FROM SPATIAL COGNITION TO SEMANTIC STRUCTURE: THE ROLE OF SUBJECTIVE MOTION IN COGNITION AND LANGUAGE

Abstract

Aspects of the relation between spatial cognition and semantic structure are discussed. Langacker (1990) points out that the extension of the use of motion verbs and path prepositions to descriptions of static configurations is motivated by subjective motion. The present paper takes subjective motion to be pivotal to spatial cognition and, on the cognitive-linguistic assumption that semantic structure reflects the workings of cognition, discusses how the effects of subjective motion figure in linguistic semantics. Among the facts discussed are the terminal point focus effects, the manner and temporal expressions for spatial configuration and extent, effects of body and eye movement, transitivity, and the marked/unmarked asymmetry between antonymous adjectives.