This work focuses on emotional concepts. We define concepts as patterns of neural activation
that re-enact a given external or internal experience, for example the interoceptive experience related to
fear. Concepts are mediated and expressed through words. In the following, we will use “words” to refer
to word meanings, assuming that words mediate underlying concepts. Since emotional concepts and the
words that mediate them are less related to the physical environment than concrete ones, at first sight
they might be depicted as abstract concepts. Evidence coming from several studies shows, instead, that
the issue is more complex. In this work, we will briefly outline the debate and illustrate results from recent
studies on comprehension of concrete, emotional and abstract words in children and adults. We will argue
that emotional words can be accounted for from a grounded perspective and will contend that emotional
words represent a particular set of words that differs from both the concrete and purely abstract ones