Startseite Linguistik & Semiotik Chapter 8. Spatial language and cognition among the last Ixcatec-Spanish bilinguals (Mexico)
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Chapter 8. Spatial language and cognition among the last Ixcatec-Spanish bilinguals (Mexico)

  • Evangelia Adamou
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Abstract

This paper discusses spatial language and bilingual cognition with evidence from the last four speakers of Ixcatec who have shifted to Spanish in their everyday life. Based on a free-speech corpus,Study 1shows that the Ixcatec spatial expressions are mainly intrinsic and geocentric, similar to what is reported for other Mesoamerican languages.Study 2investigates co-speech gesture in a localization task and reveals the predominance of the geocentric frame of reference (FoR) with a switch to the egocentric FoR triggered by the Spanish word ‘left’.Study 3is a nonverbal experiment which shows that the egocentric, geocentric, and intrinsic frames of reference are all available. To conclude, although the use of Spanish has added new spatial conceptualizations, the native ones are not lost.

Abstract

This paper discusses spatial language and bilingual cognition with evidence from the last four speakers of Ixcatec who have shifted to Spanish in their everyday life. Based on a free-speech corpus,Study 1shows that the Ixcatec spatial expressions are mainly intrinsic and geocentric, similar to what is reported for other Mesoamerican languages.Study 2investigates co-speech gesture in a localization task and reveals the predominance of the geocentric frame of reference (FoR) with a switch to the egocentric FoR triggered by the Spanish word ‘left’.Study 3is a nonverbal experiment which shows that the egocentric, geocentric, and intrinsic frames of reference are all available. To conclude, although the use of Spanish has added new spatial conceptualizations, the native ones are not lost.

Heruntergeladen am 26.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/ihll.13.08ada/html
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