Communicating the space of sailing

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Electronic versions

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

Keywords

  • Spatial concepts, communicaiton, sailing discourse, expertise
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Sailing Mind
EditorsRoberto Casati
PublisherSpringer
Chapter7
Pages73-88
Number of pages16
ISBN (print)9783030896386
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Jun 2022

Publication series

NameStudies in Brain and Mind
Volume19
View graph of relations