Absolute Frames of Spatial Reference in Austronesian Languages

Abstract

Abstract. This paper provides a brief survey on various absolute frames of spatial reference that can be observed in a number of Austronesian languages -with an emphasis on languages of the Oceanic subgroup. It is based on research of conceptions of space and systems of spatial reference that was initiated by the "space project" of the Cognitive Anthropology Research Group (now the Department of Language and Cognition) at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and by my anthology "Referring to Space" (Senft 1997a; see Keller 2002: 250). The examples illustrating these different absolute frames of spatial reference reveal once more that earlier generalizations within the domain of "SPACE" were strongly biased by research on Indo-European languages; they also reveal how complex some of these absolute frames of spatial reference found in these languages are. The paper ends with a summary of Wegener's (2002) preliminary typology of these absolute frames of spatial reference.

Translocalizing the space of old Nubia in digital narrative: Resemiotized chronotopes as markers of identity

“…The analysis has shown that although the Nubian homeland is left behind in space, it is still proximal in time in their digital narrative. Accordingly, the study argues that while space is considered the primary measure of diaspora in the analogue contexts (Senft 2017), the digital context emphasizes a rather temporal dimension which dynamically participates in the reproduction of diaspora experiences. The chronotope helps in decentring the concept of spatial dispersal by situating diaspora within a temporal continuum that cannot be cut down into strictly separate entities.…”

Review of Gunter Senft, 2017. Imdeduya: Variants of a myth of love and hate from the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea. Culture and Language Use. Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. Vol. 20. Аmsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 262 p

“…Все большее распространение получают антропологические исследования, базирующиеся на знании национальных языков, лингвистические исследования, основанные на детальном анализе функционирования речевых форм в определенном сообществе (см. Clayre 1973;Keesing 1997;Keller 2002;Burenhult 2008;Senft 2017; 2018 и др. ).…”

Tyler, Andrea, Lihong Huang & Hana Jan (Hrsg.). 2018.What is Applied Cognitive Linguistics. Answers from Current SLA Research.Berlin: de Gruyter. 307 S., € 112,95, ISBN: 9783110569711.

“…B. Levinson 1997Levinson , 2003Levinson & Wilkins 2006;Senft 2017). Der vorliegende Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, welche Besonderheiten es gibt, wenn niederländische Französischlerner*innen räumliche Beschreibungen in der L2 ausdrücken (S. 124).…”