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The fast growing interdisciplinary research area of 'language and space' investigates how language and representations of space are linked in information processing systems, like the brain. This is the first book in a new series at the forefront of research in the interfaces between brain, perception, and language. When we use directions in language, such as 'under the tree', how are these directions represented in our minds before we even start speaking, and how are directions expressed in different languages? Considering the way in which language and space are linked has consequences for theories on word meaning (linguistics and philosophy), for the construction of language-to-space interfaces (computer science), for our comprehension of how people use language in different contexts and cultures (psychology and anthropology), and for the way in which we can distinguish between normal and subnormal cognitive processing (neuroscience).
List of contents
- 1: The representation of direction in language and space
- 2: Spatial language and spatial cognition: the roles of axial and vector
- 3: Vectors across spatial domains: from place to size, orientation, shape and parts
- 4: Vector grammar, places, and the functional role of the spatial prepositions in English
- 5: Constraints on motion event coding: vectors or path shapes?
- 6: Defining spatial relations: reconciling axis and vector representations
- 7: Places: points, paths, and portions
- 8: Ontological problems for the semantics of spatial expressions in natural language
- 9: Change of orientation
- 10: Memory for locations relative to objects: axes and the categorization of regions
- 11: How Finnish postpositions see the axis system
- 12: Directions from shape: how spatial features determine reference axis categorization
- 13: Spatial prepositions, spatial templates, and 'semantic' versus 'pragmatic' visual representations
About the author
Emile van der Zee is senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Lincoln. His publications include Cognitive Interfaces: Constraints on Linking Cognitive Information (2000, together with prof. Urpo Nikanne), also published by Oxford University Press.
Jon Slack is the head of Psychology at the University of Lincoln. He
completed his PhD at Manchester University in 1976 and has held teaching
posts at the Open University and the University of Kent. His main
research interests are in neural network modeling and representational theory.
Summary
This book considers how it is possible for people to use directions like 'above the table' or 'over the city'. How does our brain or any other information processing system represent a direction as a spatial entity? And, how is it possible to link such a representation to language, so that we talk about a direction we have in mind? When we look at or imagine a scene, what entities can be employed for representing a direction, and what are the parts in language that can be used to talk about directions? This book brings together research from linguistics, psychology, philosophy, computer science, anthropology, and neuroscience to answer these intriguing questions. By considering direction representation across different languages and in different information processing systems, this book gives an overview of the main issues in this area for both the interested novice and the specialized researcher.
