Trekking through space with Whorf : language and spatial cognition / Peggy Li.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Microformat

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Li, Peggy.

Contributor:

Gleitman, Lila, advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Psychology.

Psychology--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Psychology.

Psychology--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

xiii, 178 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm

Production:

2002.

Summary:

The Whorfian hypothesis, the thesis that the language one speaks has a strong and pervasive effect on the way one thinks, has returned to prominence after a period in intellectual limbo. Since languages differ in how they partition the spatial relationships into semantic categories, the spatial domain has become a popular test-bed for whether profound effects of language on thought exist. This dissertation takes up two such linguistic differences discussed in the current literature.

The first difference involves English and Korean, two languages that make crosscutting semantic partitions (Bowerman, 1996). For example, in English, "putting a block on a cardboard" and "putting a Lego on a Lego board" are described as events of "put on." Events like "putting a cassette tape in its container" are described as "put in." However, in Korean, the cassette and Lego events are described with the same verb "kkita" (to fit together tightly), whereas the block event is described by a different verb "nohta" (to place loosely on a flat surface). Therefore, English focuses on the support and containment relationships where Korean focuses on tightness and looseness. The Whorfian hypothesis predicts that Korean and English speakers would come to conceptualize and categorize spatial events differently. In the studies reported, Korean and English speakers categorized spatial actions. Participants' performance on the various tasks did not always mirror their linguistic descriptions. In fact, Korean and English speakers often categorized events similarly.

The second difference involves languages' preferences for the spatial frames of reference. Specifically, "relative" languages (e.g., English) prefer deictic or viewer-perspective frame of reference ("to the left") and "absolute" languages (e.g., Tzeltal) prefer an externally referenced frame ("to the north"). Prior crosslinguistic studies (Brown & Levinson, 1993) showed that the spatial problem-solving strategies of "relative" and "absolute" language speakers differ. The current studies reproduced these different strategies in speakers of a single language (English) by manipulation landmark cues, suggesting that language itself may not be the original causal factor in choice of spatial perspective. The results of the two lines of studies are discussed in terms of the current debate on the relation of language to thought.

Notes:

Supervisor: Lila Gleitman.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Psychology) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2002.

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

University Microfilms order no: 3043906.

OCLC:

244972030