ABSTRACT
Localism claims that essentially spatial notions underlie many of the grammatical structures as well as much of the lexicon of natural language. L. Wittgenstein’s remark, “Commanding, questioning, recounting, chatting, are as much a part of our natural history as walking, eating, drinking, playing” encourages us to think of language as part of our biological endowment. Similarly, no concept of human nature can be acceptable that cuts us off from our physical embodiment and ecology. Studies of language based in very different areas converge in suggesting the enormous complexity of the cognitive processes underlying the production and understanding of natural language. If such a being talked in natural language at all, it would surely be a very un-natural conversation. Communicative intent can, by contrast, be ascribed to many of the gestures and actions of human beings. A psycholexicology of the words sung by angelic choirs would surely be very different from one reflecting our specifically human nature.
