Cover 1
Half-title 3
Series-title 5
Title 7
Copyright 8
Dedication 9
Contents 11
Figures 13
Tables 16
Preface 19
Acknowledgements 23
COMPANION BOOKS 25
CHAPTER 1 The intellectual backround: two millennia of Western ideas about spatial thinking 27
1.1 THE GREAT EYE OPENER \u2013 DIFFERENCES IN SPATIAL RECKONING 30
1.2 IDEAS ABOUT SPATIAL COGNITION IN THE WESTERN TRADITION 32
1.2.1 Place and space, absolute and relative, in Western philosophy 32
1.2.2 The anthropocentric bias 35
1.2.3 Nativism and linguistic diversity 40
1.2.4 The centrality of spatial thinking in human psychology 42
1 .3 SYNOPSIS 44
1 .4 CONCLUSIONS 48
CHAPTER 2 Frames of reference 50
2 .1 THE CONCEPT OF A SPATIAL FRAME OF REFERENCE 50
2.2 \u2018FRAMES OF REFERENCE\u2019 ACROSS MODALITIES AND THE DISCIPLINES THAT STUDY THEM 51
2.3 LINGUISTIC FRAMES OF REFERENCE IN CROSS-LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE 60
2.3.1 The three linguistic frames of reference 64
2.3.1.1 Intrinsic frame of reference 67
2.3.1.2 Relative frame of reference 69
2.3.1.3 Absolute frame of reference 73
2.3.2 The \u2018logical structure\u2019 of the three frames of reference 76
2.3.3 Realigning frames of reference across is disciplines and modalities 79
2.4 MOLYNEUX\u2019S QUESTION 82
CHAPTER 3 Linguistic diversity 88
3 .1 AN OVERVIEW OF SPATIAL LANGUAGE 88
3.2 CONCEPTUAL DOMAINS UNDERLYING THE LANGUAGE OF SPACE 90
3.3 SOLUTIONS TO PLACE SPECIFICATION NOT INVOLVING FRAMES OF REFERENCE OR COORDINATE SYSTEMS 95
3.3.1 Placenames 95
3.3.2 Deictic systems 95
3.3.3 Topology 97
3.4 SOLUTIONS TO LOCATION DESCRIPTION UTILIZING FRAMES OF REFERENCE OR COORDINATE SYSTEMS 100
3.4.1 The vertical dimension 101
3.4.2 The horizontal plane 102
3.4.2.1 Intrinsic systems \u2013 towards a typologY 102
3.4.2.2 The relative frame of reference and its subtypes 110
3.4.2.3 The absolute frame of reference 116
3.4.3 The distribution of frames of reference in languages 118
3.5 MOTION 121
3.6 THE GRAMMAR OF SPACE: PATTERNS OF LINGUISTIC CODING 124
3 .7 CONCLUSIONS 136
CHAPTER 4 Absolute minds: glimpses into two cultures 138
4.1 GUUGU YIMITHIRR SPEAKERS OF HOPEVALE 139
4.1.1 Guugu Yimithirr communication about space 141
4.1.1.1 Guugu Yimithirr spatial description: the linguistic resources 141
4.1.1.2 The communicative use of cardinal direction information 147
4.1.2 The hypothesis of non-linguistic consequences 149
4.1.2.1 The essential prerequisite: orientation and mental maps 150
4.1.2.2 The non-linguistic coding of spatial scenes in memory and inference 156
4.2 TZELTAL SPEAKERS OF TENEJAPA 172
4.2.1 Background 172
4.2.2 Informal investigations of Tenejapan \u2018cognitive style\u2019 177
4.2.3 Non-verbal memory and inference 180
4.2.3.1 Recall memory: the \u2018animals\u2019 task 183
4.2.3.2 Recognition memory: the \u2018chips\u2019 task 185
4.2.3.3 Motion-to-path transformation and recognition memory \u2018Eric\u2019s maze\u2019 task 186
4.2.3.4 Transitive inference 188
4.2.3.5 Discussion of the Tenejapan experiments 193
4 3 CONCLUSIONS 194
CHAPTER 5 Diversity in mind: methods and results from a cross-linguistic sample 196
5 .1 LINGUISTIC INFLUENCES ON THINKING: TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS 196
5.2 METHODS 199
5.2.1 Methodological preliminaries 199
5.2.2 The gradient of spatial orientation 200
5.2.2.1 Properties of the gradient measure 202
