Ádám Miklósi
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199295852
- eISBN:
- 9780191711688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199295852.003.0007
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
Physical cognition refers to mental abilities utilized during problem solving that are provided by the non-living environment. This chapter reviews the limited evidence on how dogs orient in their ...
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Physical cognition refers to mental abilities utilized during problem solving that are provided by the non-living environment. This chapter reviews the limited evidence on how dogs orient in their environment using various behaviour tactics such as path following and utilizing large-sized objects to find their way. Recent research on physical cognition in dogs indicates that dogs are able to deal with problems involving the permanence of objects and might deal with problems involving connectedness or relate to gravity.Less
Physical cognition refers to mental abilities utilized during problem solving that are provided by the non-living environment. This chapter reviews the limited evidence on how dogs orient in their environment using various behaviour tactics such as path following and utilizing large-sized objects to find their way. Recent research on physical cognition in dogs indicates that dogs are able to deal with problems involving the permanence of objects and might deal with problems involving connectedness or relate to gravity.
Ronald W. Langacker
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331967
- eISBN:
- 9780199868209
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331967.003.0011
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
A full clause profiles a grounded instance of a process type. Conceptual archetypes function as the prototypical values of basic clause types and clausal elements. Languages naturally differ in their ...
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A full clause profiles a grounded instance of a process type. Conceptual archetypes function as the prototypical values of basic clause types and clausal elements. Languages naturally differ in their implementation of this general characterization, and within a language clauses are varied and complex. Subject and object are defined schematically as trajector and landmark, i.e. primary and secondary focal participant. In most languages a particular semantic role represents the typical choice of trajector: either agent or theme (a patient-like participant). Each is the starting point along a natural path: the path of energy flow in the case of agent, and a path based on conceptual autonomy in the case of theme. In varied proportions and for different grammatical phenomena, every language makes some use of these two basic strategies. This is the basis for nominative/accusative, ergative/absolutive, and agent/patient organization. It can be argued that subject is a grammatical universal when defined abstractly in terms of primary focal prominence. In addition to the most typical clausal organization, every language offers a variety of alternatives for special purposes. Voice alternations (such as active, passive, and middle) pertain to the semantic role of the participant focused as trajector. The trajector can also be a non-participant, e.g. a setting or location. There is comparable variation in the choice of landmark, resulting in different kinds of objects. In agent-oriented languages, clauses which choose the theme as trajector represent an important secondary option. The verb of a clause is often complex. In addition to incorporating nominal or adverbial elements, the verb can exhibit layers of morphological derivation, be a phrase instead of a single word, or even consist in a series of verb-like elements.Less
A full clause profiles a grounded instance of a process type. Conceptual archetypes function as the prototypical values of basic clause types and clausal elements. Languages naturally differ in their implementation of this general characterization, and within a language clauses are varied and complex. Subject and object are defined schematically as trajector and landmark, i.e. primary and secondary focal participant. In most languages a particular semantic role represents the typical choice of trajector: either agent or theme (a patient-like participant). Each is the starting point along a natural path: the path of energy flow in the case of agent, and a path based on conceptual autonomy in the case of theme. In varied proportions and for different grammatical phenomena, every language makes some use of these two basic strategies. This is the basis for nominative/accusative, ergative/absolutive, and agent/patient organization. It can be argued that subject is a grammatical universal when defined abstractly in terms of primary focal prominence. In addition to the most typical clausal organization, every language offers a variety of alternatives for special purposes. Voice alternations (such as active, passive, and middle) pertain to the semantic role of the participant focused as trajector. The trajector can also be a non-participant, e.g. a setting or location. There is comparable variation in the choice of landmark, resulting in different kinds of objects. In agent-oriented languages, clauses which choose the theme as trajector represent an important secondary option. The verb of a clause is often complex. In addition to incorporating nominal or adverbial elements, the verb can exhibit layers of morphological derivation, be a phrase instead of a single word, or even consist in a series of verb-like elements.
