Reifications and metaphors. The references to the mind

Abstract

In the Agustinian analysis of language, there were categorematic and sincategorematic terms. That is to say, certain words referred to classes and others served only as means for the construction of sentences. This tradition remains and now psycholinguistics classifies words into content and function. Unfortunately, and because of reifying vice that has been present throughout the history in a good number of scientific and philosophical systems, words that referred to something started to be considered as icons for that something. This reifying vice, and attributing icon-like features space, that of our mind. The present work is an analysis of how loading referential terms with iconic contents, or confusing their metaphorical uses, led to the creation of the mental.