[Lingtyp] Words for 'left' and 'right' in Australian languages

Sat Oct 12 10:15:53 UTC 2024

Dear Prof. Tsunoda,

Thanks for your query. Here are a few references I would recommend for
Australian languages.
Relevant work by *Stephen Levinson*:

   - Levinson, Stephen. 1992. Language and cognition: the cognitive
   consequences of spatial description in Guugu Yimithirr. In *Working
   paper no. 13*. Cognitive Anthropology Research Group, Max Planck
   Institute for Psycholinguistics.
   - ——— 1996. Frames of reference and Molyneux’s question: Crosslinguistic
   evidence. In Paul Bloom, Mary Peterson, Lynn Nadel & Merrill Garrett
   (eds.), *Language and space*, 109–170. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
   - ——— 2003. *Space in Language and Cognition: Explorations in Cognitive
   Diversity* (Language, Culture and Cognition). Cambridge: Cambridge
   University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511613609.
   - Levinson, Stephen C. & David Wilkins. 2006. The background to the
   study of the language of space. In Stephen C. Levinson & David P. Wilkins
   (eds.), *Grammars of Space*, 1–23. Cambridge: Cambridge University
   Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486753.002.

see also (on another language family):

   - Brown, Penelope & Stephen Levinson. 1992. ‘Left’ and ‘right’ in
   Tenejapa: investigating a linguistic and conceptual gap. *Zeitschrift
   für Phonetik, Sprachwissenschaft und Kommunikationsforschung* 45.
   590–611.

Other publications on *Australian languages*:

   - Haviland, John B. 1993. Anchoring, iconicity and orientation in Guugu
   Yimithirr pointing gestures. *Journal of Linguistic Anthropology* 3(1).
   3–45. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.1993.3.1.3.
   - Hoffmann, Dorothea. 2011. Descriptions of Motion and Travel in
   Jaminjung and Kriol. [Doctoral Thesis, The University of
   Manchester]. University of Manchester. 332pp. [link
   <https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/files/33527759/FULL_TEXT.PDF>]
   - ——— 2018. Talking about motion in Aboriginal Australia: How linguistic
   structure and culture influence motion event encoding. *Hunter Gatherer
   Research* 4(3). 369–390. https://doi.org/10.3828/hgr.2018.23.
   - ——— 2019. Restrictions on the Usage of Spatial Frames of Reference in
   Location and Orientation Descriptions: Evidence from Three Australian
   Languages. *Australian Journal of Linguistics* 39(1). 1–31.
   https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2019.1542927.
   - ——— 2023. Direction and location. In Claire Bowern (ed.), *The Oxford
   Guide to Australian Languages*, 513–519. 1st edn. Oxford University
   PressOxford. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198824978.003.0042.
   - Palmer, Bill, Dorothea Hoffmann, Joe Blythe, Alice Gaby, Bill Pascoe &
   Maïa Ponsonnet. 2022. Frames of spatial reference in five Australian
   languages. *Spatial Cognition & Computation* 22(3–4). 225–263.
   https://doi.org/10.1080/13875868.2021.1929239.

> I would also appreciate information on *other languages* as well.

You may also be interested in *Austronesian* (notably *Oceanic*) languages,
as they too use an absolute frame of reference for encoding spatial
directions:

   - Cablitz, Gabriele H. 2006. *Marquesan: A grammar of space*. Berlin:
   Mouton de Gruyter.
   - François, Alexandre. 2003. Of men, hills and winds: Space directionals
   in Mwotlap. *Oceanic Linguistics* 42(2). 407–437. [link
   <https://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_articles_e.htm#2003>]
   - ——— 2004. Reconstructing the geocentric system of Proto Oceanic. *Oceanic
   Linguistics* 43(1). 1–31. [link
   <https://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_articles_e.htm#2004c>]
   - ——— 2015. The ins and outs of up and down: Disentangling the nine
   geocentric space systems of Torres and Banks languages. In *The
   Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity*, ed. by A. François, S.
   Lacrampe, M. Franjieh & S. Schnell. Studies in the Languages of Island
   Melanesia, 5. Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access. 137-195. [
   link <http://alex.francois.online.fr/AFpub_articles_e.htm#2015b>]

