Language and Space

by Paul Bloom (Editor)

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.

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.

Each chapter gives a clear up-to-date account of a particular research program. Overall, they 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, 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 authors speak to each other's arguments, laying bare key areas of agreement and disagreement.

Contributors
Manfred Bierwisch, Paul Bloom, Melissa Bowerman, Karen Emmorey, Merrill Garrett, Ray Jackendoff, Philip Johnson-Laird, Barbara Landau, Willem Levelt, Stephen Levinson, Gordon Logan, Jean Mandler, Lynn Nadel, John O'Keefe, Mary Peterson, Daniel Sadler, Tim Shallice, Len Talmy, Barbara Tversky

Genres: Linguistics

616 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 1996

About the author

Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has published more than a hundred scientific articles in journals such as Science and Nature, and his popular writing has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Slate, Natural History, and many other publications. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. His newest book--Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil--is coming out in November. Paul Bloom lives in New Haven with his wife and two sons.