[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Semantic Typology and Spatial Conceptualization

## Details

**Authors** Pederson, Eric R. A. and Levinson, Stephen C. and Danziger, Eve and Kita, Sotaro and Wilkins, David P. and Senft, Gunter

**Year** 1998

**Publisher** Language

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Linguistics

**Secondary disciplines** Cognitive Science, Anthropology

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.2307/417793) 
10.2307/417793

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To collect linguistic data on spatial relations across a typologically and genetically varied set of languages, and to test whether the frame of reference used in language corresponds to the one used in nonlinguistic thought.

### Who or what was studied (sample)

Speakers of a typologically and genetically varied set of languages; the exact languages and numbers were not available from the publisher page.

### How they did it (methods)

Cross-linguistic elicitation of spatial descriptions, together with nonlinguistic experiments with speakers from the same language communities.

### What they found (results)

Propositions can be functionally equivalent across communities while encoding semantically distinct frames of reference. A population's cognitive frame of reference correlates with the frame of reference in its language, within the same referential domain.

## Commentary

### In short

The study shows that the same spatial arrangement is represented from different reference positions in different language communities, and that the chosen position shapes non-linguistic cognition. Frames of reference differ by where the anchor sits, which is a difference of viewpoint, and the correlation between language and thought is a relation between two systems of representation.

**Patterns it shows** D, R, P

Shows the structure is there, Shows it makes a difference

**Added** 2026-10-11

**How to cite this** Pederson, Eric R. A. and Levinson, Stephen C. and Danziger, Eve and Kita, Sotaro and Wilkins, David P. and Senft, Gunter (1998). Semantic Typology and Spatial Conceptualization. Language.