Space in Language and Cognition: Explorations in Cognitive DiversityLanguages differ in how they describe space, and such differences between languages can be used to explore the relation between language and thought. This book shows that even in a core cognitive domain like spatial thinking, language influences how people think, memorize and reason about spatial relations and directions. After outlining a typology of spatial coordinate systems in language and cognition, it is shown that not all languages use all types, and that non-linguistic cognition mirrors the systems available in the local language. The book reports on collaborative, interdisciplinary research, involving anthropologists, linguists and psychologists, conducted in many languages and cultures around the world, which establishes this robust correlation. The overall results suggest that most current thinking in the cognitive sciences underestimates the transformative power of language on thinking. The book will be of interest to linguists, psychologists, anthropologists and philosophers, and especially to students of spatial cognition. |
Contents
The intellectual background two millennia of Western ideas about spatial thinking | 1 |
11 The great eye opener differences in spatial reckoning | 4 |
12 Ideas about spatial cognition in the Western tradition | 6 |
13 Synopsis | 18 |
14 Conclusions | 22 |
Frames of reference | 24 |
22 Frames of reference across modalities and the disciplines that study them | 25 |
23 Linguistic frames of reference in crosslinguistic perspective | 34 |
different subsamples from the same region | 188 |
gender literacy and cultural conservatism | 193 |
56 Another possible confound? The Big Outdoors and the relevance of landmarks | 197 |
the case of the Tzeltal defective axes | 206 |
chicken or egg? | 210 |
59 Conclusions | 213 |
Beyond language frames of reference in wayfinding and pointing | 216 |
62 Gesture during speaking dead reckoning on the fly | 244 |
24 Molyneuxs question | 56 |
Linguistic diversity | 62 |
32 Conceptual domains underlying the language of space | 64 |
33 Solutions to place specification not involving frames of reference or coordinate systems | 69 |
34 Solutions to location description utilizing frames of reference or coordinate systems | 74 |
35 Motion | 95 |
patterns of linguistic coding | 98 |
37 Conclusions | 110 |
Absolute minds glimpses into two cultures | 112 |
41 Guugu Yimithirr speakers of Hopevale | 113 |
42 Tzeltal Speakers of Tenejapa | 146 |
43 Conclusions | 168 |
Diversity in mind methods and results from a crosslinguistic sample | 170 |
52 Methods | 173 |
53 Overall test of the coding difference hypothesis | 178 |
63 Different kinds of mental maps | 271 |
64 Summary and conclusions | 278 |
Language and thought | 280 |
72 The relation between linguistic and conceptual categories | 291 |
73 NeoWhorfianism | 301 |
74 The acquisition of linguistic frames of reference by children | 307 |
75 Universals vs cultural specializations | 315 |
or how we lost our mental compass | 316 |
Notes | 326 |
| 348 | |
| 368 | |
| 370 | |
| 375 | |
Other editions - View all
Space in Language and Cognition: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity Stephen C. Levinson No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
absolute coordinates absolute frame absolute system abstract adpositions allocentric angle animals task Arrernte axis body-part cardinal directions Chapter circular statistics coders communities complex conceptual coordinate systems correlation cultural dead reckoning deictic deixis described distinctions domain Dutch egocentric encoded English estimates example expressions Figure fixed bearings frames of reference front gesture space groups Guugu Yimithirr Guugu Yimithirr speakers GY speakers Hai//om Haviland Hopevale human inference innate intrinsic frame intrinsic system involved kind landmarks Levelt Levinson lexical locative Longgu Mayan Mayan languages maze memory mental maps Miller and Johnson-Laird morphemes motion nature navigation non-verbal orientation participants Penelope Brown perceptual properties relative frame relative system rotation sample semantic spatial cognition spatial description spatial language spatial nominals spatial relations spatial representation spatial thinking specific subjects systematic Table Tamil Tenejapan three frames tion topological tree types Tzeltal underlying universal verbs viewpoint visual wayfinding