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1、7AsketchofthegrammarofspaceinTzeltalPenelopeBrown7.1Introduction7.1.1SpaceinMayanlanguagesMayanlanguagesandcultureshaveareputationforhavinghighlyelaboratedconceptionsofspaceandtime.Twolargelyindependentstreamsofresearchconvergeonthispoint:ontheonehand,thereareseveralarticlesandmono-graphsexpl
2、oringmodern-dayversionsofancientMayancalendrical,divina-tion,ritualandcosmologicalsystemsintheirspatialandtemporaldimensions(VillaRojas1973,Gossen1974,1986,Tedlock1982,Vogt1976).Ontheotherhand,anumberofscholarshavearguedthatMayanlanguageshavehighlydeveloped–indeed,hypertrophic–linguisticresou
3、rcesforhandlingspatialconcepts,whichareparticularlyevidentinthepositionalroots,directionalsandnumeralclassifiersthatmostMayanlanguagesdisplayinsomeform(Berlin1968,Norman1973,Martin1977,1979,England1978).Ithasbeenarguedthatspaceisa‘grammaticaltheme’inMayanlanguages,thatis,an‘underlyingorganizat
4、ionalprinciple’thatpervadesthegrammar(England1978:226);itisalsoaculturalthemepervadingMayanethnographies.And,Englandargues,wheresuchcorrespondencesbetweenlinguisticandculturalthemesarefound,wearejustifiedinexpectingtofind‘asubstantialandpowerfulaspectoftheworldviewofaparticulargroup’(Ibid.).Som
5、erecentworkattemptsmoresystematicallytolinkthesetwostreams,thelinguisticandtheethnographic.AgoodexampleisHanks’s(1990)analy-sisofthedeicticsystemofagroupofYucatecMayanspeakers,embeddedintheethnographyofhowtheseYucatecMayansconceptualizedomesticandlocalspacesandhowtheyoperateintheirphysicaland
6、socialworld.And,overthepastsixteenyears,asystematicexplorationofspatialconceptsinseveralMayanlanguagesandcultures(Yucatec,Mopan,TzotzilandTzeltal)hasbeenunder-takenwithintheSpaceProjectoftheMaxPlanckInstituteforPsycholinguistics.ThepresentpapersummarizestheresultsofthisresearchforTzeltal.Howd
7、oTzeltalspeakerstalkaboutthelocation,position,dispositionandmovementofthingsaroundthem?Howdotheydiscriminatebetweentwosimilarobjectsin230AsketchofthegrammarofspaceinTzeltal231space,anduniquelyrefertoone,sothatanotherpersoncanidentifytherefere