Article published in:
Space and Time in Languages and Cultures: Language, culture, and cognitionEdited by Luna Filipović and Katarzyna M. Jaszczolt
[Human Cognitive Processing 37] 2012
► pp. 217–249
10. Vectors and frames of reference
Evidence from Seri and Yucatec
Jürgen Bohnemeyer | University at Buffalo
Carolyn O'Meara | Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Most linguistic and cognitive representations of space depend on frames of reference (FoRs). We show that FoRs play an equally important role in representations of the orientation of entities and representations of their location and direction of motion. We propose that orientation is conceptually encoded, not in terms of metaphorical path functions (Jackendoff 1983), but in terms of. Equipped with the notion of vectors, we introduce a distinction between two classes of FoRs: classical “angular-anchored” FoRs and the previously unrecognised “head-anchored” FoRs. In English, angular-anchored relative FoRs dominate in both locative and orientation descriptions. In contrast, in Seri and Yucatec, two indigenous languages of Mexico, object-centred angular-anchored FoRs dominate in locative descriptions, but head-anchored FoRs dominate in orientation descriptions.
Published online: 24 July 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.37.16boh
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.37.16boh
Cited by
Cited by 12 other publications
Beller, Sieghard, Judith Bohlen, Lisa Hüther & Andrea Bender
Beller, Sieghard, Henrik Singmann, Lisa Hüther & Andrea Bender
Bender, Andrea, Sarah Teige‐Mocigemba, Annelie Rothe‐Wulf, Miriam Seel & Sieghard Beller
Cerqueglini, Letizia
Cooperrider, Kensy, James Slotta & Rafael Núñez
Hoffmann, Dorothea
Lum, Jonathon
Lum, Jonathon, Bill Palmer, Jonathan Schlossberg & Alice Gaby
MOORE, KEVIN EZRA
Nagaya, Naonori
Nikitina, Tatiana
Wilke, Fiona, Andrea Bender & Sieghard Beller
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 01 july 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.