Abstract: There are two different views on the relationships among language, culture, and cognition: one is Linguistic Universalism, which declares that language is only the input or output of thinking, and that differences in language do not affect consistency of thinking; the other is Linguistic Relativism, which asserts that culture affects thinking via language, and that people who speak different languages and are from different cultures may have different styles of thinking. This kind of controversy also exists with respect to the relationship between spatial terms and spatial cognition. Some researchers believe that mankind could universally share spatial cognition, but others believe that different languages could produce different spatial cognitions and different spatial experiences. This study probes the relationship between spatial cognition, language, and culture.
This study consisted of two experiments that were different only in terms of the order of word pairs. Thirty-six Han nationality students (18 males and 18 females) and 37 Naxi nationality students (18 males and 19 females) took part in Experiment 1; they all came from the Dali Institute in the Yunnan province of China. All participants shared similar habitations and could speak Mandarin fluently, but the two nations’ students came from different cultures and had different first languages. They were asked to sort 17 pairs of Chinese spatial terms summarized by Yi-Fu Tuan into groups, according to the terms’ similarities. The groupings were subject to a Multi-Dimensional Scaling analysis and a hierarchical clustering analysis, in order to reveal the students’ spatial cognitive themes and spatial concept constructions. Another 36 Han nationality students (18 males and 18 females) and 35 Naxi nationality students (17 males and 19 females) joined Experiment 2. They too were asked to classify 17-pairs of Chinese spatial terms with the same word pairs as Experiment 1, only with the word order changed.
The results of the Han nationality in both studies showed four different clusters concerning: 1) three-dimensional direction, 2) boundaries, 3) saturation of space, and 4) visual distance. The results also revealed two different dimensions: 1) state and direction, and 2) geo-center and body-center. However, the results of the Naxi undergraduates of both studies showed five different clusters concerning: 1) verticality, 2) horizon, 3) boundaries, 4) saturation of space, and 5) visual distance. The results also revealed two different dimensions: 1) state and direction, and 2) verticality and horizon. The difference in spatial cognition between subjects from the Han nationality, Naxi nationality, and Britain was the verticality and horizon dimension, which was in line with the differences in their respective languages and cultures.
The entire study showed that language and culture play important parts in people’s spatial cognitive themes and spatial concept structure. The results support Linguistic Relativism

Key words: spatial terms, spatial cognitive theme, spatial concept structure