Abstract
Certain aspects of the structure of simple noun phrases may be represented geometrically by considering the n words as points located in n-1 dimensional Euclidean space. The interword distances, taken collectively, contain information on hierarchical structure within the phrase, while unidimensional projections of the configuration indicate sequential word order. Structurally different noun phrases are then theoretically represented by qualitatively different spatial configurations. An attempt was made to elicit such structures empirically through a spatial imagery task in which Ss were asked to draw spatial diagrams of 30 different noun phrases. The main results were consistent with predictions of a spatial model of syntax and revealed reliable differences between diagrams of two particular kinds of phrases: (a) phrases in which the modifiers may be interchanged without altering the meaning, and (b) phrases where word interchanges are not permitted.
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