Development of Geocentric Spatial Language and Cognition: An Eco‐Cultural Perspective, de P. Dasen et R. Mishra

AbstractThis paper addresses the vexed questions of how language relates to culture, and what kind of notion of culture is important for linguistic explanation. I first sketch five perspectives - five different construals - of culture apparent in linguistics and in cognitive science more generally. These are: (i) culture as ethno-linguistic group, (ii) culture as a mental module, (iii) culture as knowledge, (iv) culture as context, and (v) culture as a process emergent in interaction. I then present my own work on spatial language and cognition in a Mayan languge and culture, to explain why I believe a concept of culture is important for linguistics. I argue for a core role for cultural explanation in two domains: in analysing the semantics of words embedded in cultural practices which color their meanings (in this case, spatial frames of reference), and in characterizing thematic and functional links across different domains in the social and semiotic life of a particular group of people.

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Demonstratives in Spatial Language and Social Interaction: An Interdisciplinary Review

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2020.555265 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Holger Diessel ◽

Kenny R. Coventry

Keyword(s):

Language Evolution ◽

Discourse Processing ◽

Multimodal Communication ◽

Spatial Language ◽

Social Aspects ◽

Signed Language ◽

Language And Social Interaction ◽

Language Universals ◽

Language And Cognition

This paper offers a review of research on demonstratives from an interdisciplinary perspective. In particular, we consider the role of demonstratives in current research on language universals, language evolution, language acquisition, multimodal communication, signed language, language and perception, language in interaction, spatial imagery, and discourse processing. Traditionally, demonstratives are analyzed as a particular class of spatial deictics. Yet, a number of recent studies have argued that space is largely irrelevant to deixis and that demonstratives are primarily used for social and interactive purposes. Synthesizing findings in the literature, we conclude that demonstratives are a very special class of linguistic items that are foundational to both spatial and social aspects of language and cognition.

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Variation in spatial concepts: Different frames of reference on different axes

10.31234/osf.io/b3e96 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin Pitt ◽

Alexandra Carstensen ◽

Edward Gibson ◽

Steven T. Piantadosi

Keyword(s):

Spatial Relations ◽

Spatial Language ◽

Frames Of Reference ◽

Spatial Thinking ◽

Initial Test ◽

Spatial Concepts ◽

Spatial Frames Of Reference ◽

Language And Cognition ◽

Lateral Axis ◽

The Way

Spatial language and cognition vary across contexts. In some groups, people tend to use egocentric space (e.g. left, right) to encode the locations of objects, while in other groups, people use allocentric space (e.g. upriver, downriver) to describe the same spatial scene. These different spatial Frames of Reference (FoRs) characterize both the way people talk about spatial relations and the way they think about them, even when they are not using language. These patterns of spatial language and spatial thinking tend to covary, but the root causes of this variation are unclear. Here we propose that this variation in FoR use reflects variation in the spatial discriminability of the relevant spatial continua. In an initial test of this proposal, we compared FoR use across spatial axes that are known to differ in discriminability. In two non-verbal tests, a group of indigenous Bolivians used different FoRs on different spatial axes; on the lateral axis, where egocentric (left-right) discrimination is difficult, their behavior was predominantly allocentric; on the sagittal axis, where egocentric (front-back) discrimination is relatively easy, their behavior was predominantly egocentric. These findings support the spatial discriminability hypothesis, which may explain variation in spatial concepts not only across axes, but also across groups, between individuals, and over development.

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Development of Geocentric Spatial Language and Cognition

10.1017/cbo9780511761058 ◽

2009 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Pierre R. Dasen ◽

Ramesh C. Mishra

Keyword(s):

Spatial Language ◽

Language And Cognition

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Cognition and Language

The Oxford Handbook of African Languages ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199609895.013.19 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 779-794

Author(s):

Axel Fleisch

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Linguistics ◽

The Other ◽

Spatial Language ◽

Human Cognition ◽

African Language ◽

African Languages ◽

Current Trends ◽

African Context ◽

Language And Cognition ◽

The One

The convergence between a linguistically motivated interest in cognition, on the one hand, and descriptive and typological interests, on the other, causes a growing number of scholars to recognize the need for enhanced linguistic anthropological work in the African context, which promises to be beneficial to both the study of human cognition and a richer understanding of African language cultures. By looking at how certain key areas of cognitive linguistics (conceptual metaphor, spatial language, temporality) have been applied to the study of African languages, this chapter focuses on the intersection of both perspectives: that of descriptivists and typologists. Current trends in the study of African languages that address language and cognition draw on grammaticalization studies, neo-relativism, and the emergence of linguistic areas by cross-linguistic conceptual convergence. How these relate to each other is briefly outlined in the second part of this chapter.

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