Ronald W. Langacker
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331967
- eISBN:
- 9780199868209
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331967.003.0014
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
Because it unfolds through time, conceptualization (and hence linguistic meaning) is inherently dynamic. There are numerous natural paths that it tends to follow, and which tend to coalign in ...
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Because it unfolds through time, conceptualization (and hence linguistic meaning) is inherently dynamic. There are numerous natural paths that it tends to follow, and which tend to coalign in linguistic structure. In one kind of path, a salient reference point provides mental access to a target. Certain basic grammatical phenomena are analyzed in terms of reference point relationships, including possessives, pronominal anaphora, topic constructions, and trajector/ landmark organization (subject and object). A subject differs from a discourse topic by being structurally internal to a clause and conceptually intrinsic to the clausal process. Trajector and landmark are characterized dynamically as the first and second reference points evoked in building up to the full conception of a profiled relationship. This explains their general grammatical accessibility as well as their role in certain specific constructions. The mental world we construct is grounded in our experience as creatures with bodies who engage in motor and sensory interactions (embodiment). In constructing it, we transcend direct experience through abstraction, conceptual integration, and subjectification: the application of mental operations immanent in certain conceptions to situations for which their occurrence is extrinsic. Examples include fictive motion, fictive change, and the covert invocation of imagined scenarios. Mental simulation is a fundamental aspect of conception and linguistic meaning. Subjectification is an important factor in grammaticization (the evolution of grammatical elements from lexical sources). Many grammatical notions are subjective counterparts of basic aspects of everyday experience. Grammar reflects the means of disengagement through which we transcend immediate experience and construct our mental world. It is thus a key to conceptual analysis.Less
Because it unfolds through time, conceptualization (and hence linguistic meaning) is inherently dynamic. There are numerous natural paths that it tends to follow, and which tend to coalign in linguistic structure. In one kind of path, a salient reference point provides mental access to a target. Certain basic grammatical phenomena are analyzed in terms of reference point relationships, including possessives, pronominal anaphora, topic constructions, and trajector/ landmark organization (subject and object). A subject differs from a discourse topic by being structurally internal to a clause and conceptually intrinsic to the clausal process. Trajector and landmark are characterized dynamically as the first and second reference points evoked in building up to the full conception of a profiled relationship. This explains their general grammatical accessibility as well as their role in certain specific constructions. The mental world we construct is grounded in our experience as creatures with bodies who engage in motor and sensory interactions (embodiment). In constructing it, we transcend direct experience through abstraction, conceptual integration, and subjectification: the application of mental operations immanent in certain conceptions to situations for which their occurrence is extrinsic. Examples include fictive motion, fictive change, and the covert invocation of imagined scenarios. Mental simulation is a fundamental aspect of conception and linguistic meaning. Subjectification is an important factor in grammaticization (the evolution of grammatical elements from lexical sources). Many grammatical notions are subjective counterparts of basic aspects of everyday experience. Grammar reflects the means of disengagement through which we transcend immediate experience and construct our mental world. It is thus a key to conceptual analysis.
Ronald W. Langacker
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331967
- eISBN:
- 9780199868209
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331967.003.0003
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
An expression's meaning depends not only on the conceptual content it evokes but also on the construal it imposes on that content. Broad classes of construal phenomena include specificity, focusing, ...
