Spatial Language and Spatial Cognition
Kenny Coventry
Cognition and Communication Research Centre,
Overview
Being able
to find objects in the world is one of the most basic survival skills required
by any living organism. Similarly, being able to describe where objects are,
and being able to find objects based on simple locative descriptions can be
regarded as a basic skill for any competent speaker of a language. Understanding
how one uses spatial language poses a real challenge for cognitive science. Not
only does one have to understand how spatial language is organised within a
language, but one also has to understand how language and perceptual
representations of the world 'hook up'.
In this course we
consider how the mapping between spatial language and perception is achieved.
We survey a range of recent approaches, spanning linguistic, experimental,
cross-linguistic, neuropsychological and computational modelling methodologies.
The endpoint of the course will be to show how these varied approaches in
combination offer a revealing picture of how language and perception support
each other to mutual advantage.
Schedule
Lecture 1: Spatial language in context
We consider
how linguists have approached spatial language historically.
Core References
Herskovits, A. (1986). Language and spatial cognition: An
interdisciplinary study of the prepositions in English.
Landau, B., & Jackendoff, R.
(1993). ‘What’ and ‘where’ in spatial language and cognition. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 16,
217-265.
Lecture 2: Grounding language in perception
We examine
the perceptual primitives associated with spatial language, and the mapping
between language and these perceptual representations.
Core
References
Zwaan, R. A. (2004). The immersed experiencer: Toward an embodied
theory of language comprehension. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol. 44.
Lecture 3: Modelling spatial language
How is the
mapping between spatial language and perceptual representation achieved in
computational models?
Core
References
Gorniak, P., & Roy, D. (2004). Grounded Semantic Composition for Visual Scenes. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, Volume 21, pages 429-470.
Regier, T., & Carlson, L. A.
(2001). Grounding spatial language in perception: An empirical and
computational investigation. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 273-298.
Lecture 4: Spatial
Language and Thinking for Speaking
Languages
‘carve up’ spatial relations in many different ways. Does language affect
thinking?
Core
References
McDonough, L., Choi, S., &
Mandler, J. M. (2003). Understanding spatial relations: Flexible infants,
lexical adults. Cognitive Psychology, 46,
229-259.
Munnich, E., Landau, B., & Dosher, B. A. (2001). Spatial language and spatial representation: A cross-linguistic comparison. Cognition, 81, 171-207.
Pederson, E., Danziger, E., Wilkins, D., Levinson, S., Kita, S., & Senft, G. (1998). Semantic typology and spatial conceptualisation. Language, 74(3), 557-589.
Lecture 5: The neural correlates of spatial language [download presentation]
How is spatial language processing performed in the brain?
Core References
Damasio, H., Grabowski, T. J., Tranel, D., Ponto, L. L. B., Hichwa, R. D., & Damasio, A. D. (2001). Neural correlates of naming actions and of naming relations. NeuroImage, 13, 1053-1064.
Kemmerer, D. (in press). The semantics of space: integrating linguistic typology and cognitive neuroscience. Neuropsychologia.
Pulvermüller, F., Lutzenberger, W., & Preissl, H. (1999). Nouns and verbs in the intact brain; evidence from event-related potentials and high-frequency cortical responses. Cerebral Cortex, Vol. 9, No. 5, 497-506,
Assessment
Students who take
the course for credit will be asked to write a brief (5-7 page) paper that
critical reviews one or more of the articles read in class, or to comment on
other work that is related to the issues discussed in the class.
Kenny Coventry
Professor
Kenny Coventry is director of the Cognition and Communication Research Centre
in the