Grammars of Space Explorations in Cognitive Diversity

Spatial language - that is, the way in which languages structure the spatial domain - is an important area of current research, offering new insights into one of the most central areas of human cognition. In this pioneering collection, a team of leading linguists and psychologists 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.

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.

List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Preface; 1. The background to the study of the language of space Stephen C. Levinson and David P. Wilkins; 2. Towards an Arrernte grammar of space David P. Wilkins; 3. Sketch of a Jaminjung grammar of space Eva Schultze-Berndt; 4. Prolegomenon to a Warrwa grammar of space William B. McGregor; 5. The language of space in Yélî Dnye Stephen C. Levinson; 6. Prolegomena to a Kilivila grammar of space Gunter Senft; 7. A sketch of the grammar of space in Tzeltal Penelope Brown; 8. Spatial reference in Yukatek Maya: a survey Jürgen Bohnemeyer and Christel Stolz; 9. Approaching space in Tiriyó grammar Sérgio Meira; 10. Elements of the grammar of space in Ewe Felix K. Ameka and James Essegbey; 11. Spatial language in Tamil Eric Pederson; 12. A grammar of space in Japanese Sotaro Kita; 13. Some properties of spatial description in Dutch Miriam van Staden, Melissa Bowerman and Mariet Verhelst; 14. Patterns in the data: towards a semantic typology of spatial description Stephen C. Levinson and David P. Wilkins; Appendices; References; Author index; Language/language family index; Subject index.

In this collection, a team of leading linguists and psychologists look at how the spatial domain is structured in language. Drawing on data from a wide range of languages, they uncover considerable cross-linguistic variation across this central domain, adding to debates about the innate foundations of human cognition.

Stephen C. Levinson is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, and Professor of comparative linguistics at Radboud University, Nijmegen.
David Wilkins is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech and Communication Studies at San Francisco State University, and a research scientist in the Center for Aphasia and Related Disorders, VANCHCS Martinez, California.