Department of Psychology, University of Chicago.
Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego.
Cogn Sci. 2017 Apr;41(3):768-799. doi: 10.1111/cogs.12357. Epub 2016 Mar 10.
Speakers of many languages around the world rely on body-based contrasts (e.g., left/right) for spatial communication and cognition. Speakers of Yupno, a language of Papua New Guinea's mountainous interior, rely instead on an environment-based uphill/downhill contrast. Body-based contrasts are as easy to use indoors as outdoors, but environment-based contrasts may not be. Do Yupno speakers still use uphill/downhill contrasts indoors and, if so, how? We report three studies on spatial communication within the Yupno house. Even in this flat world, uphill/downhill contrasts are pervasive. However, the terms are not used according to the slopes beyond the house's walls, as reported in other groups. Instead, the house is treated as a microworld, with a "conceptual topography" that is strikingly reminiscent of the physical topography of the Yupno valley. The phenomenon illustrates some of the distinctive properties of environment-based reference systems, as well as the universal power and plasticity of spatial contrasts.
世界上许多语言的使用者都依赖基于身体的对比（例如，左/右）来进行空间交流和认知。然而，巴布亚新几内亚山区的语言尤普诺语的使用者则依赖基于环境的上坡/下坡对比。基于身体的对比在室内和室外一样容易使用，但基于环境的对比可能并非如此。尤普诺语的使用者是否仍然在室内使用上坡/下坡对比，如果是，他们是如何使用的？我们报告了在尤普诺屋内进行的三项空间交流研究。即使在这个平坦的世界中，上坡/下坡对比仍然无处不在。然而，这些术语并没有按照房屋墙壁之外的坡度来使用，这与其他群体的报告不同。相反，房屋被视为一个微观世界，具有一种“概念地形”，这与尤普诺山谷的实际地形惊人地相似。这一现象说明了基于环境的参照系统的一些独特性质，以及空间对比的普遍力量和可塑性。
