Representing Direction in Language and Space [Paperback]

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).

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

Emile van der Zee is senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Lincoln. Hisló'