Processes unfold, participants exist, and now we examine where phenomena occur. Spatial construal is not a neutral mapping of coordinates; it is the horizon in which experience is anchored. Different languages pattern this horizon differently, creating distinct cognitive affordances for perception, navigation, and narrative perspective.
1. Egocentric vs. geocentric reference
-
English: egocentric — spatial relations are relative to the speaker (left, behind, in front).
-
Speakers habitually anchor attention to their own perspective.
-
-
Guugu Yimithirr: strictly geocentric — all directions are cardinal (north, south, east, west).
-
Attention is habitually anchored to the environment, decentering the self.
-
-
Tzeltal: combines geocentric and topological frames; speakers track orientation, uphill/downhill, and trajectory.
Cognitive payoff: Frame of reference shapes how speakers perceive, encode, and reason about spatial relations.
2. Perceptual accessibility and visibility
-
Japanese and Korean: spatial distinctions encode not just distance but visibility and attentional salience.
-
Speakers habitually monitor what is perceptually accessible, influencing attention and discourse reference.
Insight: Spatial construal integrates perception and cognition, highlighting what is present, visible, or salient.
3. Event integration in space
-
ASL: signing space encodes participants, movement, and process simultaneously.
-
Events are multi-dimensional and co-actualised.
-
-
Speakers attend to spatial relations as part of event structure, not merely as background.
Cognitive payoff: Space becomes an active medium for representing and reasoning about dynamic relations.
4. Spatial construal and narrative perspective
-
English: narratives often anchor scenes relative to the narrator’s position.
-
Guugu Yimithirr: narratives emphasize environmental continuity and absolute spatial orientation.
-
Tzeltal: narratives foreground relational positioning and trajectories relative to environmental axes.
-
ASL: narratives encode multiple participants and events simultaneously in signing space.
Takeaway: Spatial construal shapes narrative horizon, attention deployment, and the mental simulation of events.
5. Concluding Reflection
Languages pattern how space is perceived, organized, and integrated with events. Habitual use of these spatial patterns:
-
Tunes attention to perspective, location, and relational configuration
-
Shapes memory of environmental layouts and trajectories
-
Informs expectation of event positioning and movement
-
Opens distinct narrative and cognitive horizons
Spatial construal is thus a cognitive horizon of location, structuring experience as much as any other domain of construal.
No comments:
Post a Comment