Variation in spatial language and cognition: exploring visuo-spatial thinking and speaking cross-linguistically.
Languages differ strikingly in how they encode spatial information. This variability is realized with spatial semantic elements mapped across languages in very different ways onto lexical/syntactic structures. For example, satellite-framed languages (e.g., English) express MANNER:  in the verb and PATH:  in satellites, while verb-framed languages (e.g., French) lexicalize PATH:  in the verb, leaving MANNER:  implicit or peripheral. Some languages are harder to classify into these categories, rather presenting equipollently                         framed systems, such as Chinese (serial-verb constructions) or Greek (parallel verb- and satellite-framed structures in equally frequent contexts). Such properties seem to have implications not only on the formulation/articulation levels, but also on the conceptualization level, thereby reviving questions concerning the language-thought interface. The present study investigates the relative impact of language-independent and language-specific factors on spatial representations across three typologically different languages (English-French-Greek) combining a variety of complementary tasks (production, non-verbal, and verbal categorization). The findings show that typological properties of languages can have an impact on both linguistic and non-linguistic organization of spatial information, open new perspectives for the investigation of conceptualization, and contribute more generally to the debate concerning the universal and language-specific dimensions of cognition.
Laboratoire Structures Formelles du Langage, CNRS and University of Paris 8, 5 rue Pouchet, Paris, 75017, France. eva.soroli@sfl.cnrs.fr
Efstathia
E
Soroli
D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult