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A study comparing 24 languages finds that words like “in” and “on” do not match across cultures — but beneath the differences lies a small universal set of spatial concepts shaping how humans talk about location.

Lay Summary Many language learners report problems learning spatial prepositions despite the fact that these words describe locations that speakers can see. These difficulties raise questions about the relationship between word meaning – which differs across languages – and the concepts that we use to understand the world – which may not.

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