A Crosslinguistic Study of the Language of Space

A Crosslinguistic Study of the Language of Space PDF Author: Engin Arik
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443825263
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
This book examines spatial language in sign languages (Turkish Sign Language, Croatian Sign Language, American Sign Language, and Austrian Sign Language) and spoken languages (Turkish, English, and Croatian). The book presents a novel model, the Crossmodal Spatial Language, to account for similarities and differences in these languages. The model, which consists of Spatial Representations, Reference Frames, Temporal Representations, Conceptual Structure, and Linguistic Representations, shows that the features from spatial input are not necessarily mapped on the spatial descriptions regardless of modality and language. The book reports several studies to examine the descriptions of static and dynamic spatial scenes which involve, among others, spatial relationals such as left-right, front-back, besides, in, on, to, toward, pass by, away, and cause to move. The findings suggest that language users construct a spatial relation between the objects in a given time, employ a reference frame, which may not be encoded in the message, and use the same conceptual structure consisted of BE-AT for static spatial situations and GO-BE-AT for static dynamic situations.

A Crosslinguistic Study of the Language of Space

A Crosslinguistic Study of the Language of Space PDF Author: Engin Arik
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443825263
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines spatial language in sign languages (Turkish Sign Language, Croatian Sign Language, American Sign Language, and Austrian Sign Language) and spoken languages (Turkish, English, and Croatian). The book presents a novel model, the Crossmodal Spatial Language, to account for similarities and differences in these languages. The model, which consists of Spatial Representations, Reference Frames, Temporal Representations, Conceptual Structure, and Linguistic Representations, shows that the features from spatial input are not necessarily mapped on the spatial descriptions regardless of modality and language. The book reports several studies to examine the descriptions of static and dynamic spatial scenes which involve, among others, spatial relationals such as left-right, front-back, besides, in, on, to, toward, pass by, away, and cause to move. The findings suggest that language users construct a spatial relation between the objects in a given time, employ a reference frame, which may not be encoded in the message, and use the same conceptual structure consisted of BE-AT for static spatial situations and GO-BE-AT for static dynamic situations.

Space in Languages of China

Space in Languages of China PDF Author: Dan Xu
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402083211
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Space has long been a popular topic in linguistic research. Numerous books on the subject have been published over the past decade. However, none of these books were based on linguistic data from Chinese and expressions of space in Chinese have been largely neglected in past research. In this volume, not only Mandarin Chinese (the standard language) is investigated; several other dialects, as well as a minority language of China and Chinese Sign Language are studied. Cross-linguistic, synchronic and diachronic approaches are used to investigate phenomena related to space. The authors of this book present different points of view on the expression of space in language and related theoretical issues. As the contributing scholars argue, Chinese shares many common features with other languages, but also presents some particular properties. Space is a topic that is both classical and modern, of enduring interest. These studies of space give insight into not only general linguistics but also other domains such as anthropology and psychology.

Language and Space

Language and Space PDF Author: Paul Bloom
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262522663
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
The 15 essays in this volume bring together research and theoretical viewpoints in the areas of psychology, linguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience, presenting a synthesis across these diverse domains. Throughout, authors address and debate each others arguments and theories.

Space in Languages

Space in Languages PDF Author: Maya Hickmann
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027293554
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
Space is presently the focus of much research and debate across disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. One strong feature of this collection is to bring together theoretical and empirical contributions from these varied scientific traditions, with the collective aim of addressing fundamental questions at the forefront of the current literature: the nature of space in language, the linguistic relativity of space, the relation between spatial language and cognition. Linguistic analyses highlight the multidimensional and heterogeneous nature of space, while also showing the existence of a set of types, parameters, and principles organizing the considerable diversity of linguistic systems and accounting for mechanisms of diachronic change. Findings concerning spatial perception and cognition suggest the existence of two distinct systems governing linguistic and non-linguistic representations, that only partially overlap in some pathologies, but they also show the strong impact of language-specific factors on the course of language acquisition and cognitive development.