5.3 OVERALL TEST OF THE CODING DIFFERENCE HYPOTHESIS 204
5.3.1 Situation-specific typing: performance across matched linguistic and non-linguistic tasks 206
5.3.2 The cross-situation prediction: from linguistic coding tendency to non-verbal coding 207
5.3.2.1 The populations 209
5.3.2.2 Procedure 209
5.3.2.3 Results 210
5.3.3 Pairwise comparisons between samples 212
5.3.3.1 Procedure 212
5.3.3.2 Results 213
5.4 LINGUISTIC VS. ECOLOGICAL/CULTURAL DETERMINISM: DIFFERENT SUBSAMPLES FROM THE SAME REGION 214
5.4.1 Two Tamil-speaking populations 215
5.4.1.1 Results 215
5.4.2 Central Australia: Arrernte and English seakers 217
5.4.2.1 Results 217
5 .5 OTHER POSSIBLE DETERMINANTS OF NON-VERBAL CODING STRATEGY: GENDER, LITERACY AND CULTURAL CONSERVATISM 219
5.5.1 Gender 219
5.5.2 Literacy 220
5.5.3 Age, schooling and conservatism: indices of cultural change 222
5.5.4 Summary of the effects of intra-sample variables 223
5.6 ANOTHER POSSIBLE CONFOUND? THE \u2018BIG OUTDOORS\u2019 AND THE RELEVANCE OF LANDMARKS 223
5.6.1 The 180-degree \u2018absolute duck\u2019 conditions 227
5.6.1.1 Method 227
5.6.1.2 Result 228
5.6.1.3 Discussion 228
5.6.1.4 Method 229
5.6.1.5 Results 229
5 .7 A POSITIVE TEST OF LINGUISTIC DETERMINISM: THE CASE OF THE TZELTAL DEFECTIVE AXES 232
5.8 CORRELATION AND CAUSATION: CHICKEN OR EGG? 236
5.9 CONCLUSIONS 239
CHAPTER 6 Beyond language: frames of reference in wayfinding and pointing 242
6 .1 THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE IN EVERYDAY HUMAN NAVIGATION 242
6.1.1 The nature of wayfinding abilities 242
6.1.2 The fall from grace: why are we such bad wayfinders? 246
6.1.3 Linguistic representations and human navigation 249
6.1.4 Dead reckoning abilities in relative vs. absolute communities 251
6.1.4.1 Three \u2018absolute\u2019 communities 253
6.1.4.2 Two \u2018relative\u2019 communities 264
6.1.4.3 Conclusions to dead reckoning experiments 267
6.2 GESTURE DURING SPEAKING: \u2018DEAD RECKONING\u2019 ON THE FLY 270
6.2.1 The general picture from experiment and observation 271
6.2.2 Distinctive properties of absolute gesture systems 273
6.2.2.1 The semiotics 275
6.2.2.2 Gesture morphology in absolute vs. relative gesture systems 277
6.2.3 Absolute gesture as an interactive system 288
6.2.4 Summary: absolute vs. relative gesture systems 290
6.2.5 Deixis and absolute gestures 292
6.3 DIFFERENT KINDS OF MENTAL MAPS 297
6.4 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 304
CHAPTER 7 Language and thought 306
7.1 TURTLE ALL THE WAY DOWN: MEMES AND MIND 306
7.2 THE RELATION BETWEEN LINGUISTIC AND CONCEPTUAL CATEGORIES 317
7.3 NEO-WHORFINANISM 327
7.4 THE ACQUISITION OF LINGUISTIC FRAMES OF REFERENCE BY CHILDREN 333
7.5 UNIVERSALS VS. CULTURAL SPECIALIZATIONS 341
7.6 INNATE IDEAS VS. CO-EVOLUTION AND BIASES: OR HOW WE LOST OUR MENTAL COMPASS 342
Notes 352
1 THE INTELLECTUAL BACK ROUND: TWO MILLENNIA OF WESTERN IDEAS ABOUT SPATIAL THINKING 352
2 FRAMES OF REFERENCE 353
3 LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY 359
4 ABSOLUTE MINDS: GLIMPSES INTO TWO CULTURES 361
5 DIVERSITY IN MIND: METHODS AND RESULTS FROM A CROSS-LINGUISTIC SAMPLE 365
6 BEYOND LANGUAGE: FRAMES OF REFERENCE IN WAYFINDING AND POINTING 367
7 LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT 373
References 374
Language index 394
Author index 396
Subject index 401