Abstract
Within psycholinguistics, the dimensional conception of space is described through a variety of theoretical constructs, e.g., frames of reference, perspectives, strategies, and patterns. The objective of this paper is to introduce a uniform classification of the alternatives of dimensionally conceiving of object relations, derived from the functional and morphological asymmetries of the human body which define an anthropomorphous Origo, and from our ability to mentally project the Origo into positions and orientations other than we actually occupy. Particularly, the conception of dimensional relations on the first horizontal line is explained through the principle of perceptual accessibility of objects; this allows for the uniform treatment of (almost) all conceptual alternatives from basic psychological principles. Finally, some implications of this anthropomorphological view for the human cognition of dimensional relations are discussed and underpinned with empirical results.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abkarian, G.G. (1982). Comprehension of Deictic Locatives: The Object “Behind” It, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 11: 229–245.
Ameka, F.K. (1995). The Linguistic Construction of Space in Ewe, Cognitive Linguistics 6: 139–181.
Brown, P. (1994). The INs and ONs of Tzeltal Locative Expressions: The Semantics of Static Descriptions of Location, Linguistics 32: 743–790.
Brugman, C. (1981). The Story of Over. Unpublished thesis, University of California, Berkeley.
Bryant, D.J., Tversky, B. and Franklin, N. (1992). Internal and External Spatial Frameworks for Representing Described Scenes, Journal of Memory and Language 31: 74–98.
Bühler, K. (1934). Sprachtheorie: Die Darstellungsfunktion der Sprache. Jena: Fischer.
Carlson-Radvansky, L.A. and Irwin, D.E. (1993). Frames of Reference in Vision and Language: Where is Above? Cognition 46: 223–244.
Clark, H.H. (1973). Space, Time, Semantics, and the Child. In T.E. Moore (ed.), Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language. New York: Academic Press, pp. 27–63.
Cox, M.V. and Isard, S. (1990). Children's Deictic and Nondeictic Interpretations of the Spatial Locatives ‘in Front of’ and ‘Behind’, Journal of Child Language 17: 481–488.
Ehrich, K. and Koster, C. (1983). Discourse Organization and Sentence Form: The Structure of Room Descriptions in Dutch, Discourse Processes 6: 169–195.
Fillmore, Ch. J. (1971). Toward a Theory of Deixis, Working Papers in Linguistics 3: 219–242.
Franklin, N. and Tversky, B. (1990). Searching Imagined Environments, Journal of Experimental Psychology 119: 63–76.
Grabowski, J. (1999). Raumrelationen. Kognitive Auffassung und sprachlicher Ausdruck. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag.
Grabowski, J. and Miller, G.A. (2000). Factors Affecting the Use of Spatial Prepositions in German and American English: Object Orientation, Social Context, and Prepositional Patterns, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 29: 517–553.
Grabowski, J. and Weiß, P. (1996). The Prepositional Inventory of Languages: A Factor that Affects Comprehension of Spatial Prepositions, Language Sciences 18: 19–35.
Herrmann, Th. (1989). Sprachpsychologische Beiträge zur Partnerbezogenheit des Sprechens. In H. Scherer (Hrsg.), Sprache in Situation. Eine Zwischenbilanz. Bonn: Romanistischer Verlag, pp. 179–204.
Herrmann, Th., Bürkle B. and Nirmaier, H. (1987). Zur hörerbezogenen Raumreferenz: Hörerposition und Lokalisationsaufwand, Sprache & Kognition 6: 126–137.
Herrmann, Th. and Grabowski, J. (1994). Sprechen – Psychologie der Sprachproduktion. Heidelberg: Spektrum Akademischer Verlag.
Herrmann, Th. and Grabowski, J. (1998). Cross-Linguistic Differences in the Use of Dimen-sional Prepositionss. In D. Hillert (Hrsg.), Sentence Processing: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective (Syntax and Semantics, vol. 31). San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 265–291.
Herskovits, A. (1986). Language and Spatial Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hill, C.A. (1982). Up/Down, Front/Back, Left/Right. A Contrastive Study of Hausa and English. In J. Weissenborn and W. Klein (eds.), Here and There. Cross-Linguistic Studies on Deixis and Demonstration. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 13–42.
Hottenroth, P.-M. (1993). Prepositions and Object Concepts: A Contribution to Cognitive Semantics. In C. Zelinsky-Wibbelt (ed.), The Semantics of Prepositions. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 179–220.
Landau, B. and Jackendoff, R.S. (1993). “What” and “Where” in Spatial Language and Spatial Cognition, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16: 217–265.
Lang, E. (1993). The Meaning of German Projective Prepositions: A Two-Level Approach. In C. Zelinsky-WibbeltS (ed.), The Semantics of Prepositions. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 249–294.
Levelt, W.J.M. (1982). Cognitive Styles in the Use of Spatial Direction Terms. In R.J. Jarvella and W. Klein (eds.), Speech, Place and Action. Studies in Deixis and Related Topics. Chichester: Wileys, pp. 251–268.
Levelt, W.J.M. (1984). Some Perceptual Limitations on Talking about Space. In A.J. van Doorn, W.A. van de Grind and J.J. Koenderink (eds.), Limits in Perception. Essays in Honour of Maarten A. Bouman. Utrecht: VNU Science Press, pp. 323–358.
Levelt, W.J.M. (1996). Perspective Taking and Ellipsis in Spatial Descriptions. In P. Bloom, M. Peterson, L. Nadel and M. Garretts (eds.), Language and Space. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 77–107.
Levinson, S.C. (1996). Frames of Reference and Molyneux's Question: Crosslinguistic Evidence. In P. Bloom, M. Peterson, L. Nadel and M. Garrett (eds.), Language and Space. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 109–169.
Miller, G.A. and Johnson-Laird, Ph.N. (1976). Language and Perception. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Retz-Schmidt, G. (1988). Various Views on Spatial Prepositions, AI Magazine 9: 95–105.
Shepard, R.N. and Cooper, L.A. (1982). Mental Images and Their Transformations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Stern, W. (1936). Raum und Zeit als personale Dimensionen, Acta Psychologica 1: 220–232.
Svorou, S. (1994). The Grammar of Space. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Talmy, L. (1983). How Language Structures Space. In H.L. Pick and L.P. Acredolo (eds.), Spatial Orientation. Theory, Research, and Application. New York: Plenum Press, pp. 225–282.
Tanz, Ch. (1980). Studies in the Acquisition of Deictic Terms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Tversky, B. (1996). Spatial Perspective in Descriptions. In P. Bloom, M. Peterson, L. Nadel and M. Garrett (eds.), Language and Space. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 463–491.
Tversky, B. and Lee, P.U. (1998). How Space Structures Language. In Ch. Freksa, Ch. Habel and K.F. Wender (eds.), Spatial Cognition. Berlin: Springer, pp. 157–175.
Vandeloise, C. (1985). Description of Space in French (Series A, Paper No. 150). University of Duisburg: Linguistic Agency.
Wunderlich, D. (1981). Linguistic Strategies. In F. Coulmas (ed.), A Festschrift for Native Speaker. Den Haag: Mouton, pp. 279–296.
Wunderlich, D. and Herweg, M. (1991). Lokale und Direktionale. In A. von Stechow and D. Wunderlich (eds.), Semantics. An International Handbook of Contemporary Research. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 758–785.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Grabowski, J. A uniform anthropomorphological approach to the human conception of dimensional relations. Spatial Cognition and Computation 1, 349–363 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010031428440
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010031428440