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An expression's meaning depends not only on the conceptual content it evokes but also on the construal it imposes on that content. Broad classes of construal phenomena include specificity, focusing, prominence, and perspective. Specificity (or its inverse, schematicity) is the degree of precision and detail at which a situation is characterized. One kind of focusing involves various kinds of organization into foreground vs. background, such as given vs. new in a discourse, or the asymmetry in complex expressions between component elements and the composite whole (the expression's compositional path). Another dimension of focusing is organization in terms of maximal scope (the full range of content an expression evokes), immediate scope (the general locus of attention), and profile (the specific focus of attention). Focusing is a kind of prominence, of which there are many sorts. Two are especially revelevant for grammar: profiling, a matter of what an expression designates (refers to); and trajector vs. landmark, the first and second most prominent participants in a profiled relationship. Subsumed under perspective are the overall viewing arrangement, vantage point, the viewing asymmetry between the subject and object of conception, and the time course of conception (sequence of mental access). Descriptive notions are supported by converging evidence from three sources: what is known independently about cognition; what is needed for viable semantic description; and utility in an optimal account of grammar. Varied evidence can be brought to bear on particular semantic descriptions, including paths of grammaticization and predictions concerning distribution and judgments of well-formedness.Less
An expression's meaning depends not only on the conceptual content it evokes but also on the construal it imposes on that content. Broad classes of construal phenomena include specificity, focusing, prominence, and perspective. Specificity (or its inverse, schematicity) is the degree of precision and detail at which a situation is characterized. One kind of focusing involves various kinds of organization into foreground vs. background, such as given vs. new in a discourse, or the asymmetry in complex expressions between component elements and the composite whole (the expression's compositional path). Another dimension of focusing is organization in terms of maximal scope (the full range of content an expression evokes), immediate scope (the general locus of attention), and profile (the specific focus of attention). Focusing is a kind of prominence, of which there are many sorts. Two are especially revelevant for grammar: profiling, a matter of what an expression designates (refers to); and trajector vs. landmark, the first and second most prominent participants in a profiled relationship. Subsumed under perspective are the overall viewing arrangement, vantage point, the viewing asymmetry between the subject and object of conception, and the time course of conception (sequence of mental access). Descriptive notions are supported by converging evidence from three sources: what is known independently about cognition; what is needed for viable semantic description; and utility in an optimal account of grammar. Varied evidence can be brought to bear on particular semantic descriptions, including paths of grammaticization and predictions concerning distribution and judgments of well-formedness.
Robert Carl
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195325287
- eISBN:
- 9780199869428
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195325287.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
This chapter analyzes In C as a score in its own right, that is, an “endogenous” analysis. Though hailed as a breakthrough work of “open form,” In C is also a conventionally notated score, albeit ...
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This chapter analyzes In C as a score in its own right, that is, an “endogenous” analysis. Though hailed as a breakthrough work of “open form,” In C is also a conventionally notated score, albeit only one page long. As such, it can be examined as one would a traditional piece, a structure “outside of real time.” Topics examined are the nature of the instructions, pacing of harmonic density and rhythmic materials, motivic transformation, the significance of “landmark” modules, and large-scale harmonic motion.Less
This chapter analyzes In C as a score in its own right, that is, an “endogenous” analysis. Though hailed as a breakthrough work of “open form,” In C is also a conventionally notated score, albeit only one page long. As such, it can be examined as one would a traditional piece, a structure “outside of real time.” Topics examined are the nature of the instructions, pacing of harmonic density and rhythmic materials, motivic transformation, the significance of “landmark” modules, and large-scale harmonic motion.
Nancy Shoemaker
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195167924
- eISBN:
- 9780199788996
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167924.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
American Indians and Europeans both conceived of landscapes as places where history happened and used this association between land and memory to construct national, or collective identities. They ...
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American Indians and Europeans both conceived of landscapes as places where history happened and used this association between land and memory to construct national, or collective identities. They marked sites on the land that were of historic importance and attached emotional meaning to them, constituting a kind of territorial possession, or claim to land as property, that was equivalent in significance to conceptions of territories as repositories of economic resources. At first, Europeans had no attachment to the lands of North America and so dwelled on its capacity to yield economic profit. However, as they took land from the Native inhabitants, they ignored Indian landmarks and wrote their own history on the landscape to make it their own.Less
American Indians and Europeans both conceived of landscapes as places where history happened and used this association between land and memory to construct national, or collective identities. They marked sites on the land that were of historic importance and attached emotional meaning to them, constituting a kind of territorial possession, or claim to land as property, that was equivalent in significance to conceptions of territories as repositories of economic resources. At first, Europeans had no attachment to the lands of North America and so dwelled on its capacity to yield economic profit. However, as they took land from the Native inhabitants, they ignored Indian landmarks and wrote their own history on the landscape to make it their own.
