Choice of spatial frames of reference by Thailand Japanese female and male speakers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyse and compare the choices of spatial frames of reference used to locate objects in respect to intrinsically oriented objects and non-oriented objects by four groups of subjects: Thai males, Thai females, Japanese males, Japanese females who were asked to perform a given perception task. The study also aimed at finding out whether the spatial markers in Thai and Japanese having the meaning of FRONT and BACK could help predict the choices of frames of reference used by Thai and Japanese subjects. The study involved using four main spatial locative appositions in both Thai and Japanese languages which signify the concepts of FRONT and BACK: naa (in front of) and laŋ (behind) in Thai mid maƐ (in front of) and uſiro (behind) in Japanese. The subjects comprised 61 people: 15 Thai males, 15 Thai females, 15 Japanese males and 16 Japanese females. The experimental tools were (1) a 15x20 inch board which was painted to represent a road plus four parking areas; (2) three toy cars and a toy Volkswagen beetle; (3) a miniature wooden tree. All subjects were asked to imagine driving a toy car to give a friend a ride home without knowing where he or she lives. In die first experiment, comprising two sub experiments, the subjects were asked to park the toy car in one of two vacant parking areas representing FRONT or BACK in relation to the tree or to the beetle In the second experiment, which was conducted approximately two weeks after the first, the procedures of the experiment were similar except that the concept tested was reversed; that is, whenever FRONT was used in the first experiment with the tree, BACK was used in the second experiment with the tree and vice versa. The frequencies of parking were recorded on a Perception Data Sheet for later analysis. The Test of Difference of Proportion of Two Populations was applied to see if there is any statistical significance within and between groups of subjects. The findings from the experiment were as follows: (1) Speakers of both Thai and Japanese, both males and females, used the intrinsic frame of reference when the reference object was an oriented object. (2) Speakers of both Thai and Japanese, both males and females, used the relative frame of reference when the reference object was a non-oriented object. (3) There was no difference in the choice of frames of reference between Thai males and Thai females, and between Japanese males and Japanese females. (4) There was a significant difference between Thai and Japanese speakers involving the conceptualization of FRONT in a situation using the tree. Thais conceptualized the area that turned away from them as FRONT while Japanese conceptualized the area that faced them as FRONT. (5) The spatial markers having the meaning of FRONT and BACK in both Thai and Japanese showed a correlation with the conceptualization of FRONT. The appositions in Thai and Japanese that share spatial and temporal meanings are related to the spaces assigned in the experiment. Most Thai speakers chose Subspace 3, the space that was far away from them, to represent FRONT and lag in Thai has both temporal and spatial senses. In contrast, most Japanese speakers chose Subspace 1, the space that was near them, to represent FRONT and the postposition maƐ has spatial and temporal senses.