Sarah Kriz and Mary Hegarty:
Spatial Perspective and Linguistic Planning
Abstract
This study tested whether the spatial perspective from which an environment
is described is introduced in linguistic planning or reflects a speaker's
underlying representation. Twenty-four speakers provided descriptions of
three environments. They were forced to describe one of those environments
from either an embedded or an external perspective. Speakers were generally
able to produce this description as asked, but individual differences in
this ability suggest that perspective is not solely a part of linguistic
planning. The findings of this study illuminate how aspects of spatial language
stem from spatial representations. These results impact dialogic theories
of spatial language by suggesting that cognitive limitations, as well as
linguistic and social factors, contribute to spatial language production.
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