn them into action-stories: We complete the event-story to

include a causal actor by projecting the actor in the action-story onto a
nonactor in the event-story. The nonactor becomes thereby a metaphorical
actor, usually a person.

VERBAL CONTEXT refers to surrounding elements of a language

unit. When we say: The two next bus stops will be good for me., the meaning of stops is the spots a bus usually stops at. When we say metaphorically: You must, now, pull out all the stops to pass the exam, the meaning of
stops is the keys that can be pulled out, turning up the volume of an organ.
The meaning of this last sentence is to make all possible efforts in order to
pass the exam.

Analysis of some phrasal verbs using the image schema

framework
GO
Go after
She looked so upset. Do you think I should go after her? (to follow
or chase sbdy in order to talk, attack or catch them)
Tobacco companies are going after teenage smokers in a big way.
(to try to get sthg, especially a job or a particular type of business)
Go is a movement verb. It belongs to the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL
image schema. In these two examples there is also the primary metaphor:
purposes are destinations. The frame of go includes the fact that, when we
want to talk with somebody or reach somebody or something, we often
must move ourselves.
In the second example, there is another image schema: FORCEDYNAMICS.

PHRASAL VERBS / 9

Go against
Einsteins theory went against all the accepted views about how the
universe worked. (to be opposite to)
I should warn you that if the case goes against you, you may find
yourself in prison. (to be not in favor of)
Here we have the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema projecting the
idea that sbdy is moving in one direction and FORCE-DYNAMICS image
schema projecting the idea that counter forces try to impede or block his/her
movement or action.
Go around / go round
You cant go around accusing people of things like that! (to say or
do sthg frequently, esp. when it is annoying or unpleasant for other
people)
There are a lot of colds going round just now. (to spread news, diseases, etc)
How long have those two going around together? (to be seen in
public together)
The phrasal verb go around / go round projects the image of the
PATH schema and the SURFACE schema as subsidiary.
Go back
Dont go back to your old eating habits or youll gain all that
weight again. (to return to sthg)
Whenever my grandmother talks, she always goes back to her
younger days. (to return in time, in ones thought)
The clocks go back next week, so it will seem dark sooner. (to be
set to an earlier time)
In these examples, we have the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL image
schema projected onto a time course, but in a backtrack motion.

10 / ABREU & VIEIRA

Go by
Having no map to go by, we soon lost our way. (to be guided by)
You make a mistake if you go by appearances. (to base ones
judgment on)
Our chairman always goes by rules. (to act according to)
In the first example, we have the presence of an element from the
frame of the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL image schema: direction. When we
walk or travel, we must know how to reach our destination. In the second
example, there is the projection of the PATH in a conceptual meaning:
judging by appearances. In the third, apart from the projection of PATH in
the conceptual meaning of decisions, there is also the presence of the element direction from the frame of this image schema: directions = rules.
The title of the famous song from the film Casablanca, As time
goes by, there is a focus on PATH, as a time course, and a projection of an
inanimate entity (the time) as an actor.

FILL
Fill in

Some people find it difficult to fill in a form. (to write what is necessary on)
How am I going to fill in this afternoon now that hes not coming?
(to pass time)
Please fill me in on what happened at the meeting that I couldnt
attend. (to supply information to)
In all these examples, the phrasal verb is connected to SOURCEPATH-GOAL image schema plus CONTAINER and EMPTY/FULL image
schemas. The GOAL in the first example is the form that must be completed. In the second example we have also the projection of physical space
in time. The GOAL is the afternoon viewed as a CONTAINER. In the

PHRASAL VERBS / 11

third, we have the projection of the GOAL in a virtual CONTAINER: the

encyclopedic knowledge of the speaker.
Fill out
Some people find it difficult to fill out a form. (to complete)
Have this prescription filled out at the drugstore. (to follow the
doctors instructions)
John finished growing taller last year, and now hes filling out. (to
grow fatter)
This phrasal verb is connected to the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL plus
CONTAINER and EXCESS image schemas. The image projected in the
three examples is the CONTAINER (the form, the prescription and the
body) being completely filled by information, drug, and food in a way that
the EXCESS is going to get out of the CONTAINER, or cause its expansion
(= grow fatter).

Fill up
They stopped to fill up at the next gas station. (to put petrol in a car
so that the tank is full)
It doesnt take much rice to fill me up. (to feel that you have eaten
enough)
The pubs fill up quickly on Saturday nights. (to become full)

In these examples, we have the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL and

EMPTY/FULL image schemas. In the first and second examples, we can
add the CONTAINER and VERTICALITY image schema, since we project
the image of a CONTAINER, as the tank and the stomach, being filled and
a substance going up in the interior of the CONTAINER. The third example, however, we can add the SURFACE and RETILINEAR image schemas.

