Spatial Language and Culture: Cardinal Directions in Negev Arabic

Abstract:Negev Arabic displays a unique spatial system characterized by referential complementarity: Intrinsic, Relative, and Absolute frames of reference serve all speakers and are selected according to properties of the Ground. The Absolute frame of reference, employing cardinal directions, represents the lateral axis of all Ground-objects and serves as a default frame for problematic cases, such as modern, culturally alien objects; this frame of reference largely replaces right and left and serves, e.g., as a means to locate Figures in non-prototypical axial positions or in relation to modern Ground-objects. As in other Arabic dialects, cardinal directions also encode cultural, metaphorical, and symbolic meanings—especially east and west; north and south have not developed cultural salience.