Spatial deixis Research Papers - Academia.edu

My corpus-based research examines demonstratives in Norton Sound Kotlik Yup'ik and how the abundant semantics of the demonstrative system influences its use in temporal reference and discourse cohesion. Central Alaskan Yup'ik is purported to have one of the world's most complex spatial demonstrative systems with several dozen reflexes (Miyaoka, 2012). However, previously elicited descriptions posited an idealized and widely adopted paradigm focused on fitting the system into a canonical distance-based typology for spatial location. Effectively, these accounts overlay a two-way distance opposition with features for object shape, accessibility, and riverine directionals (Jacobson and Jacobson, 1995). The resulting system is semantically imprecise and restricted in its descriptive power, particularly in describing Yup'ik conceptualizations and expressions of time. One of the most recognizable conceptual metaphors across languages is TIME IS SPACE (Casasanto & Boroditsky, 2008; Rice et al., 1999). In fact, Casasanto and Boroditsky show that this metaphor is so deeply embedded in our cognition that even in non-linguistic tasks it can be challenging to ignore spatial properties when interpreting temporal events. Utilizing a corpus of spontaneous speech, I examine demonstrative usage in the under-documented Norton Sound Kotlik dialect of Yup'ik. My analysis of connected discourse presents an account of the 30-plus demonstrative reflexes that reduces the importance of distance oppositions while emphasizing frame of reference (FoR) models , which index reference objects from different perspectivizing grounds. Three distinct demonstrative for models emerge in the Yup'ik system: an intrinsic egocentric frame, a relative allocentric frame, and an absolute geocentric frame of reference that contains a distance opposition (Diessel, 2014; Levinson, 2006). These FoR models are used across the domains of space, time, and discourse. These demonstratives are used to bring objects into spatial and temporal joint attention or place narrative focus on objects, to bring thematic cohesion to discourse, and they cluster in topic constructions to help the speaker ground the textual world within the real world. Using the conceptual metaphor TIME IS SPACE, Yugtun maps its three FoR models onto temporal space, allowing for an intricate system such that time can be viewed from the speaker's position at the time of utterance or from an allocentric perspective at a different point in time, or from a different location in time based on a sub-metaphor TIME IS A RIVER. Additionally, temporal entities can be conceptualized as telic and atelic points or spans of time. I identify five principal demonstrative bases used to index past events that shape temporal space. The first, wa(t)-, indexes the moment of speaking as the present and is translated as 'this/here/now.' The second, tama(t)-, is a demonstrative that indexes a period from a past perspective, translated as 'this/here/during this time,' both shown in (1). (1) Cali-llu, wani-gga angasuqaarema anertekellemeggni, tamaani qanruqulalluangnga, waten wani... 'Moreover, now when both my parents were alive, during this time they used to always tell me, like this now...' NSKY Corpus (AAy 2018:29.1) The third is the highly grammaticalized riverine demonstrative, taug-, which is used to mark an atelic event that began in the past or conceptually "upriver" and is still "flowing downriver" to the present and is translated as 'this/here/from then on,' shown in (2). This demonstrative is interesting as it is one of a select few that have been further extended into discourse space to assist in discourse cohesion. In discourse, tauguam means ‘however,’ and relates the previous “upriver” comment to the following “downriver comment,” exemplified in (3). Further pushing the riverine conceptual metaphor beyond the temporal domain, the Yup’ik language systematically employs relative and absolute demonstrative bases in discourse to maintain cohesion across clauses, as in the demonstratives tau(=i) ‘and then,’ tayima ‘hopefully,’ and kiituani ‘thereafter.’ (2) Taugkun-llu, tauna kuik Kaikvayagmek, acirsaurluku. ‘From then on, that river was named Kaikvayak.’ NSKY Corpus (MP 2016:8.3) (3) Tauguam, tayima ilaita yuut un’gani-llu ‘However, hopefully, some of the people downriver-there too’ NSKY Corpus (AAy 2018:31.1) Additionally, a(ug/w)-, is a geocentric demonstrative that indexes an event as happening before or across a period in relation to the present, translated as ‘that/there/back then.’ Finally, uk-, is a demonstrative used to index future points translated as ‘this/here/after this (coming up),’ both shown in (4). (4) awani ukaqvarni tamaani 1980 ‘back then, right after this, during this time in 1980’ NSKY Corpus (MH 2016:90) In (4), the speaker recalls past moments progressing through time as though in the present. In fact, the first word in the preceding sentence (not included) is Naparcilruat, a verb which has both a past and a future tense suffix: to build-fut-pst-ind.tr-pl translated as ‘they would build it.’ These few examples from my corpus, among many, show a complex deictic temporal world, where time is able to flow vividly through a temporal landscape. By examining the language on its own terms in connected discourse, the Yup’ik conceptualizations of time and discourse emerge through a conceptual metaphor influenced by three frame of reference models interacting on a riverine landscape. These temporal and discursive demonstrative spaces are rich ecosystems that need further exploration, especially regarding their interactions with the language’s tense, aspect, modal, and evidential systems.