12 / ABREU & VIEIRA

BREAK
Break away
The criminal broke away from the policeman who was holding
him. (to escape from sbdy)
Part of the country broke away (from the state) to form a new nation. (to end ones connection with or loyalty to a group)
After the series ended, Glaser found it difficult to break away from
his TV cop image. (to do different from what you usually do)
In these examples, we have the FORCE-DYNAMICS schema and
LINK image schema. The image projected by the phrasal verb is a force
being exerted to break some kind of connection. The criminal, part of the
country and Glaser are agonists pushing against an antagonist (policeman,
the state, the TV cop image). In the second example, there is also the
PART-WHOLE schema involved. The state is the WHOLE from which
part of the country become a PART. In the third example, there is the projection of physical movement to a conceptual field.
Break down
The police tried to break down the prisoners opposition. (to cause
to be defeated)
The washing machine seems to have broken down again. (to fail to
work)
Peace talks have broken down in the Middle East. (to fail)
In all these examples, FORCE-DYNAMICS image schema and
VERTICALITY are involved. The image projected by the phrasal verb is a
force that diminishes, showing less strength. The idea is connected to a
body frame. In the first example, there is a human agent. In the second, we
have the projection of an inanimate entity as an actor in an unaccusative
construction, and in the third a metaphorical projection of an inanimate
abstract entity as an actor.

PHRASAL VERBS / 13

Break up
The police broke up the fight. (to cause to come to an end)
The crowd broke up. (of a group- to divide)
Their marriage broke up. (to separate or cease)
The phrasal verb to break up projects the FORCE-DYNAMICS
image schema. In the second and third acceptions there is also the LINK
image schema involved, since the force exerted, either physical or psychological, resulted in the separation of the agents. In the third example, there
is also an unaccusative construction that projects an inanimate actor as an
agent.
Break into
The thieves waited until it was dark enough to break into the
house. (to enter a building by force)
The children broke into the conversation with demands for attention. (to interrupt sthg)
Mary broke into laughter. (to begin suddenly to give voice to a
sound)
In those examples, there is the FORCE-DYNAMICS image
schema and the CONTAINER image schema. The movement of an agonist
comes from a PATH and breaks the limit of a CONTAINER in order to get
in. In the second and third examples, there are metaphorical projections of
the CONTAINER: conversation, laugh.
Break out
Three men broke out of prison yesterday. (to escape from)
I should like to break out of this meaningless way of life (to change
usual behavior)
War broke out in 1939. (to begin suddenly)

14 / ABREU & VIEIRA

The phrasal verb to break out projects the FORCE-DYNAMICS

image schema which is contrary to the explained above. In the first example, the prisoners push and break the limit of a CONTAINER from its interior, to get out to a PATH. In the second example, the CONTAINER is
metaphorically the projection of a way of life. In the third example, we can
imagine an EXCESS image schema associated with a CONTAINER that is
filled with enemy tensions. This excess of tension breaks the limit of the
virtual container producing war.
Break through
We had to break through the solid wall to reach the prisoners. (to
break a way through sthg solid)
It was difficult at first to break through her quiet manner. (to conquer)
Foreign forces have broken through on the coast. (to advance in
spite of opposition)
The sun broke through after days of rain. (to appear)

The phrasal verb to break through projects the FORCEDYNAMICS image schema performed in a PATH by an agonist, physically
in the first example, and metaphorically in the other ones. In the first three
examples, there are human agents. In the last one, there is a projection of
an agent in an inanimate element, the sun. According to the frame of break
through, there are some elements that play a role in these examples: agent,
obstacle, position of the observer before the obstacle and position of the
observer after the obstacle. In the first and second examples, the agent is
the observer placed before the obstacle. In the third and fourth examples,
the observer is after the obstacle and they are not agents. In the third example, the observer could be also an antagonist.
LOOK
Look ahead
This phrasal verb is formed by the adverb ahead that means at or
to the front of head. The word head is used in English as an embodied

PHRASAL VERBS / 15

metonymy in the FRONT/BACK image schema, focusing the FRONT

position, in several contexts as the head of the river, the head of the table,
the head of a department, heading back home etc. This phrasal verb means
to think about what will happen in the future. Example:
If you want to make a success of your life, you have to learn to
look ahead. (to think about, prepare, or plan for the future)
Besides the FRONT/BACK schema focusing FRONT, there is a
projection from space to time.
Look around
We should look around carefully before deciding which house to
buy. (to make enquiries before choosing)
Weve been looking around the country for a good place to camp.
(search in a place)
The phrasal verb to look around projects the SURFACE image
schema.

Look back

Looking back on the old days, Im sure we were much happier

then. (to remember, think about the past)
Once your first book is printed, youll never look back. (to continue to advance)
The phrasal verb to look back projects the FRONT/BACK image
schema in which the focus is on the BACK direction. There is a projection
from space to time in the first example searching for it; in the second,
avoiding it.
Look up
Trade usually looks up in the spring. (to improve)

16 / ABREU & VIEIRA

If you dont know the meaning of a word, look it up in a good dictionary. (to search for and usu. find)
If Im ever here on business again, Ill look you up. (to find and
visit when in a place)
The phrasal verb to look up projects the VERTICALITY image
schema and the FRONT/BACK image schema, focusing on the FRONT.
The acceptions are projections of the primary metaphor more is up.

