Frames of Spatial Reference and Their Acquisition in Tenejapan Tzeltal

Bibliographic Data

ID20076014
AuthorsP Brown (0000-0002-5201-3044), S Levinson
Year2000
Pages157-185
Publication date2000-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueCulture, Thought, and Development (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPsychology Press (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4324/9781410603470-14
OpenAlexW2150052839
ISBN9781410603470
LanguageEN
Citations received13

Recent crosslinguistic studies of spatial language and cognition have revealed that many languages utilize one or more of three basic frames of reference in reckoning spatial relationships: 'relative' (using the speaker's viewpoint to calculate spatial relations, like the familiar 'left'/'right'/'front'/'back' systems of European languages), 'absolute' (using fixed angles extrinsic to the objects whose spatial relations are being described, like the cardinal direction systems of many Australian Aboriginal languages), and 'intrinsic', (relying on intrinsic properties of objects being spatially related (e.g., parts and shapes of the Ground object, positions of the Figure object) to reckon spatial relations, as in the bodypart systems of many languages. In the Mayan language Tzeltal, as spoken in the southern Mexico community of Tenejapa, the predominant emphasis is on the intrinsic and absolute frames of reference. Longitudinal speech data from Tzeltal children aged 1,6 to 4,0 suggests that the acquisition of these systems may run counter to the Piagetian ordering of cognitive stages - topological prior to projective. The children use and understand the rudiments of the absolute 'uphill/downhill' system, which requires them to project coordinates based on the prevailing slope of the landscape onto spatially related objects, before the intrinsic system, which encodes topological relations like containment, surface support, and proximity

Cartography · Frame of reference · Geography · Physics · Reference frame · Telecommunications · Computer Science · Cultural and Artistic Studies

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