Language, cognition, and space

Language, cognition, and space: The state of the art and new directions. Ed. by Vyvyan Evans and Paul Chilton. (Advances in cognitive linguistics.) London: Equinox, 2010. Pp. iii, 519. ISBN 9781845535018. $68.

Reviewed by Melanie McComsey, University of California, San Diego

This book comes at a time of renewed interest in Benjamin Lee Whorf’s linguistic relativity hypothesis within the language sciences. It explores the relationship between linguistic variation and non-linguistic cognition via the semantic domain of space.

Following Paul Chilton’s brief introduction comes Part 1, ‘Perception and space’, consisting of Vyvyan Evans’ chapter ‘The perceptual basis of spatial representation’, which grounds spatial conceptualization, and indeed the book itself, in human biological systems.

Part 2, ‘The interaction between language and spatial cognition’, takes on linguistic relativity. In ‘Language and space: Momentary interactions’, Barbara Landau, Banchiamlack Dessalegn, and Ariel Micah Goldberg seek middle ground in the relativity debate, arguing that language affects spatial cognition online but not permanently. ‘Language and inner space’, by Benjamin Bergen, Carl Polley, and Kathryn Wheeler, reveals the surprising relationship between neurocognitive mechanisms for understanding spatial language and for perceiving space itself.

The chapters in Part 3, ‘Typological, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic approaches to spatial representation’, each feature one of those three methodologies. ‘Inside in and on: Typological and psycholinguistic perspectives’ by Michele Feist, ‘Parsing space around objects’ by Laura Carlson, and ‘A neuroscientific perspective on the linguistic encoding of categorical spatial relations’ by David Kemmerer each model the value of cross-disciplinary approaches to space and language.

Part 4, ‘Theoretical approaches to spatial representation in language’, advances several innovative theories each taking prepositions as inspiration. In ‘Genesis of spatial terms’, Claude Vandeloise explores processes of lexical formation, while ‘Forceful Prepositions’ by Joost Zwarts brings together the spatial domain and force-dynamics through the notion of vector. Evans’ chapter, ‘From the spatial to the non-spatial: The “State” lexical concepts of in, on and at’, refines an earlier theory to account for polysemy as an outcome of situated language use.

Parts 5 and 6 offer rich descriptive evidence for how spatial language and concepts are deployed in spoken language, signed language, and gesture. These chapters include ‘Static topological relations in Basque’ by Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano; ‘Taking the principled polysemy model of spatial particles beyond English: The case of Russian za’ by Darya Shakhova and Andrea Tyler; ‘Frames of reference, effects of motion, and lexical meanings of Japanese front/back terms’ by Kazuko Shinohara and Yoshihiro Matsunaka; ‘How spoken language and signed language structure space differently’ by Leonard Talmy; and ‘Geometric and image-schematic patterns in gesture space’ by Irene Mittelberg.

Part 7 transitions from static location to the domain of motion with two pieces offering modifications of Leonard Talmy’s classic typology. In ‘Translocation, language and the categorization of experience’, Jordan Zlatev, Johan Blomberg, and Caroline David propose a typology of ‘motion situations’ based on human experience. In ‘Motion: A conceptual typology’, Stéphanie Pourcel’s typology is based on ‘language-neutral’ conceptual categories.

Part 8, ‘The relation between space, time and modality’, is comprised of Daniel Casasanto’s ‘Space for thinking’, Jörg Zinken’s ‘Temporal frames of reference’, and Chilton’s ‘From mind to grammar: Coordinate systems, prepositions, constructions’. These chapters consider the relevance of space in metaphor and non-spatial domains.

This ambitious project reveals extraordinary breadth, showcasing the truly interdisciplinary nature of current research on space and language. The book features scholars both well established and from a new generation, and heralds exciting new directions for this burgeoning area of study.