Words of any language give a person a better understanding of anything, from directions to descriptions. I would have to stand by Spelkes assessment that language helps us understand spatial concepts like directions, which she used as an example.
Although some instructions such as "left of the blue wall" may seem partial and inadequate to transmit enough information for quality directions; this is the same with many words or sentences which is why we are able to read in "text talk." Every letter of the alphabet in any language carries a certain amount of information, some more than others. This is why we are able to understand a sentence such as "wat r u sayin?" Obviously, we perceive this as "what are you saying?" but it clearly does not say that. This is because certain letters carry more information than others allowing us to read it no matter how obscured the text is.
Language is not just a remedial part of our existence but rather a way to transmit information to and from one another, no matter how poorly put together the sentence or phrase is. Through this we have become masters of our language by bettering our understanding of it. Spatial concepts such as directions and descriptions can be cut down to the most remedial sentences and we can still understand them as if they were a complex-compound sentence. Even giving a reason for something can be shortened from saying "because" to "b/c" and because the letters "b" and "c" in the word "because" carry the most information we can easily translate it into the word it's meant to be. This doesn't even have to pertain to written language, even in spoken language we can understand broken sentences and translate them into a meaningful sentence, thus slowly breaking down the language barrier which in itself is a spatial concept. For instance, one time a nice young man from Vietnam who had only been here a few months came up to me one day and was asking where the bus stop was. His broken English was hard to understand but his words conveyed enough information for me to understand what he was requesting.
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