Space in Language and Cognition: Explorations in Cognitive Diversity

by Stephen C. Levinson

• ISBN13: 9780521812627
• ISBN10: 0521812623
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Languages 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.

Table of Contents

List of figures	xi
List of tables	xiv
Preface	xvii
Acknowledgements	xxi
The intellectual background: two millennia of Western ideas about spatial thinking	1	(23)
The great eye opener -- differences in spatial reckoning	4	(2)
Ideas about spatial cognition in the Western tradition	6	(12)
Synopsis	18	(4)
Conclusions	22	(2)
Frames of reference	24	(38)
The concept of a spatial frame of reference	24	(1)
'Frames of reference' across modalities and the disciplines that study them	25	(9)
Linguistic frames of reference in cross-linguistic perspective	34	(22)
Molyneux's question	56	(6)
Linguistic diversity	62	(50)
An overview of spatial language	62	(2)
Conceptual domains underlying the language of space	64	(5)
Solutions to place specification not involving frames of reference or coordinate systems	69	(5)
Solutions to location description utilizing frames of reference or coordinate systems	74	(21)
Motion	95	(3)
The grammar of space: patterns of linguistic coding	98	(12)
Conclusions	110	(2)
Absolute minds: glimpses into two cultures	112	(58)
Guugu Yimithirr speakers of Hopevale	113	(33)
Tzeltal speakers of Tenejapa	146	(22)
Conclusions	168	(2)
Diversity in mind: methods and results from a cross-linguistic sample	170	(46)
Linguistic influences on thinking: testing the hypothesis	170	(3)
Methods	173	(5)
Overall test of the coding difference hypothesis	178	(10)
Linguistic vs. ecological/cultural determinism: different subsamples from the same region	188	(5)
Other possible determinants of non-verbal coding strategy: gender, literacy and cultural conservatism	193	(4)
Another possible confound? The 'Big Outdoors' and the relevance of landmarks	197	(9)
A positive test of linguistic determinism: the case of the Tzeltal defective axes	206	(4)
Correlation and causation: chicken or egg?	210	(3)
Conclusions	213	(3)
Beyond language: frames of reference in wayfinding and pointing	216	(64)
The role of language in everyday human navigation	216	(28)
Gesture during speaking: 'dead reckoning' on the fly	244	(27)
Different kinds of mental maps	271	(7)
Summary and conclusions	278	(2)
Language and thought	280	(46)
Turtles all the way down: memes and mind	280	(11)
The relation between linguistic and conceptual categories	291	(10)
Neo-Whorfianism	301	(6)
The acquisition of linguistic frames of reference by children	307	(8)
Universals vs. cultural specializations	315	(1)
Innate ideas vs. co-evolution and biases: or how we lost our mental compass	316	(10)
Notes	326	(22)
List of references	348	(20)
Language index	368	(2)
Author index	370	(5)
Subject index	375