Functional Features in Language and Space : Insights from Perception, Categorization, and Development

Recent research in understanding the link between language and spatial representation has focused on the rote of features and function-the kinds of terms and notions that might be used, for example, to describe how a banana differs from a telephone. Several subdisciplines of cognitive science are actively refining these concepts, including perception, categorization development and language. Here representative researchers from these fields discuss and report on new work and insights centred around the concepts of function, feature, and functional feature, and consider how these relate to research on language and space and to cognitive science generally.
These introduction sets the issues within the context of research in linguistics and cognitive science, and explains the different perspectives associated with each of the chapters. The book will interest scholars at graduate level and above in cognitive psychology, cognitive science and linguistics.