Spatial Demonstratives and Perspective Taking in English and Japanese

Tools

Gudde, Harmen B., Collier, Jacqueline and Coventry, Kenny R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2591-7723 (2026) Spatial Demonstratives and Perspective Taking in English and Japanese. Cognitive Science, 50 (3). ISSN 0364-0213

[thumbnail of Cognitive Science - 2026 - Gudde - Spatial Demonstratives and Perspective Taking in English and Japanese (1)]
Preview
 PDF (Cognitive Science - 2026 - Gudde - Spatial Demonstratives and Perspective Taking in English and Japanese (1)) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

There is much debate regarding the extent to which languages express the same spatial parameters or whether spatial communication is essentially diverse. In this paper, we explore “perspective taking” in spatial demonstrative systems as a means of exploring between and within language variation. We test the effects of egocentric distance and addressee position on demonstrative production in speakers of two languages with two purportedly different demonstrative systems: English and Japanese. We find that speakers of both languages show perspective taking in their demonstrative use, with an overall increase in perspective taking in both languages when there was greater interaction between participants during the experimental task. We propose a framework unifying different theoretical accounts of demonstrative systems in which speakers of both languages choose a spatial reference frame prior to selecting from the available demonstrative terms in their language. Such an approach accounts for diversity while maintaining the same underlying processes between languages.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Data availability statement: All data are available via links in footnotes in the main manuscript.
Uncontrolled Keywords: cross-linguistic variation,perspective taking,spatial cognition,spatial demonstratives,experimental and cognitive psychology,cognitive neuroscience,artificial intelligence ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3200/3205
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Related URLs:
Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 07 Aug 2026 10:16
Last Modified: 07 Aug 2026 23:14
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104037
DOI: 10.1111/cogs.70183

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item