Edited by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research 11] 2008
► pp. 25–52
In this paper I discuss several salient asymmetries and explore their roles in motivating usages of Cora spatial language to locate events, situations, conditions, relations, people and things. The first of these asymmetries is that of the speaker’s role as observer: in framing his conceptualizations for linguistic expression, he selects a particular viewing arrangement with a specific focus. The second asymmetry is that of locating entities within some field of spatial extension: specific entities are located spatially with respect to some locative reference point. Many Cora spatial expressions are conceptually and morphemically complex and invoke multiple locative reference points which the speaker accesses simultaneously in order to locate the entity that he has in mind. The most high level asymmetry,. the Subject of Perception vs. the Object of Perception contrast relates to these other asymmetries in subtle ways. Certain grammatical correlates emerge from this study that explain the consistency for the adverbial sets of spatials to construe the Subject of Perception in a highly subjective manner. Several grammatical correlates suggest why the locative verbal prefixes construe the Object of Perception in a highly objective way.