Conference on Spatial Language and Spatial Cognition

描述（由申请人提供）：我们提议召开一次会议，旨在进一步了解婴儿和儿童如何获得和学习使用空间语言——我们用来谈论世界上的物体、事件和空间关系的语言。空间语言和空间认知是人类知识的基础，因此是研究语言如何从前语言基础发展，以及后来如何影响空间思维的关键领域。具体的主题将包括(a)婴儿期的空间认知如何支持空间语言的习得，(b)如何获得空间语言的跨语言差异，以及(c)一旦获得空间语言，如何影响空间思维。我们计划邀请对这些问题具有跨学科观点的学者，包括语言学家、心理学家和研究空间语言表征和学习问题的计算机科学家。会议将于2003年6月6日至8日在约翰霍普金斯大学举行，并将包括一系列目标演讲和评论，这将激发跨学科的讨论。会议的成果将出版一卷或多卷，提供关于空间语言是如何获得的问题的跨学科观点，它如何在婴儿期参与空间认知，以及它如何影响后来的空间思维。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose a conference designed to further our understanding of how infants and children acquire and learn to use spatial language -- the language we use to talk about objects, events, and spatial relationships in the world. Spatial language and spatial cognition are fundamental to human knowledge, and therefore serve as a key domain within which to ask about how language develops from pre-linguistic foundations, and how it later comes to affect spatial thinking. Specific topics will include (a) how spatial cognition in infancy supports the acquisition of spatial language, (b) how cross-linguistic distinctions in spatial language are acquired, and (c) how, once acquired, spatial language affects spatial thought. We plan to invite scholars with interdisciplinary perspectives on these problems, including linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists who work on problems of the representation of spatial language and learning. The conference will take place at Johns Hopkins University on June 6-8, 2003, and will include a set of target talks and commentaries, which should stimulate interdisciplinary discussion. The product of the conference will be a published volume or volumes which provide interdisciplinary perspectives on questions of how spatial language is acquired, how it engages spatial cognition in infancy, and how it later affects spatial thought.