Look up to
Every child needs someone to look up to and copy. (to respect,
admire)
The phrasal verb to look up to projects the FRONT/BACK image
schema whose focus is on FRONT, but coordinated with VERTICALITY
and with the role played by the primary metaphor more is up in a conceptual field.
Finally, it is desirable to know why a native speaker would prefer
to employ a phrasal verb or an idiom instead of using the corresponding
literal word or expression. Our hypothesis is tied to the tendency of human
beings in telling and living small stories, as stated by Turner (1996, p. 1314):
But it is actually worth whatever it is worth to be a human being
because if you do not have this capacity (of imagining small stories of events in space) you do not have a human mind.
The small stories are what a human being has instead of chaotic
experience. We know how they go. They are the knowledge
that goes unnoticed but makes life possible.

We can perfectly say that we can distinguish one cars brand from
another but, doing this, we are acting in a conceptual field. If we say that
we can tell them apart, we create a small story of telling our experience to
an addressee. If we say that Mozart was influenced to be a musician by his
father, we are again in a conceptual (and static) field, but if we say that
Mozart was pushed towards music by his father, we create a small story of a

PHRASAL VERBS / 17

father moving physically his son (FORCE DYNAMICS image schema) in

the direction of music.
These small stories have the property of giving visibility to abstract
thoughts, making them palpable. Sometimes the original meaning of an
idiom can become elusive as the expression from the horses mouth, but it
can either continue to be employed despite of that fact, or can be replaced
by another more transparent idiom.

Discussion of the analysis and its pedagogical implications

Looking at these brief analyses we can conclude that:
a) there is a real participation of the image schemas in all the uses
of phrasal verbs;
b) in spite of anchoring their basic meaning in a physical space,
there are many metaphorical projections from space to time,
from space to abstract concepts and from inanimate entities to
actors;
c) frames and contexts avail to assemble metaphorical meanings.
In our opinion these cognitive constructs can be used as metacognitive skills to teach phrasal verbs. Since the studies of Flavell, (1979), metacognitive strategies play a critical role in successful learning. Defined as
awareness of the process of learning, it includes artificial skills like outlining, mnemonics, diagramming, but the greatest advantage of these strategies
is achieved when they are based on natural cognitive skills, which takes
place with the use of image schemas to describe phrasal verbs. This awareness often provides hints about the original meaning of the expression hidden in the language system from which students can derive new metaphorical uses.
In Michigan- ECPE (Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency
in English) and TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) preparatory
courses, in the city of Ribeiro Preto, Brazil 1 , we have previously discussed some principles of cognitive linguistics, focusing on the theory of
1

See Vieira (2008).

18 / ABREU & VIEIRA

embodied language and image schemas, and highlighted basic image schemas as SOURCE-PATH-GOAL and CONTAINER. After that, we have
discussed some phrasal verbs included in these schemas, leading the students to pay attention to frames and to metaphorical projections of inanimate entities as actors. In the following classes, we have added more image schemas and more phrasal verbs for discussion. The classes took place
twice a week lasting one hour and a half during eight months (March June
and August November). Every month, mock examinations were administered and the students kept written notes of their scores. By the end of the
year, the scores were compared to previous students scores who had taken
the preparatory courses in the former years. We realized that not only each
student score had improved over the year, but also that the scores of the
students taught by the image schemas approach had increased by an average
of forty percent compared to the scores of students taught by traditional
approaches.
Our experience reveals that the students grasp the meaning of
these idiomatic expressions two times faster than those submitted to traditional methods, suggesting that the knowledge of some principles of cognitive linguistics, mainly of image schemas can be considered a very helpful
metacognitive resource especially when teaching English to foreign students.

References
FLAVELL, J. H. 1979. Metacognition, executive control, self-regulation,
and other more mysterious mechanisms. In F. E. Weinert & R.H.
Kluwe (eds.), Metacognition, motivation, and understanding (pp. 65116) New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
JOHNSON, M. 2005. The philosophical significance of image schemas.
Em HAMPE, B. From perception to meaning: image schemas in cognitive linguistics, Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
KVECSES, Z. 2006. Language, mind, and culture: a practical introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

PHRASAL VERBS / 19

LAKOFF, G. & JOHNSON, M. 1999. Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to western Thougth, New York: Basic Books,
1999.
LAKOFF, G. 1990. Woman, Fire, and Dangerous Things: Wat Categories
Reveal about the Mind, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago
Press.
MARCUS, G. 2008. Kluge: the haphazard construction of the human mind,
New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.
PEA, M. S. 2008. Dependency systems for image-schematic patterns in a
usage-based approach to language, Journal of Pragmatics 40, 1041
1066.
STEEN, G. 2006. Metaphor in applied linguistics: four cognitive approaches. D.E.L.T.A, 212 (21-44), So Paulo.
TURNER, M. 1996. The literary mind: the origins of thought and language,
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
VIEIRA, S. B. 2008. Expresses idiomticas do ingls de origem projetiva
(metfora e metonmia): um estudo na interface com o portugus. Dissertation presented for obtaining Masters degree, Araraquara, SP, Brazil: UNESP.