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Spatial Semantics, Cognition, and Their Interaction: A Comparative Study of Spatial Categorization in English and
Hongoak Yun1, Soonja Choi2,3
1Department of English Language and Literature, Jeju National University.
English and Korean categorize spatial relations differently, with English focusing on containment/support and Korean on tight-fit/loose-fit. This linguistic difference influences nonlinguistic spatial cognition.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Spatial language and cognition are frequently compared across languages.
- English and Korean represent key linguistic systems for cross-linguistic analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide empirical linguistic data on spatial semantic systems in English and Korean.
- To compare linguistic categorization with nonlinguistic spatial cognition findings.
- To investigate the influence of language on spatial cognition.
Main Methods:
- Systematic linguistic analysis of spatial semantic systems (tight-fit, loose-fit, containment, support).
- Cross-linguistic comparison of English and Korean categorization patterns.
- Testing linguistic predictions against nonlinguistic categorization data (Choi & Hattrup, 2012).
Main Results:
- English primarily uses prepositions for containment/support; Korean uses verbs for tight-fit/loose-fit.
- Cross-linguistic commonalities and differences in spatial feature salience were identified.
- Strong convergence between linguistic analysis and nonlinguistic categorization supports language's influence on cognition.
Conclusions:
- Language significantly influences nonlinguistic spatial categorization.
- Specific roles of language and spatial cognition in categorization were elucidated.
- Interaction and independence between linguistic and cognitive systems were observed.
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