Poster presented at the Cogsci ’2010, Tomsk, Russia, June 22-26

1. DIMENSIONAL DIRECTIONALS IN UPPER KUSKOKWIM ATHABASKAN: ORIENTATION IN PHYSICAL AND COGNITIVE SPACE Alexey Zverev (Moscow State University) Andrej A. Kibrik (Institute of Linguistics RAN) Kinds of orientation Background • Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan (UKA) • The UKA area • Basic facts about UKA • Genealogy: Na-Dene  Athabaskan  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). RIVERINE ORIENTATION: UPRIVER VS. DOWNRIVER Roots: -n- ‘upriver’ -d- ‘downriver’ (1) y-o-n-aˀ zido (2) n-o-d-oˀ neneyo PREF-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’ tekash PREF-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‘ object viewer viewer object ELEVATIONAL ORIENTATION: UPHILL VS. DOWNHILL Roots: -n(w)g- ‘uphill’ -ts- ‘downhill’ (5) n-o-ts-in tighisyoł (6) minh y-o-ng-w-t PREF-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’ object, viewer viewer oblect 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’ teyosh PREF-PREF-uphill-ID I.will.go PREF-PREF-downhill-EL you.go ‘I will go uphill’ ‘Come here (from downhill)’ Dimensional directionals (DDs) in UKA object, viewer (X) (Y) object (X) viewer (Y) • 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 river • the Alaska range • UKA villages: • Nikolai • Telida • McGrath DDs in UKA • extremely frequent in natural discourse • nearly obligatory in clauses describing location or movement • typically accompanied by pointing gestures • defined with respect to two dimensions: • Riverine: upriver vs. downriver • Elevational: uphill vs. downhill • have complex morphological structure (six linear positions in the template) • SEMANTIC CONFLICTS: GRAND VS. LOCAL SCALE • One 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 Nikolai  uphill (local scale): (9) y-o-ng-i sikayih hi-ts’eˀnotighisdoł PREF-PREF-uphill-ID my.house AR-to I.will.go ‘I will go to my house’ • A bird flying in exactly the same direction  downhill (grand scale): (10) dotron’ n-o-ts-in nonot’wh raven PREF-PREF-downhill-ID it.flies ‘A raven flies away from the mountains’ Telida Nikolai McGrath NE Kuskokwim river Telida (10) Nikolai (9) McGrath Alaska range Kuskokwim river SW Alaska range Further observations and conclusions • 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 Abbreviations in glosses: PUNCT – punctual, AR – areal (referential), EL – elative, PREF – default prefix, ID – idiosyncratic suffix Other abbreviations: DDs - dimensional directionals, UKA – Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan zvereval@inbox.ru Poster presented at the Cogsci ’2010, Tomsk, Russia, June 22-26