The Space of Language (Language as a determining factor in the definition and perception of space)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Urban planning Department,, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning,, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

2 Ph.D Condidate, Urban Planning Department, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

3 Urban Development Engineering, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Development, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.

Abstract

Background: The linguistic orientation of the concept of space and its dependence on linguistic structures, its application and perception as a key concept in branches of knowledge such as urban planning and architecture, has sometimes been misunderstood. The connection between the two themes of space and language has made these two basic concepts in the knowledge and interpretation of cities, and it is basically impossible to understand one without the other. Criticism of the dominant discourse on the concept of space in disciplines such as urban planning, which have generally used space as a physical concept, and the phenomenological study of the two concepts (space and language) in order to find their roots in each other, help to clarify the issue.
Objectives: The present article has been compiled with objectives such as rooting out the fields of perception in various theories of space and also defining language as the main element in the process of perception and experience of space.
Method: The studies conducted in this article are based on a method consisting of two models of "critical discourse analysis" and "hermeneutic phenomenology".
Result: It seems that the inseparable and intertwined structure identified in the essence of each of the two concepts of space and language, requires the emergence and application of a neo-concept called "the space of language".
Concolusion: The traditional definition of space as a set of physical elements that are specially arranged together is not commensurate with the nature of the living space. Space is a complex network of physical elements and immaterial factors. Space, as a field of communication whose material and immaterial elements must each carry a wide and complex meaning, can only be defined in the context of language, which has a completely corresponding nature to space and is also meaningful. So space actually derives its existence from the world of language. Language as a means of thinking and a platform for presenting the world is the only means that can represent the real space. Therefore, language is not a tool for understanding space, but space itself.

Keywords

References

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Urban Planning Knowledge
Volume 5, Issue 1
March 2021
Pages 1-22

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History

  • Receive Date: 12 September 2020
  • Revise Date: 14 October 2020
  • Accept Date: 31 January 2021

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