Last update:
2 September 2010
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Space in LanguagesLinguistic Systems and Cognitive Categories
2006. x, 362 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Hardbound
– In stock
978 90 272 2977 9 / EUR 120.00 / USD 180.00
Paperback
– In stock
e-Book
– Available from e-book platforms
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.
Table of contents
“This book is a welcome addition to the typology series. It is likely to appeal to linguists and to psychologists with a strong interest in linguistics, cross-linguistic studies, or the Whorf hypothesis [...] the book is worthwhile and contains considerable discussion of linguistic diversity that should figure into psychological theories of language.”
David W. Carroll, in PsycCRITIQUES Vol. 52(13), 2007
“This volume is a new contribution to the field of spatial language and those interested in space and language will find fresh ideas in this book.”
“The wealth of scholarship contained in each chapter of this insightful book cannot be expressed within the space limits of my review. The topic of space has been highlighted from many different perspectives which together offer a panoramic view and at the same time a fine-grained treatment of space in many languages and from many theoretical persuasions. The scientific value and the in-depth lines of argumentation of the contributions are impressive. The three sections of the volume investigate many aspects of the phenomena under scrutiny and the proposals stemming from each section overlap among them, thus contributing to interdisciplinarity and offering the readers a multi-faceted picture of space. This is an excellent book which I strongly recommend to everyone with an interest in understanding how the notion of space interacts with language and cognition.”
Subject classification |
Linguistics