Do LLMs Capture Embodied Cognition and Cultural Variation? Cross-Linguistic Evidence from Demonstratives

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2604.25423v1
• Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2026 09:30:12 GMT
• Title: Do LLMs Capture Embodied Cognition and Cultural Variation? Cross-Linguistic Evidence from Demonstratives
• Abstract summary: We introduce demonstratives, fundamental spatial expressions like "this/that" in English and "zh/n" in Chinese, as a novel probe for grounded knowledge.<n>Using 6,400 responses from 320 native speakers, we establish a human baseline.
• Score: 9.704536811806728
• License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/
• Abstract: Do large language models (LLMs) truly acquire embodied cognition and cultural conventions from text? We introduce demonstratives, fundamental spatial expressions like "this/that" in English and "zhè/nà" in Chinese, as a novel probe for grounded knowledge. Using 6,400 responses from 320 native speakers, we establish a human baseline: English speakers reliably distinguish proximal-distal referents but struggle with perspective-taking, while Chinese speakers switch perspectives fluently but tolerate distal ambiguity. In contrast, five state-of-the-art LLMs fail to inherently understand the proximal-distal contrast and show no cultural differences, defaulting to English-centric reasoning. Our study contributes (i) a new task, based on demonstratives, as a new lens for evaluating embodied cognition and cultural conventions; (ii) empirical evidence of cross-cultural asymmetries in human interpretation; (iii) a new perspective on the egocentric-sociocentric debate, showing both orientations coexist but vary across languages; and (iv) a call to address individual variation in future model design.

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