DIMENSIONAL DIRECTIONALS IN UPPER KUSKOKWIM ATHABASKAN: ORIENTATION IN PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE SPACE

Poster presented at the Cogsci ’2010, Tomsk, Russia, June 22-26 zvereval@inbox.ru

BackgroundBackground Kinds of orientationKinds of orientation

Dimensional directionals (Dimensional directionals (DDsDDs) ) in UKAin UKA

ELEVATIONAL ORIENTATION: UPHILL VS. DOWNHILL

Roots: -n(w)g- ‘uphill’ -ts- ‘downhill’

(5) n-o-ts-in tighisyoł (6) minh y-o-ng-w-tPREF-PREF-downhill-ID I.will.go lake PREF-PREF-uphill- ID-PUNCT‘I will go downhill’ ‘The lake is up there’

Scale:Grand scale: the Alaska Range mountains as landmark-n(w)g- vs. -ts- = SE vs. NW

Local scale: the surface of the river as landmark-n(w)g- vs. -ts- = ‘away from the river’ vs. ‘at/towards the river’

RIVERINE ORIENTATION: UPRIVER VS. DOWNRIVERRoots: -n- ‘upriver’ -d- ‘downriver’

(1) y-o-n-aˀ zido (2) n-o-d-oˀ neneyoPREF-PREF-upriver-ID he.lives PREF-PREF-downriver-ID he.went‘He lives upriver’ ‘He went downriver’

(3) n-o-n-ets’ neneyo (4) y-o-d-o-ts’ tekashPREF-PREF-upriver-EL he.went PREF-PREF-upriver-ID-EL you.paddle‘He came from upriver’ ‘Come this way (by boat, from downriver)’

Scale:Grand scale: the general direction of the Kuskokwim flow-n- vs. -d- = NE vs. SW

Local scale: relative position along the stream-n- vs. -d- = 'up the stream' vs. 'down the stream‘

DEICTIC ORIENTATION: WITH RESPECT TO THE POSITION OF A VIEWER

Example: X is at the the river bank, Y is away from the river

X is the speaker – DD encodes the endpoint: Y is the speaker – DD encodes the point of departure:

(7) n-o-ng-i tighisyoł (8) y-o-ts-ets’ teyoshPREF-PREF-uphill-ID I.will.go PREF-PREF-downhill-EL you.go‘I will go uphill’ ‘Come here (from downhill)’

DDs in northern Athabaskan languages, including UKA, designate locations and directions of movement with respect to certain spatial dimensions that organize the universe of language users.

Schematic representation of the UKA ecumene

Major landmarks:the Kuskokwim riverthe Alaska rangeUKA villages: Nikolai Telida McGrath

DDs in UKAextremely frequent in natural discoursenearly obligatory in clauses describing location or movementtypically accompanied by pointing gesturesdefined with respect to two dimensions: Riverine: upriver vs. downriver Elevational: uphill vs. downhillhave complex morphological structure (six linear positions in the template) Further observations and cFurther observations and concluonclusionsionss

DDs present a remarkable variety of forms (over one hundred) Many other directionals (‘towards water’, ‘across a concave’, ‘over a hill’, etc.) Single DDs represent simplex instances of orientation in space and can be superimposed in discourse to provide

a detailed description of actual location/movement DDs are highly frequent in discourse Precise specification of locations, directions, and paths constitutes a salient component of ethnic

cognitive representation In UKA, concern for such specification is far above the cross-linguistic average This concern must be related to the ecological conditions of traditional nomadic life, associated with

survival in swampy and uneven northern environment

Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan (UKA)

The UKA area

Basic facts about UKA

Genealogy: Na-DeneAthabaskan NorthernAthabaskan UKA

The total population of UKA descent is estimated as 200

Over a half of the population resides in the village of Nikolai in central Alaska

About 25 speakers left

Actual use of UKA – in two or three households

UKA has been taught at school since 1973 but remains a moribund language

Prior work – Collins and Petruska 1979; Kibrik’s field trips in 1997, 2001, and 2009

Traditionally nomadic lifestyle of the UKA speakers

High importance of spatial orientation revealed through the system of directional adverbs

The research concentrates on one subclass of directional adverbs – dimensional directionals (DDs).

Alexey Zverev (Moscow State University)Andrej A. Kibrik (Institute of Linguistics RAN)

SEMANTIC CONFLICTS: GRAND VS. LOCAL SCALEOne and the same direction/location can be described with different DD roots, on the basis of grand vs.

local scale.

Example: one and the same vector of movement construed as being uphill or downhill

Movement from the bank of the Kuskokwim river towards someone’s house in Nikolaiuphill (local scale):(9) y-o-ng-i sikayih hi-ts’eˀ notighisdoł

PREF-PREF-uphill-ID my.house AR-to I.will.go‘I will go to my house’

A bird flying in exactly the same directiondownhill (grand scale):

(10) dotron’ n-o-ts-in nonot’whraven PREF-PREF-downhill-ID it.flies‘A raven flies away from the mountains’

Abbreviations in glosses:

PUNCT – punctual, AR – areal (referential), EL – elative, PREF – default prefix, ID – idiosyncratic suffixOther abbreviations:

DDs - dimensional directionals, UKA – Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan

object

viewer

viewer

object

object, viewer

viewer

oblect

object, viewer (X)

(Y)

object (X)

viewer (Y)

Telida

Nikolai

McGrath

Telida

(10)

Nikolai

(9) McGrath

NE

SW