Conf=?utf-8?Q?=C3=A9rence_de_Jordan_Zlatev_le_27_mai_=C3=A0_?=Paris

[Benjamin Fagard]

Bonjour,
le laboratoire Lattice a le plaisir de vous inviter à une conférence de Jordan 
Zlatev, du Centre for Cognitive Semiotics (Lund University), intitulée 
« Holistic Spatial Semantics Revisited » (présentation ci-dessous).
 
Elle aura lieu le vendredi 27 mai en Salle de Conférence, à l’ENS-Ulm (46 rue 
D’Ulm), de 11h à 13h30 (entrée libre).

Bien cordialement,
Benjamin Fagard
http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/benjamin-fagard

Tel : 01.58.07.66.22

Laboratoire Lattice (Langues, Textes, Traitements Informatiques, Cognition), ENS 
& CNRS
 

 
Présentation : 

In my doctoral dissertation (Zlatev 1997), and in several subsequent 
publications (e.g. Zlatev 2003), I attempted to develop an integrated theory of 
spatial semantics, departing from the whole “spatial utterance, … which helps 
the listener determine the location of a given entity – if the situation is 
static – or else the trajectory of its motion. Hence, it can be seen as an 
explicit or implicit answer to a where-question.” (ibid : 307). Based on 
cross-linguistic evidence, I postulated 7 universal categories through which the 
situation was “differentiated” : Trajector, Landmark, Motion, 
Frame-of-reference, Regions, Path and Direction. Differences could be accounted 
for by a) patterns of mapping (conflation, distribution, complementarity) from 
expression (classes) to categories, b) language specific values of the 
categories and c) tradeoff between overt expression (“semantics”) and background 
specification (“pragmatics”). For example, in (1), the verb deru (‘exit’) 
conflates Path (:END) and Region (:EXTERIOR). Path is co-expressed 
(“distributed”) by the verb and the postposition ni. On the other hand, unlike 
in most European languages where prepositions conflate Path and Region, there is 
complementary expression of Region (:EXTERIOR) by the locative noun soto. The 
interpretation of sensei (‘teacher’) as ‘karate instructor’ is clearly due to 
the situational and linguistic context in which the expression is used.
(1) Sensei ga dojo no soto ni deta
‘The karate instructor left the dojo and went out’
I termed this theory Holistic Spatial Semantics (HSS), with ‘holistic’ referring 
to the fact that the whole precedes the ‘parts’ in several respects : utterance 
> expression, situation (gestalt) > category, many-to-many mapping > 
lexical/grammatical meanings.
In my presentation, I will discuss evidence from non-Indo-European languages 
that poses problems for other spatial semantic theories with universalistic 
claims, in particular those of Jackendoff (1990) and Talmy (2000), as argued by 
e.g. Bohnemeyer (2010). The issues concern apparent lack of “Path-semantics” and 
“Figure-Ground asymmetry”. I will suggest that the facts can be naturally 
accommodated within HSS. Finally, I address implications for the analysis for 
the rather puzzling phenomenon of ‘fictive motion’ (when static situations are 
described using motions expressions), and its apparent lack in certain 
languages.

References
Bohnemeyer, J. (2010). The language-specificity of Conceptual Structure : Path, 
Fictive Motion, and time relations. In B. Malt & P. Wolff (eds.), Words and the 
mind : How words capture human experience. Oxford : Oxford University Press. 

Zlatev, J. (1997) Situated embodiment : Studies in the emergence of spatial 
meaning. Stockholm : Gotab. Zlatev, J. (2003) Holistic spatial semantics of 
Thai, In Cognitive Linguistics and Non-Indo European Languages, E. Casad & G. 
Palmer (eds.), 305-336. Berlin : Mouton de Gruyter.
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