Abstract
Communication of perceptual experiences by means of a linguistic description constitutes one of the main functions of language. Therefore the processes and the mechanisms that relate perception and language are basic to our cognitive system. When we consider the border zone between perception and language, or when we study how the two modalities function as they interact, and which processes operate in such interaction, we must establish which of them takes the lead. Is it the principles governing visual perception that determine what will be transferred into the linguistic description or is it the rules of categorization and linguistic production that structure and select what will be said about what was perceived? Philosophers of language have preferred the latter view when they make reference to truth conditions in explaining the logical foundations of the propositions of a natural language. On the other hand they suggest that truth conditions are connected to the perception of reality.1 Nevertheless few of them are willing to tackle the difficult task of identifying the characteristics of such a connection.2
The conceptual system depends on the perceptual system for judgements about the world [...] The input assumed by the conceptual system refers to the outcomes of perceptual judgements about the contents of experience — outcomes that can be made available for purposes determined by the conceptual system.
Miller and Johnson-Laird, Language and Perception.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Au, T.K. and Markmann, E.M.: 1987, ‘Acquiring Word Meanings via Linguistic Contrast’ Cognitive Development, 2, 217–236.
Baddeley, A.: 1986, Working Memory. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Bagnara, S.: 1984, L’attenzione. Bologna, Il Mulino.
Bahrick, H.P. and Boucher, P.: 1968, ‘Retention of Visual and Verbal Codes of the Same Stimuli’, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 79, 417–422.
Baker, H.: 1753, Employment for the Microscope. London, R. Dodsley at Tully’s Head in Pall-Mall. Bever, T.G.: 1970, ‘The Cognitive Basis for Linguistic Structures’ in J.R. Hayes, ed., Cognition and the Development of Language. New York, John Wiley 0000 Sons, 279–352.
Biederman, I.: 1987, ‘Recognition-by-Components: A Theory of Human Image Understanding’, Psychological Review, 94, 115–147.
Bornstein, M.: 1985, ‘Color-Name Versus Shape-Name Learning in Young Children’, Journal of Child Language, 12, 387–393.
Bridgeman, B., Kirch, M. and Sperling, A.: 1981, ‘Segregation of Cognitive and Motor Aspects of
Visual Function Using Induced Motion’, Perception and Psychophysics,29, 336–342. Bridgeman, B.: 1986, ‘Multiple Source of Outflow in Processing Spatial Information’, Acta
Psychologica,63, 336–342.
Chase, W.G. and Clark, H.H.: 1972, ‘Mental Operations in the Comparison and the Comparison of Sentences and Pictures’, in L. Gregg, ed., Cognition in Learning and Memory. New York, Wiley, 205–232.
Clark, H.H. and Chase, W.G.: 1972, ‘On the Process of Comparing Sentences Against Pictures’, Cognitive Psychology, 3, 472–517.
Clark, H.H.: 1973, ‘Space, Time, Semantics and the Child’, in T. Moore, ed., Cognitive Development and the Acquisition of Language. New York, Academic Press, 28–63.
Clark, H.H.and Clark, E.V.: 1977, ‘Psychology and Language. An Introduction to Psycholinguistics’. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Farah, M.J., Hammond, K., Levine D. and Calvanio, R.: 1988, ‘Visual and Spatial Mental
Imagery: Dissociable Systems of Representation’, Cognitive Psychology, 20, 439–462.
Fillmore, C.J.: 1977, ‘The Case for Case Reopened’, in P. Cole and J. Sadock, eds., Syntax and Semantics: Vol. 8. Grammatical Relations. New York, Academic Press.
Flores D’Arcais, G.B.: 1987, ‘Perceptual Factors and Word Order in Event Descriptions’, in G. Kempen, ed., Natural Language Generation: New Results in Artificial Intelligence, Psychology and Linguistics. Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff.
Gibson, J.J.: 1950, The Perception of the Visual World. Boston, Houghton Mifflin.
Gibson, J.J.: 1966, The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Boston, Houghton Mifflin.
Gibson, J.J.: 1979, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston, Houghton Mifflin.
Halliday, M.A.K. and Hasan, R.: 1976, Cohesion in English. London, Longman.
Heibeck, T.H. and Markman, E.M.: 1987, ‘Word Learning in Children: An Examination of Fast Mapping’ Child Development, 58, 1021–1034.
Humphreys, G.W. and Riddoch M.J.: 1994, ‘Attention to Within-Object and Between-Object Spatial Representations: Multiple Sites for Visual Selection’, Cognitive Neuropsychology, 11 (2), 207–241.
Jackendoff, R.: 1983, Semantics and Cognition. Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press.
Jackendoff, R.: 1987, Consciousness and the Computational Mind. Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press.