   - Hyslop, Catriona. 2002. Hiding behind trees on Ambae: Spatial
   reference in an Oceanic language of Vanuatu. In Giovanni Bennardo
(ed.), *Representing
   space in Oceania: Culture in language in mind* (Pacific Linguistics),
   vol. 523, 47–76. Canberra: Australian National University.
   - Ozanne-Rivierre, Françoise. 1997. Spatial references in New Caledonian
   languages. In Gunter Senft (ed.), *Referring to space. Studies in
   Austronesian and Papuan languages*, 84–100. Oxford: Oxford University
   Press.
   - ——— 1999. Spatial Orientation in some Austronesian Languages. In
   Catherine Fuchs & Stéphane Robert (eds.), *Language Diversity and
   Cognitive Representations*, 73–84. Amsterdam/Philadephia: John Benjamins.
   - Palmer, Bill. 2002. Absolute spatial reference and the
   grammaticalisation of perceptually salient phenomena. In Giovanni Bennardo
   (ed.), *Representing space in Oceania: Culture in language in mind*
   (Pacific Linguistics), vol. 523, 107–157. Canberra: Australian National
   University.
   - ——— 2007. Pointing at the lagoon: Directional terms in Oceanic
   atoll-based languages. In John Lynch, Jeff Siegel & Diana Eades
(eds.), *Language
   Description, History and Development: Linguistic Indulgence in Memory of
   Terry Crowley* (Creole Language Library), 101–118. New York: John
   Benjamins.
   - Palmer, Bill, Jonathon Lum, Jonathan Schlossberg & Alice Gaby. 2017.
   How does the environment shape spatial language? Evidence for
   sociotopography. *Linguistic Typology* 21(3).
   https://doi.org/10.1515/lingty-2017-0011.
   - Senft, Gunter (ed.). 1997. *Referring to space: Studies in
   Austronesian and Papuan languages* (Oxford Studies in Anthropological
   Linguistics). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Austronesian languages have words for '*left*' and '*right*' in their
lexicons, but these words are normally used only as body part terms: they
are never used as a strategy to encode spatial directions. What I wrote
below (François 2015:139
<https://marama.huma-num.fr/data/AlexFrancois_2015_North-Vanuatu-space-directionals.pdf#page=3>)
about North Vanuatu languages could mostly be said of Oceanic languages
more generally:

[image: image.png]

The Oceanic system of directionals (cf. François 2004) is not based on the
path of the sun, but on the topography (inland vs. seawards) combined with
the direction of prevailing winds (upwind vs. downwind).

best,
Alex
------------------------------

Alex François
LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–
<https://www.cnrs.fr/en>ENS
<https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
–PSL <https://www.psl.eu/en>–Sorbonne nouvelle
<http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
Australian National University
<https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>
Personal homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
_________________________________________

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: TasakuTsunoda via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2024 at 06:20
Subject: [Lingtyp] Words for 'left' and 'right' in Australian languages
To: LINGTYP LINGTYP <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>, TasakuTsunoda <
tasakutsunoda at nifty.com>

                                                    2024/10/12

Dear Colleagues,

    Re: Words for ‘left’ and ‘right’ in Australian languages

1. Would you please help me? I wish to seek information on Australian
languages. I would also appreciate information on other languages as well.

    I am making this request on behalf of a friend of mine who is a
psychologist (not a linguist).

2. In the Australian languages I worked on, e.g. Djaru (or Jaru) of
northwest Australia (Tsunoda 1981) and Warrongo of northeast Australia
(Tsunoda 2011), I have not found any word for ‘left’ or any word for
‘right’.

    In these languages, expressions that will correspond to the English
sentences below will be possible.

(1) Person A sat in front of Person B.

(2) Person A sat behind Person B.

(3) Person A sat north of Person B.

(4) Person A sat east of Person B.

(5) Person A sat south of Person B.

(6) Person A sat west of Person B.

3. Are there any published works that point out the absence of the words
for ‘left’ and ‘right’ in Australian languages?

    If you have PDFs of such works, would you be able to send them to me?

4. I suppose some of the list members will be likely to recommend works by
Stephen Levinson. I would like to know which works by him are the most
directly relevant to my request.

5. Again, I wish to seek information on Australian languages. I would also
appreciate information on other languages as well.

Best wishes and thanking you in advance,

Tasaku Tsunoda

Tsunoda, Tasaku. 1981. *The Djaru language of Kimberley, Western Australia*.
Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Australian National University.

Tsunoda, Tasaku. 2011. *A grammar of Warrongo*. Berlin & New York: De
Gruyter Mouton.

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