TY - CHAP

T1 - Communicating the space of sailing

AU - Tenbrink, Thora

PY - 2022/6/2

Y1 - 2022/6/2

N2 - This chapter explores various ways in which spatial concepts in a sailing context differ from everyday experience, based on language data collected in an explorative online questionnaire given to sailors and non-sailors. Participants were invited to describe various spatial aspects shown in a short video clip, and were then asked some more general questions about their spatial experience during and outside sailing. Results show that beyond using more technical terminology, sailors also attended to different aspects of the situations shown in the video clip than non-sailors: they referred to the wind and the sails and sometimes to starboard and port, but rarely used everyday directional concepts such as forward, left and right; these were used frequently by non-sailors, who also referred to various types of landmarks more frequently. Sailors also reported being generally aware of wind and compass direction more frequently than non-sailors. Altogether, the data suggest that sailing changes the way we think and communicate about spatial situations and concepts rather fundamentally, partially affecting the sailor’s everyday life

AB - This chapter explores various ways in which spatial concepts in a sailing context differ from everyday experience, based on language data collected in an explorative online questionnaire given to sailors and non-sailors. Participants were invited to describe various spatial aspects shown in a short video clip, and were then asked some more general questions about their spatial experience during and outside sailing. Results show that beyond using more technical terminology, sailors also attended to different aspects of the situations shown in the video clip than non-sailors: they referred to the wind and the sails and sometimes to starboard and port, but rarely used everyday directional concepts such as forward, left and right; these were used frequently by non-sailors, who also referred to various types of landmarks more frequently. Sailors also reported being generally aware of wind and compass direction more frequently than non-sailors. Altogether, the data suggest that sailing changes the way we think and communicate about spatial situations and concepts rather fundamentally, partially affecting the sailor’s everyday life

KW - Spatial concepts

KW - communicaiton

KW - sailing discourse

KW - expertise

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-89639-3_7

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-89639-3_7

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9783030896386

T3 - Studies in Brain and Mind

SP - 73

EP - 88

BT - The Sailing Mind

A2 - Casati, Roberto

PB - Springer

ER -