Social Attitudes Manifested in Embodying Cars in Arabic From a Cognitive Linguistics Perspective

This study investigates the phenomenon of “car embodiment”, where humans and machines are conceptualized as a hybrid creature in everyday language. Drawing on Langacker's (2008) theory of cognitive linguistics, the author analyzed natural examples of car embodiment metaphors posted online by Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) users. Findings of the current study revealed that actions and states (46%) were more frequently embodied than body parts (16%) in these metaphors. This suggests that the conceptual blending of humans and machines is primarily driven by shared functional and experiential features rather than physical similarities. This study contributes to the understanding of conceptual embodiment in the context of human-machine interaction and highlights the potential of online data for exploring linguistic creativity.