This dissertation concerns why and how human beings are able to talk and think about intangible phenomena, which is to say phenomena which exist only in minds, 'meaning.' The analysis uses patterns of correlation between linguistic form and meaning at multiple levels of linguistic form, including the distribution of topics in the lexical inventory of each language, types of lexicalization, etymology metaphor, morphology, and usage in discourse. The enquiry synthesizes this data to define both culturally unique and putatively universal aspects of the conceptual/cognitive structures of the intangible, including major ontological categories, conceptual metaphors, lexical conceptual structures, and ideas embodied in cultural discourses about 'meaning.' At the same time, the study compares ideas about language about meaning evident in bodies of oral literature in Old English, Swahili, and Yucatec Maya. The literatures examined were composed by semi-legendary poet-heroes in each culture who seem to have functioned as shamans in their societies. The author argues that the conclusions of the linguistic analysis and the ideas about language expressed by these shaman poets both point to the hypothesis that the ability to speak and think about the intangible is an evolutionary adaptation to problems inherent in the development of consciousness in human beings
