Restrictions on the Usage of Spatial Frames of Reference in Location and Orientation Descriptions: Evidence from Three Australian Languages

Spatial Frames of Reference (FoR) have been discussed from different angles including cross-linguistic variety, detailed individual language descriptions, considering the impact of landscape and cognition, and regional overviews. Little attention, however, has been paid to their usage patterns. Consequently, this paper analyses a curious restriction on the use of different types of absolute terms. The analysis is based on a previous observation for Jaminjung that the use of absolute FoR is conditioned by whether or not the ground is overtly specified. The paper expands on this finding for two languages spoken in the same region, MalakMalak and the Roper variety of Kriol. It particularly focuses on the influence of morphosyntactic features and takes cognitive approaches as well as cultural salience into consideration.

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