[TACOL] │ “Directional terms in Australian and Mesoamerican languages”

Séminaire TACOL

Terrains, Analyse et COmparaison des Langues

La prochaine séance de notre séminaire TACOL aura lieu le lundi 22 juin 2026 à 10h30, Sur place (salle de réunion 311, bâtiment D, LACITO, Villejuif) et également sur Visio.

Nous aurons le plaisir de recevoir et d’écouter une présentation de Bill Palmer (University of Newcastle Australia)

Titre de la présentation : “Directional terms in Australian and Mesoamerican languages”

Résumé :

Many languages do not have directional terms for left and right – terms may exist for sides of the body or hands (‘my left side’) but not for projections off those facets (‘to my left’). This has been argued to indicate that such languages do not use Relative Frame of Reference, in which the perspective of an observer anchors the spatial relation (Levinson 2003; Majid et al 2004). For example, to the left of the tree assigns a notional ‘left’ to a symmetrical tree based on my perspective. English, French, Japanese and many other languages allow this, but many other languages do not. In Majid et al’s (2004) influential cross-linguistic survey, Relative Frame is classified as not available to speakers in 6 (30%) of 20 languages, based on the unavailability of left and right as projective encoding, all Mesoamerican or Australian. In this paper I investigate the claim that such languages do not employ this relative perspective-based way of talking about space, by re-evaluating directional terms in 12 languages: the 6 Australian and Mesoamerican languages cited by Majid et al, and 6 further Australian languages based on data gathered in the OzSpace project (https://ozspace.org/). I present evidence that projective left and right does occur in 2 of our 12 languages, and that although the other 10 do not allow this, all but 2 (83%) do encode a perspective-based relative frame on the front-back axis (e.g. ‘in front of the tree’) (1)-(2). Moreover, all 10 encode an undifferentiated transverse axis with a ‘beside’ term (3). Only 2 languages in the sample, both Australian, do not employ directionals encoding relative frame on any axis, supporting the findings of Palmer et al (2022). This differential encoding of left-right vs front-back reflects the weakness of the human left-right asymmetry seen elsewhere in cognition, compared with the much stronger front-back asymmetry. In conclusion, the absence of projective left-right is not a diagnostic for perspective-based relative frame in a language: front-back and left-right axes do not necessarily form a single semantic system, and the two must be assessed independently.

(1) Warta ku:::rranyu-minyirri punta=lpi marlakarti warta-ngka. [Kukatja, Pama-Nyungan]tree front-INTENS man=THEN behind tree-LOC
‘The tree is right in front, and the man is behind the tree.’ (Ennever 2023:159)
(2) ta s-tojol te’ [Tenejapan Tzeltal, Mayan]LOC 3POSS-straight.ahead tree
‘in front of the tree [from speaker’s point of view]’ (Brown 2006:246)
(3) ta s-xujk kipojp [Tenejapan Tzeltal, Mayan]LOC 3POSS-side bag
‘at the bag’s side [from speaker’s point of view]’ (Brown 2006:246)

References
Brown, P. (2006) A sketch of the grammar of space in Tzeltal. In S.C. Levinson & D. Wilkins (eds.) Grammars of space: Explorations in cognitive diversity. Cambridge: CUP. 230–272
Ennever, T.B. (2023) Topics in a grammar of space in Kukatja. PhD thesis: Monash University.
Levinson, S.C. (2003) Space in language and cognition: Explorations in cognitive diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Majid, A., M. Bowerman, S. Kita, D.B.M. Haun & S.C. Levinson (2004) Can language restructure cognition? The case for space. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8(3):108–114
Palmer, B., D. Hoffmann, J. Blythe, A. Gaby, B. Pascoe & M. Ponsonnet (2022) Frames of spatial reference in five Australian languages. Spatial Cognition & Computation 22(3-4):225-263

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Balthazar Do Nascimento

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