Author Description

The study of the relationship between natural language and spatial cognition has the potential to yield answers to vexing questions about the nature of the mind, language, and culture. The fifteen original contributions in Language and Space bring together the major lines of research and the most important theoretical viewpoints in the areas of psychology, linguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience, providing a much-needed synthesis across these diverse domains. Chapters address such questions as: How does the brain represent space? How many kinds of spatial representations are there? How do we learn to talk about space and what role does culture play in these matters? and Should experimental tests of the relations between space and language be restricted to closed-class linguistic elements or must the role of open-class elements be considered as well? Throughout, the authors address areas of agreement and disagreement.