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Updated: Aug 13, 2025

The Spatial Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
Choice of Mandarin Spatial Demonstratives in Distant Interaction
1Department of Linguistics, Zhejiang University, Room 205, Bldg East5B, Zijingang Campus, Hangzhou, 310058, China. yueming@zju.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Scholars are divided on whether the Speaker's (S') choice of spatial demonstratives in verbal interaction is ego-centric or not. We studied the choice of "zhe (here)/ na (there)" by a Mandarin S instructing Hearer (H) from a few to dozens of meters. Using within-group and between-group experiments in a picture-description paradigm, we found that both S- and H- distance (Ds and Dh) to the Referent constantly influence S' demonstrative choice, and the social relation as a variable (Relation) between S and H also exerts some influence. Our findings support the idea that spatial reference in verbal interaction is somewhat non-egocentric.
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