Spatial Deixis: How Finely Do Languages Divide Space?

This book investigates the semantics of spatial deixis (e.g., this and that) from a cross-linguistic point of view. The objectives are 1) to reveal parameters which determine spatial deictic usage, 2) to compare parameters among languages, and 3) to investigate parameter dominance. The author looked into more than 400 languages and clarified parameters that have not been fully understood in previous studies. Parameters listed in this book provide an overview of the meanings of spatial deixis in languages of the world. The penetrating analyses of spatial deixis provide the better understanding of interaction between perception and language. ------------------------------------------------ This work is a superb analysis of the overall system for spatial deixis across languages. It arrays within a definitive framework the conceptual parameters criterial to the distinctions marked by spatially deictic forms. It includes both typological and universal findings based on both qualitative and quantitative elicitation procedures.---Leonard Talmy