The chair group in Language Use and Cognition at VU University Amsterdam
is pleased to present a lecture
on Monday, May 11, 15:30-17:00 in room 12A-44 of the VU main building
 
by
Monica Gonzalez-Marquez
Bielefeld University
 
Non-linguistic effects of bilingualism: From spatial copulas to spatial processing

Abstract:
Studies abound on the ways that languages can encode space. Yet, there are still many questions as to the grounding of spatial terms. Do naïve speakers grasp the spatial nature of spatial terms? Is the relationship between space and language merely descriptive? Might there be implications beyond those for language? For example, there are well-documented sex differences in spatial abilities. Does this difference also appear in spatial language? Finally, considering that different languages encode space differently, what effect does this have on bilinguals? As a starting point for investigating these questions, my research focused on use of the Spanish copula verb estar. The results discussed in this talk suggest that the relationship between language and space may be far more intimate than previously considered.
 
Monica Gonzalez-Marquez is completing her PhD in Psychology at Cornell University; in this talk, she will present some of the findings from her dissertation research. She is a co-founder of the Empirical Methods in Cognitive Linguistics/EMCL workshops, which she still coordinates (see the information for the next one at https://sites.google.com/site/emcl7joaopessoabrazil/). She is also a member of the international project team researching verbal and co-verbal means of expressing event construal in different languages, based at Moscow State Linguistic University and funded by the Russian Science Foundation.