The Structure of Spatial Expressions in Saisiyat

The Structure of Spatial Expressions in Saisiyatl Pei-Shu Tsai Institute of Linguistics National Taiwan University Taipei 106, Taiwan r91142005@ntu.edu.tw Abstract In this paper we investigate the structure of spatial expressions in Saisiyat based in part on corpus data. Our corpus material includes both narratives and conversations that together run for approximately 100 minutes. First, the corpus was searched for syntactic patterns of spatial expressions. The structure of dynamic motion expressions is then examined with regard to types and tokens of motion verbs, expression of ground elements, directionality in path verbs, and serial verb constructions. We conclude that Saisiyat, like most of the Austronesian languages in Taiwan, is a verb-framed language. 1 Introduction Recent research on the structure of spatial language (Talmy 1983, 1985, 2000; Bloom et al. 1996) suggests that the linguistic spatial representation is a window on the human conceptualization of the world. Many scholars have researched the grammar of space in English (Leech 1969; Bennett 1975; O'Keefe 1996), and in Austronesian languages (Utsurikawa 1993; Senft 1997). However, the spatial representations in Saisiyat, an Austronesian language in Taiwan, have not been thoroughly studied. Utsurikawa (1993) has suggested that in Saisiyat, the orientations of the east and of the north relate to the motion of sun as well as to the direction of the chilly wind. Much of the structure of spatial concepts in Saisiyat has remained largely unexplored. Our goal in this paper is to fill in the gap in our understanding of the grammar of space in the language. In Saisiyat, there is a locative case marker ray before a location in general sentences as well as a location focus —an in location-emphasized sentences (Yeh 2000; Tanangkingsing 2003). When we compare Saisiyat with other Austronesian languages spoken in Taiwan, we found that Saisiyat is on a par with most of the other Formosan languages since it has only one locative marker, which is what most Formosan languages have. Both locative case marker and location focus are used in languages such as Pazah (Lin 2000), Tsou (Zeitoun 2000; Huang, S. 2002) and Atayal (Huang, L. M. 2000). Many Austronesian languages spoken in Taiwan only have either one of the syntactic system mentioned above. For example, only locative case is used in Shao (Huang, L. M. 2000), Puyuma (Huang, L. M. 2000) and Kavalan (Chang 2000; Lee 2003), and location focus alone is used in Bunun (Zeitoun 2000), Seediq (Chang 2000), and Amis (Wu 2000). Only a few languages, such as Rukai (Zeitoun 2000), do not have locative case marker and location focus. We start with an analysis of spatial terms including directionals and locatives in Section 2. Then in Section 3, we present the syntax of these spatial terms. In Section 4, we discuss Ground in motion-verbs, directionality in Path verbs, and serial verb constructions. Section 5 is the conclusion. 2 Semantics of Spatial Terms — Directionals and Locatives Blust divides spatial system into systems of "macro-orientation" and "micro-orientation" (Blust 1997:39-40). According to his definition, the "macro-orientation" refers to …

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