Language, Culture and the Embodiment of Spatial Cognition

Abstract

Our aim in this article is to argue that an adequate account of semantic development in early First language acquisition requires a theory and methodology that synthesize the insights of cognitive and cultural linguistics with a Vygotskian sociocultural approach to human development. This involves recasting and extending the notion of embodiment, which is a central philosophical underpinning of cognitive linguistics.We discuss evidence from the cross-linguistic and cross-cultural study of spatial semantic development, and argue that current controversies regarding language-specific acquisition strategies and universal cognitive bases of semantic development may best be resolved by viewing the issue of “linguistic relativity” in a sociocultural, as well as a grammatical, perspective. © 2001, 2000 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG. All rights reserved.