a sketch of the grammar of space in tzeltal

《a sketch of the grammar of space in tzeltal》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在工程资料-天天文库。

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