Ruth Evans
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719085062
- eISBN:
- 9781526104267
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719085062.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
In this chapter I address a gap in the study of medieval space, namely that there has been no systematic study by either medievalists or road historians of how European road travellers in the later ...
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In this chapter I address a gap in the study of medieval space, namely that there has been no systematic study by either medievalists or road historians of how European road travellers in the later Middle Ages found their way around: between countries, from one part of a country to another, or within unfamiliar towns and cities. How did travellers plan their journeys? What aids did they use for getting to their destinations? I present some of the evidence for medieval wayfinding, and provide some initial answers to these questions. I consider the use of guides, landmarks, maps, and urban signage, and draws on evidence from English literary texts and English-French phrasebooks. Wayfinding is simultaneously a technology, a memorial practice, and a cognitive competency. I argue that medieval wayfinding is best understood as a form of what Edwin Hutchins calls ‘naturally situated cognition’ or ‘distributed cognition, in that it depends on human co-operation. Moreover, the environment for medieval travellers was divided up into smaller, more manageable pieces and interconnections – what Kevin Lynch describes as paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks – that constitute a hierarchy of spatial knowledge that is significantly different from our understanding and negotiation of space today.Less
In this chapter I address a gap in the study of medieval space, namely that there has been no systematic study by either medievalists or road historians of how European road travellers in the later Middle Ages found their way around: between countries, from one part of a country to another, or within unfamiliar towns and cities. How did travellers plan their journeys? What aids did they use for getting to their destinations? I present some of the evidence for medieval wayfinding, and provide some initial answers to these questions. I consider the use of guides, landmarks, maps, and urban signage, and draws on evidence from English literary texts and English-French phrasebooks. Wayfinding is simultaneously a technology, a memorial practice, and a cognitive competency. I argue that medieval wayfinding is best understood as a form of what Edwin Hutchins calls ‘naturally situated cognition’ or ‘distributed cognition, in that it depends on human co-operation. Moreover, the environment for medieval travellers was divided up into smaller, more manageable pieces and interconnections – what Kevin Lynch describes as paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks – that constitute a hierarchy of spatial knowledge that is significantly different from our understanding and negotiation of space today.
Willem J.M. Levelt
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199653669
- eISBN:
- 9780191742040
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199653669.003.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
Psycholinguistics is a discipline that was said to have emerged in 1951, which was also the time when three notable events occurred. This chapter discusses these three landmark events that greatly ...
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Psycholinguistics is a discipline that was said to have emerged in 1951, which was also the time when three notable events occurred. This chapter discusses these three landmark events that greatly contributed to psycholinguistics. The first was the Interdisciplinary Summer Seminar in Psychology and Linguistics, which was held from June 18 to August 10, 1951, at Cornell University. The seminar identified the possible relationships between linguistics and psychology, and made several recommendations for psycholinguistics. The second event was the publication of Language and communication by George Miller, which reviewed the state of the psychology of language and communication and included empirical literature that covered fifty years' worth of research. Finally, the third event discussed in this chapter is Karl Lashley's paper ‘The problem of serial order in behavior,’ in which he appealed for a more syntactic approach to the treatment of all skilled hierarchical behavior. The final section of the chapter briefly discusses other milestones that occurred in 1951.Less
Psycholinguistics is a discipline that was said to have emerged in 1951, which was also the time when three notable events occurred. This chapter discusses these three landmark events that greatly contributed to psycholinguistics. The first was the Interdisciplinary Summer Seminar in Psychology and Linguistics, which was held from June 18 to August 10, 1951, at Cornell University. The seminar identified the possible relationships between linguistics and psychology, and made several recommendations for psycholinguistics. The second event was the publication of Language and communication by George Miller, which reviewed the state of the psychology of language and communication and included empirical literature that covered fifty years' worth of research. Finally, the third event discussed in this chapter is Karl Lashley's paper ‘The problem of serial order in behavior,’ in which he appealed for a more syntactic approach to the treatment of all skilled hierarchical behavior. The final section of the chapter briefly discusses other milestones that occurred in 1951.
