Spatial Semiotics and Spatial Mental Models

Spatial Semiotics and Spatial Mental Models
Author: Martin Thiering
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2014-12-12
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110356872

This book presents novel data from endangered languages and cultures that are ever so often still not focused on. It combines different disciplines to capture the intricacies of spatial orientation and navigation. Also, the interplay between culture through language and practices presents new insights in the importance of combining cognitive semantics with cognitive anthropology.

Spatial Language

Spatial Language
Author: Kenny R. Coventry
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9401599289

People constantly talk to each other about experience or knowledge resulting from spatial perception; they describe the size, shape, orientation and position of objects using a wide range of spatial expressions. The semantic treatment of such expressions presents particular challenges for natural language processing. The meaning representation used must be capable of distinguishing between fine-grained sense differences and ambiguities grounded in our experience and perceptual structure. While there have been many different approaches to the representation and processing of spatial expressions, most computational characterisations have been restricted to particularly narrow problem domains. The chapters in the present volume reflect a commitment to the development of cognitively informed computational treatments of spatial language and spatial representation. Therefore the chapters present computational work, empirical work, or a combination of both. The book will appeal to all those interested in spatial language and spatial representation, whether they work in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, cognitive psychology or linguistics.

Signs, Codes, Spaces, and Arts

Signs, Codes, Spaces, and Arts
Author: Leonid Tchertov
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 539
Release: 2019-12-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1527544613

This book delves into the concepts of general and spatial semiotics, discussing the differences and interactions between semiotic means of diverse types and levels. It introduces an integrative model (“the sign prism”) which unites many famous schemes of sign connection. It considers the human as a being included in a self-created semiosphere of signs and interacting with a sphere of natural signals and indexes available also to animals. The majority of the text is devoted to spatial semiotics, and its distinctions from temporal ways of sign connection. Its specific categories and particular visual-spatial codes are considered here as the peculiar means of communication and thinking. An essential feature of the book is the application of the author’s concepts of spatial semiotics to research of structures and the historical changes of visual arts.

Spatial Dimensions of Social Thought

Spatial Dimensions of Social Thought
Author: Thomas W. Schubert
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2011-10-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 311025431X

Space provides the stage for our social lives - social thought evolved and developed in a constant interaction with space. The volume demonstrates how this has led to an astonishing intertwining of spatial and social thought. For the first time, research on language comprehension, metaphors, priming, spatial perception, face perception, art history and other fields is brought together to provide an integrative view. This overview confirms that often, metaphors reveal a deeper truth about how our mind uses spatial information to represent social concepts. Yet, the evidence also goes beyond this insight, showing for instance how flexible our mind operates with spatial metaphors, how the peculiarities of our bodies determine the way we assign meaning to space, and how the asymmetry of our brain influences spatial and face perception. Finally, it is revealed that also how we write language - from left to right or from right to left - shapes how we perceive, interpret, and produce horizontal movement and order. The evidence ranges from linguistics to social and spatial perception to neuropsychology, seamlessly integrating such diverse findings as speed in word comprehension, children's depictions of abstract concepts, estimates of the steepness of hills, and archival research on how often Homer Simpson is depicted left or right of Marge. The chapters in this book offer a topology of social cognition and explore the pivotal role language plays in creating links between spatial and social thought.

Spatial Cognition II

Spatial Cognition II
Author: Christian Freksa
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2003-06-26
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3540454608

This book constitutes the second volume documenting the results achieved within a priority program on spatial cognition by the German Science Foundation (DFG).The 28 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and reflect the increased interdisciplinary cooperation in the area. The book is divided into sections on maps and diagrams, motion and spatial reference, spatial relations and spatial inference, navigation in real and virtual spaces, and spatial memory.

Pragmatics of Space

Pragmatics of Space
Author: Andreas H. Jucker
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 689
Release: 2022-09-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 311069381X

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of spatial configurations of language use and of language use in space. It consists of four parts. The first part covers the various practices of describing space through language, including spatial references in spoken interaction or in written texts, the description of motion events as well as the creation of imaginative spaces in storytelling. The second part surveys aspects of the spatial organization of face-to-face communication including not only spatial arrangements of small groups in interaction but also the spatial dimension of sign language and gestures. The third part is devoted to the communicative resources of constructed spaces and the ways in which these facilitate and shape communication. Part four, finally, is devoted to pragmatics across space and cultures, i.e. the ways in which language use differs across language varieties, languages and cultures.