Sounds are temporal entities, in the sense that they necessarily unfold in time and, additionally, can change their acoustic characteristics over time. On the other hand, sound perception has been argued to have a spatial dimension. First, sound waves are known to propagate in the space, ‘reaching’ experiencers (animate entities capable of auditory perception) on their way. Furthermore, due to such indices as sound volume and interaural level difference experiencers can, with different degrees of precision, perceive where a sound source is.

Among philosophers of perception, there has been an ongoing controversy around the relative location of sound. In other words, is the sound located (1) at the sound source, (2) with the sound experiencer or (3) in the medium (air) that separates the two? According to Casati, Dokic & Di Bona (2020), there are three schools of thought that differ from each other in relation to the three possible relative locations cited above: distal ((1), e.g. Casati Dokic 1994; O’Callaghan 2007)); proximal ((2), e.g. Maclachlan 1989; O’Shaugnessy 2000)); medial ((3), e.g. Perkins (1983); Nudds (2009)).

Interestingly, languages express whereabouts of sounds in various ways, providing illustrations for each of the three theories. The present study explores how four languages, English, Russian, French and Japanese, instantiate sound localization by examining data from contemporary popular fiction. More specifically, the study aims at identifying the most frequent linguistic conceptualization(s) in relation to the three views on spatial hearing. If indeed there is such a predominant conceptualization (across the four languages), this could serve as a linguistic argument in favor of one of the non-linguistic theories.

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Nudds, M. (2009). 'Sounds and Space', in Matthew Nudds, and Casey O'Callaghan (eds), Sounds and Perception: New Philosophical Essays (Oxford, 2009; online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 Feb. 2010), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282968.003.0004, accessed 2 Mar. 2025.

O'Callaghan, C. (2007). Sounds: a philosophical theory. New York: Oxford University Press.

O'Shaughnessy, B. (2003). Consciousness and the World (Oxford, 2003; online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 Nov. 2003), https://doi.org/10.1093/0199256721.001.0001, accessed 23 Feb. 2025
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