Barbara Landau and James E. Hoffman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780195385373
- eISBN:
- 9780199979189
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385373.003.0005
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Models and Architectures
This chapter discusses navigation when people are oriented and when they have become disoriented and must reorient themselves before re-locating an object, suggesting that there may be significant ...
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This chapter discusses navigation when people are oriented and when they have become disoriented and must reorient themselves before re-locating an object, suggesting that there may be significant differences in the WS ability to navigate under these two different circumstances. When people with WS remain oriented, they can keep track of an object's location by using reference systems centered on their own body or on landmarks in the surrounding room layout. These capacities are similar to those that are acquired by normally developing children by around age 4 or 5. However, when they must reorient themselves after being disoriented, people with WS show a fragile ability to use geometric properties of the surrounding layout. The degree of fragility for this function is still under study, but the patterns of WS performance compared to normally developing children suggest that the trajectory for this reorientation function may be quite different in the two groups.Less
This chapter discusses navigation when people are oriented and when they have become disoriented and must reorient themselves before re-locating an object, suggesting that there may be significant differences in the WS ability to navigate under these two different circumstances. When people with WS remain oriented, they can keep track of an object's location by using reference systems centered on their own body or on landmarks in the surrounding room layout. These capacities are similar to those that are acquired by normally developing children by around age 4 or 5. However, when they must reorient themselves after being disoriented, people with WS show a fragile ability to use geometric properties of the surrounding layout. The degree of fragility for this function is still under study, but the patterns of WS performance compared to normally developing children suggest that the trajectory for this reorientation function may be quite different in the two groups.
Thomas S. Collett, Karine Fauria, and Kyran Dale
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198515241
- eISBN:
- 9780191687914
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198515241.003.0004
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Behavioral Neuroscience
This chapter looks at the use of non-spatial environmental information in navigation. It specifically concentrates on insects, which prove to have a remarkably elaborate spatial representation, and ...
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This chapter looks at the use of non-spatial environmental information in navigation. It specifically concentrates on insects, which prove to have a remarkably elaborate spatial representation, and gives insights into the study of spatial behaviour. It begins by discussing different kinds of contextual cues and the evidence that insects use them. It also presents the experiments that were planned to evaluate the way in which contextual signals vary with distance from a site where both panoramic and local cues are gained. Moreover, it explores the process of obtaining relationships that should only be expressed in certain contexts, and the converse situation, in which an association that has been learnt in one context generalizes to another one. Throughout, it distinguishes between local cues, to which some action is linked, and contextual cues that modulate the insect's response to local cues. In general, it is demonstrated that insects are quite sophisticated in their capacity to apply context to modulate their spatial behaviour, using these cues to disambiguate other spatial features such as landmarks, to enable context-specific behaviours, and to retrieve memories.Less
This chapter looks at the use of non-spatial environmental information in navigation. It specifically concentrates on insects, which prove to have a remarkably elaborate spatial representation, and gives insights into the study of spatial behaviour. It begins by discussing different kinds of contextual cues and the evidence that insects use them. It also presents the experiments that were planned to evaluate the way in which contextual signals vary with distance from a site where both panoramic and local cues are gained. Moreover, it explores the process of obtaining relationships that should only be expressed in certain contexts, and the converse situation, in which an association that has been learnt in one context generalizes to another one. Throughout, it distinguishes between local cues, to which some action is linked, and contextual cues that modulate the insect's response to local cues. In general, it is demonstrated that insects are quite sophisticated in their capacity to apply context to modulate their spatial behaviour, using these cues to disambiguate other spatial features such as landmarks, to enable context-specific behaviours, and to retrieve memories.
