- Title Pages
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- 1 Functional Features in Language and Space
- 2 Language is Grounded in Action
- 3 The Bicycle Pedal is in Front of the Table. Why some Objects do not Fit into some Spatial Relations
- 4 Dissociation between Verbal and Pointing Responding in Perspective Change Problems
- 5 An Ecological Approach to the Interface between Language and Vision
- 6 Contextual, Functional, and Geometric Components in the Semantics of Projective Terms
- 7 Verbs and Directions: The Interaction of Geometry and Function in Determining Orientation
- 8 Between Space and Function: How Spatial and Functional Features Determine the Comprehension of <i>between</i>
- 9 The HIPE Theory of Function
- 10 Towards a Classification of Extra-geometric Influences on the Comprehension of Spatial Prepositions
- 11 Is it in or is it on? The Influence of Geometry and Location Control on Children’s Descriptions of Containment and Support Events
- 12 Defining Functional Features for Spatial Language
- 13 Attention in Spatial Language: Bridging Geometry and Function
- 14 Being Near the Ceramic, but not Near the Mug: On the Role of Construal in Spatial Language
- 15 Force and Function in the Acquisition of the Preposition in
- 16 Shape: A Developmental Product
- 17 Adaptation of Perceptual and Semantic Features
- 18 Infants’ Attention to and Use of Functional Properties in Categorization
- 19 Developmental Constraints on the Representation of Spatial Relation Information: Evidence from Preverbal Infants
- 20 Path Expressions in Finnish and Swedish: The Role of Constructions
- 21 Form and Function
- References
- Author Index
- Index of terms
Form and Function
Form and Function
- Chapter:
- (p.331) 21 Form and Function
- Source:
- Functional Features in Language and Space
- Author(s):
BARBARA TVERSKY
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This chapter addresses the question of how we can account for spatial language. Perceptual features, functional features, schemas, context, and affordances are among the bases proposed. It is argued that all can be operative. A survey of research from a variety of entity domains, especially natural kinds, artifacts, bodies, scenes, events, abstract categories, and design, and of relational domains, especially spatial relations, shows that perceptual features, especially form or structure, allow inferences to function, forming perceptual–functional units or affordances. Language abets inferences from form to function. These perceptual–functional units account for the coherence of category features and provide the basis for causal reasoning.
Keywords: spatial language, perception, spatial relations, language, functions, causal reasoning
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- Title Pages
- Preface
- List of Contributors
- 1 Functional Features in Language and Space
- 2 Language is Grounded in Action
- 3 The Bicycle Pedal is in Front of the Table. Why some Objects do not Fit into some Spatial Relations
- 4 Dissociation between Verbal and Pointing Responding in Perspective Change Problems
- 5 An Ecological Approach to the Interface between Language and Vision
- 6 Contextual, Functional, and Geometric Components in the Semantics of Projective Terms
- 7 Verbs and Directions: The Interaction of Geometry and Function in Determining Orientation
- 8 Between Space and Function: How Spatial and Functional Features Determine the Comprehension of <i>between</i>
- 9 The HIPE Theory of Function
- 10 Towards a Classification of Extra-geometric Influences on the Comprehension of Spatial Prepositions
- 11 Is it in or is it on? The Influence of Geometry and Location Control on Children’s Descriptions of Containment and Support Events
- 12 Defining Functional Features for Spatial Language
- 13 Attention in Spatial Language: Bridging Geometry and Function
- 14 Being Near the Ceramic, but not Near the Mug: On the Role of Construal in Spatial Language
- 15 Force and Function in the Acquisition of the Preposition in
- 16 Shape: A Developmental Product
- 17 Adaptation of Perceptual and Semantic Features
- 18 Infants’ Attention to and Use of Functional Properties in Categorization
- 19 Developmental Constraints on the Representation of Spatial Relation Information: Evidence from Preverbal Infants
- 20 Path Expressions in Finnish and Swedish: The Role of Constructions
- 21 Form and Function
- References
- Author Index
- Index of terms
