Do LLMs capture embodied cognition and cultural variation? Cross-linguistic evidence from demonstratives

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 “这/那” 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 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.