Jarvella, R. and Klein, W.: 1982, Speech, Place and Action. Chichester, Wiley.
Kahneman, D.: 1973, Attention and Effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall.
Kanizsa, G.: 1979, Organization in Vision. New York, Praeger.
Koffka, K.: 1935, Principles of Gestalt Psychology. New York, H. Harcourt Brace.
Kosslyn, S.M.: 1980, Image and Mind. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.
Landau, B., Smith, L.B. and Jones, S.S.: 1988, ‘The Importance of Shapes in Early Lexical Learning’, Cognitive Development, 3, 299–321.
Landau, B. and Jakendoff, R.: 1993, “‘What” and “Where” in Spatial Language and Spatial Cognition, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 16, 217–265.
Landau, B. and Stecker, D.S.: 1990, ‘Objects and Places: Geometric and Syntactic Representations in Early Lexical Learning’, Cognitive Development, 5, 287–312.
Marconi D.: 1992, ‘Semantica Cognitiva’, in M. Santambrogio, ed., Introduzione alla Filosofia Analitica del Linguaggio, Bari, Laterza, 431–482.
MacWinney, B.: 1977, ‘Starting Points’ Language, 53, 152–168.
McKey, D.G., Allport, A., Prinz, W. and Scheerer, E.: 1987, ‘Relationship and Modules within Language Perception and Production: An Introduction’ in Allport, McKey, Prinz and Scheerer, eds., Language Perception and Production. New York, Academic Press.
Metzger, W.: 1930, ‘Optische Untersuchungen am Ganzfeld: II. Zur Phänomenologie des homogenen Ganzfelds’, Psychologische Forschung, 13, 6–29.
Miller, G.A. and Johnson-Laird, P.N.: 1976, Language and Perception. Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press.
Morrow, D.G. and Clark, H.H.: 1988, ‘Interpreting Words in Spatial Descriptions, Language and Cognitive Processes, 3, 275–291.
Nelson, D.L. and Brooks, D.H.: 1973, ‘Functional Independence of Pictures and their Verbal Memory Codes, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 98, 44–46.
Olson, R.D.: 1970, ‘Language and Thought: Aspects of a Cognitive Theory of Semantics’, Psychological Review, 77, 257–273.
Osgood, C.E.: 1971, ‘Where Do Sentences Come From?’ in Steinberg and Jakobovits, Semantics. Cambridge, Mass., The University Press. 497–529.
Osgood, C.E. and Bock, J.K.: 1977, ‘Salience and Sentencing: Some Production Principles’, in S. Rosenberg, ed., Sentence Production: Developments in Research and Theory. Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrance Erlbaum.
Paivio, A.: 1971, Imagery and Verbal Processes. New York, Holt Rinehart and Winston.
Pechmann, T.: 1984, ‘Accentuation and Redundancy in Children’s and Adult’s Referential Communication’, in H. Bouman and D. Bouwhuis, eds., Attention and Performance. Control of Language Processes, vol X. Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum. 417–431.
Pick, H.L. and Acredolo, L.P.: 1983, Spatial Orientation. Theory, Research and Application. New York, Plenum Press.
Rosch, E.: 1978, ‘Principles of Categorization’, in E. Rosch and B.B. Lloyd, eds., Cognition and Categorization. Illsdale, NJ, LEA. 27–48.
Rubin, E.: 1921, Visuell wahrgenommene Figuren. Copenhagen, Gyldendals.
Schneider, G.E.: 1969, ‘Two Visual Systems’, Science, 163, 895–902.
Talmy, L.: 1983, ‘How Language Structures Space’ in H.L. Pick and L.P. Acredolo, Spatial Orientation. Theory, Research and Application. New York, Plenum Press.
Treisman, A. and Souther, J.: 1985, ‘Search Asymmetry: A Diagnostic for Pre-Attentive Processing of Separable Features’, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 114, 65–90.
Ungerleider, L.G. and Mishkin, M.: 1982, ‘Two Cortical Visual Systems’, in D.G. Ingle, M.A. Goodale and R.J.W. Mansfield, eds., Analysis of Visual Behavior. Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press.
Wertheimer, M.: 1923, ‘Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt’, Psychologysche Forschung, IV, 301–350.
Woods, W.A.: 1981, ‘Procedural Semantics as a Theory of Meaning’, in A.K. Joshi, B.L. Webber and I.A. Sag, eds., Elements of Discourse Understanding. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 300–333.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Massironi, M., Levorato, M.C. (1999). Formal Characteristics in Verbal Description and Spatial Representation. In: Albertazzi, L. (eds) Shapes of Forms. Synthese Library, vol 275. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2990-1_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2990-1_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5098-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2990-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive