Space in semantics and cognition

Decades of research on the nature, acquisition, and mature use of spatial language reveal three major themes to be discussed in this chapter. First, spatial language is one of several cognitive systems that is specialized, reflecting pressures from the nature of our non-linguistic spatial representation and the nature of language as a symbolic system used for communication. The primitives for spatial language form a closed set and are likely to have evolved in response to these pressures. Second, acquisition involves selection from the set of primitives, partly via learning from input, with the latter subject to the same kind of maturational constraints as are found in phonology, morphology and syntax. Third, although having spatial language greatly increases representational power to express our thoughts, spatial language does not in any direct way change the underlying structure of human spatial thought.