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Daniel Kelly (AKA Jack)
Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 10:17 am
Guest
Hi,

I'm researching the 1st chapter of my PhD thesis and I'd be very
appreciative to hear your views and ideas on the following question:

Where do we use spatial and mapping metaphors to describe aspects of the
world and society?

And could you point me towards any philosophical / psychological literature
on this subject?

Examples I've bumped into are:

1) Descriptions of narrative structure & characterisation (the "character
arc", "where have you got to in the story?", depth of the character, etc.)

2) Family trees (especially in incestuous / inbred family structures)

3) Social & professional hierarchy ("The King powered above all his
subjects", "his family life was going down the tube")

4) Graphical representation of music (something similar to Media Player's
visualisations; and dancing)

5) Time (time line)

6) Hypertext "maps"

7) Data visualisation (graphs, 3D representations etc)

8) Hand gestures to accompany speech

Thanks,
Jack
Kali
Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2003 5:39 pm
Guest
In article <bq7orc$r78$1@uns-a.ucl.ac.uk>, posted Fri, 28
Nov 2003 15:17:04 -0000, "Daniel Kelly \(AKA Jack\)"
<d.kellyNOSPAM@NOSPAM.ucl.ac.uk> says...

:Hi,
:
:I'm researching the 1st chapter of my PhD thesis and I'd be very
:appreciative to hear your views and ideas on the following question:
:
:Where do we use spatial and mapping metaphors to describe aspects of the
:world and society?

These metaphors are ubiquitous in the English language.
Good is up, bad is down, goals are destinations, and
processes are journeys.

:And could you point me towards any philosophical / psychological literature
Surprisedn this subject?

Check PsycInfo. Look up George Lakoff. Dedre Gentner has
done extensive research on analogical mapping. Stephen
Levinson has done a lot of work on spatial aspects of
language. And here are some links:

http://philosophy.uoregon.edu/metaphor/metaphor.htm
http://www.psyc.memphis.edu/POL/POL.htm

:Examples I've bumped into are:
:
:1) Descriptions of narrative structure & characterisation (the "character
:arc", "where have you got to in the story?", depth of the character, etc.)

Check out Art Graesser and Rolf Zwann for a constructionist
view of narrative comprehension, see esp "situation model".
:
:2) Family trees (especially in incestuous / inbred family structures)

Don't see how this follows.

:3) Social & professional hierarchy ("The King powered above all his
:subjects", "his family life was going down the tube")

Naomi Quinn and Claudia Strauss, anthropologists.

:4) Graphical representation of music (something similar to Media Player's
:visualisations; and dancing)
:
:5) Time (time line)
:
:6) Hypertext "maps"
:
:7) Data visualisation (graphs, 3D representations etc)
:
:Cool Hand gestures to accompany speech

Good article on the web on gesture from an evolutionary
perspective:
http://www.pdc.co.il/corballi.htm

David Armstrong wrote a great book that covers a lot of
spatial territory on gestures.

What's it all about? What field are you in, Jack?

Kali - grad student, cog psych
--
"The national security alert system has gotten up
to orange, which is the highest level at which you
can still shop at the mall. Red is the highest alert.
At a red alert the president would encourage you to
shop online." Al Franken
 
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