The way we describe the experience of our spatial environment reveals
important insights into the relation between language
and cognition. Since the description of space presupposes a previous
cognition of space of the environment, it may be assumed that the verbalization
of spatial experience yields also insights into the process of perceiving
space. The metaphorical schemata which represent
loci and movement within the text reflect "the cognitive conditions of
unhindered vision and movement in space" (Nöth 1995). By categorizing
the structures of our perceptions, we find access to the world we live
in. Categorization has to be seen as a motivated act of construction. The
organization of our
memory defines the concepts
we choose and how we compose texts in the process of verbal linearization.
Metaphors which are derived from cultural artifacts such as buildings or
maps show that
culture, too, provides spatial
models for metaphoric schemata. So we can conclude that the mediation between
perception and language is achieved by social, cultural and cognitive schemata
which can be named as semiotic determinants of linearization.
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