Spatial Cognition and Frames of Reference in Indo-European

Abstract

This paper investigates the Indo-European (IE) spatial Frames of Reference (FoRs) within the framework of Cognitive Linguistics. Previous studies on typology of spatial expressions have traditionally been based on the universal status of the egocentric or relative FoR found in modern IE languages, in which the relation between figure and ground is specified by the deictic observer’s viewpoint. However, if one takes a historical perspective, spatial cognition in ancient IE languages seems to be initially different from that found at a later stage. By investigating the contexts of use of spatial terms of front, behind, left, right in Vedic Sanskrit and Ancient Greek in a historical-comparative perspective, this paper shows that the egocentric relative FoR was not the primary orientation system. These languages made indeed use of the binary intrinsic FoR, as is expected in a typological perspective (Palmer, 2015), but also revealed traces of an absolute FoR. In fact, the close association between those spatial terms and east and west cardinal directions implies a projection of the front-back axis onto spatial relations according to the positions of the sun. These findings suggest that introducing a third entity like the deictic observer’s viewpoint was not necessary in the earlier coordinate systems, since i) the spatial grounds used in existing FoRs were not ‘unfeatured’ entities, and ii) the relationship between figure and ground was also defined by referring to fixed bearings, such as the positions of the sun.