Space is presently the focus of much research and debate across disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. One strong feature of this collection is to bring together theoretical and empirical contributions from these varied scientific traditions, with the collective aim of addressing fundamental questions at the forefront of the current literature: the nature of space in language, the linguistic relativity of space, the relation between spatial language and cognition. Linguistic analyses highlight the multidimensional and heterogeneous nature of space, while also showing the existence of a set of types, parameters, and principles organizing the considerable diversity of linguistic systems and accounting for mechanisms of diachronic change. Findings concerning spatial perception and cognition suggest the existence of two distinct systems governing linguistic and non-linguistic representations, that only partially overlap in some pathologies, but they also show the strong impact of language-specific factors on the course of language acquisition and cognitive development.

Table of contents

Introduction: Space, language, and cognition: Some new challenges Maya Hickmann and Stéphane Robert 1–15 Part I — Typology of linguistics systems: Universals, variability, and change Encoding the distinction between location, source, and destination: A typological study Denis Creissels 19–28

The expression of static location in a typological perspective Colette Grinevald 29–58

What makes manner of motion salient? Explorations in linguistic typology, discourse, and cognition Dan I. Slobin 59–81

The semantic structure of motion verbs in French: Typological perspectives Anetta Kopecka 83–101

From personal deixis to spatial deixis: The semantic evolution of demonstratives from Latin to French Christiane Marchello-Nizia 103–120

Motion events in Chinese: A diachronic study of directional complements Alain Peyraube 121–135 Part II — The nature and uses of space in language and discourse Are there spatial prepositions? Claude Vandeloise 137–154

Deitic space in Wolof: Discourse, syntax and the importance of absence Stéphane Robert 155–174

The semantics of motion verbs: Action, space, and qualia Pierre Cadiot, Franck Lebas and Yves-Marie Visetti 175–206

The representation of spatial structure in spoken and signed language Leonard Talmy 207–238

Iconicity and space in French sign language Marie-Anne Sallandre 239–255 Part III — Space, language, and cognition On the very idea of a frame of reference Jérôme Dokic and Elisabeth Pacherie 259–280

The relativity of motion in first language acquisition Maya Hickmann 281–308

Spatial language and spatial representation: Autonomy and interaction Barbara Landau and Laura Lakusta 309–333

Deficits in spatial discourse of Alzheimer patients Michel Denis, Karine Ricalens, Véronique Baudoin and Jean-Luc Nespoulous 335–349 Index 351–361