Places: Points, Planes, Paths, and Portions

Spouse 1: Honey, where's the baby? Spouse 2: Here. At 132 Maple. By the sofa. In front of me. Two feet behind you. Go down the hall, go right, then go down until you get to the kitchen. At Joey's house, which is just north of the library and east of the coffee shop. How do we tell someone where something is? This simple question turns out to have not so simple answers. The first thing to notice about the answers to the " where " question is that they are relative to a reference object and frame of reference. The next thing to notice is that the selection of reference object and reference frame depends on what the information provider, Spouse 2, presupposes about the state of knowledge of the information receiver, Spouse 1. Finally, providing location often entails other information, such as direction and distance. Let us examine the answers more closely, as they reveal some of the techniques that people use to convey location. " Here. " This is the easiest way to convey location, if it works. Like all answers, it depends on common ground between provider and receiver of information. Here, they must share an understanding of where " here " is and what " here " is. " Here " is context-bound. For one thing, it means something different when interlocutors are in close proximity than when they are distant; it may refer to one's person or one's country. " At 132 Maple. " Another direct way to convey location is to give an address. At first, an address like 132 Maple Avenue, Highland Park, Illinois or the GPS coordinates for that location might seem like absolute locations, but of course they are relative as well, referring to streets in cities in states or to longitude, latitude, altitude relative to Greenwich. Nevertheless, if the speaker has reason to believe that the listener knows the reference points and frame, then specifying a location with an address can be very effective. What makes addresses so easy is that they refer to points or to regions or volumes that can be conceived of as points (e. g., Talmy, 1983). The baby's at 132 Maple; exactly where in the house or on the lot is not needed. " By the sofa. " It is not always practical or appropriate to convey location by means of an address. Fortunately, …

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