The Grammar of Space

The Grammar of Space PDF Author: Soteria Svorou
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027229112
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
A cross-linguistic study of grammatical morphemes expressing spatial relationships that discusses the relationship between the way human beings experience space and the way it is encoded grammatically in language. The discussion of the similarities and differences among languages in the encoding and expression of spatial relations centers around the emergence and evolution of spatial grams, and the semantic and morphosyntactic characteristics of two types of spatial grams. The author bases her observations on the study of data from 26 genetically unrelated and randomly selected languages. It is shown that languages are similar in the way spatial grams emerge and evolve, and also in the way specific types of spatial grams are used to express not only spatial but also temporal and other non-spatial relations. Motivation for these similarities may lie in the way we, as human beings, experience the world, which is constrained by our physical configuration and neurophysiological apparatus, as well as our individual cultures.

Grammars of Space

Grammars of Space PDF Author: Stephen C. Levinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139458396
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 553

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Book Description
Spatial language - that is, the way languages structure the spatial domain – is an important area of research, offering insights into one of the most central areas of human cognition. In this collection, a team of leading scholars review the spatial domain across a wide variety of languages. Contrary to existing assumptions, they show that there is great variation in the way space is conceptually structured across languages, thus substantiating the controversial question of how far the foundations of human cognition are innate. Grammars of Space is a supplement to the psychological information provided in its companion volume, Space in Language and Cognition. It represents a new kind of work in linguistics, 'Semantic Typology', which asks what are the semantic parameters used to structure particular semantic fields. Comprehensive and informative, it will be essential reading for those working on comparative linguistics, spatial cognition, and the interface between them.

Space in Language and Cognition

Space in Language and Cognition PDF Author: Stephen C. Levinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521011969
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
Languages differ in how they describe space, and such differences between languages can be used to explore the relation between language and thought. This 2003 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 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.

Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time

Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time PDF Author: Johanna Nichols
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226580579
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
Some structural features of languages predict others, some remain unchanged in daughter languages, others have an areal consistency; in establishing typologically, historically and geographically stable features in the worlds languages, examples are included from Kayardild, Djingili, Dyirbal, Mangarayi, Maung, Ngiyambaa.

Motion and Space across Languages

Motion and Space across Languages PDF Author: Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027265364
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
This volume offers a unique combination of interdisciplinary research and a comprehensive overview of motion and space studies from a semantic typological perspective. The chapters present cutting-edge research covering central topics such as the status of semantic components in motion event descriptions and their role in typological variation, the function of linguistic multimodal structures for the codification of motion, the diachronic evolution of motion expressions and its effects on motion typologies, the correspondences between physical and non-physical (fictive, metaphorical) motion, and the impact of contexts and genres on the characterization and interpretation of motion events. These issues are examined from a theoretical and applied linguistic perspective (L1–L2 acquisition, translation/interpreting). The analyses make use of diachronic and synchronic data collected by a range of methods (elicitation, experimentation, and corpus research) in more than fifteen languages. All in all, this book will be of great value to scholars and students interested in the expression of motion and space across languages.

Children's Discourse

Children's Discourse PDF Author: Maya Hickmann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139435140
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
This comparative study explores two central questions in the study of first language acquisition: What is the relative impact of structural and functional determinants? What is universal versus language-specific during development? Maya Hickmann addresses these questions in three domains of child language: reference to entities, the representation of space, and uses of temporal-aspectual markings. She provides a thorough review of different theoretical approaches to language acquisition and a wide range of developmental research, as well as examining all three domains in English, French, German and Chinese narratives. Hickmann's findings concern the rhythm of acquisition, the interplay among different factors (syntactic, semantic, pragmatic) determining children's uses, and universal versus variable aspects of acquisition. Her conclusions stress the importance of relating sentence and discourse determinants of acquisition in a crosslinguistic perspective. Children's Discourse will be welcomed by those working in psychology and language-related disciplines interested in first language acquisition.