OLAC Record
oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1064790

Metadata
Title:Article - Topography of the Yupno House
yupna_0063
Documenting Yupna Diversity
Contributor (author):James Slotta
Kensy Cooperrider
Raphael Nunez
Description:Speakers of many languages around the world rely on body-based contrasts (e.g., left/right) for spatial communication and cognition. Speakers of Yupno, a language of Papua New Guinea’s mountainous interior, rely instead on an environment-based uphill/downhill contrast. Body-based contrasts are as easy to use indoors as outdoors, but environment-based contrasts may not be. Do Yupno speakers still use uphill/downhill contrasts indoors and, if so, how? We report three studies on spatial communication within the Yupno house. Even in this flat world, uphill/downhill con- trasts are pervasive. However, the terms are not used according to the slopes beyond the house’s walls, as reported in other groups. Instead, the house is treated as a microworld, with a “concep- tual topography” that is strikingly reminiscent of the physical topography of the Yupno valley. The phenomenon illustrates some of the distinctive properties of environment-based reference systems, as well as the universal power and plasticity of spatial contrasts.
james
Format:application/pdf
Identifier:oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1064790
Identifier (URI):https://lat1.lis.soas.ac.uk/ds/asv?openpath=MPI1064790%23
Publisher:James Slotta
Subject:Secondary document
Yopno language
Subject (ISO639):yut

OLAC Info

Archive:  Endangered Languages Archive
Description:  http://www.language-archives.org/archive/soas.ac.uk
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
GetRecord:  Pre-generated XML file

OAI Info

OaiIdentifier:  oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1064790
DateStamp:  2017-05-31
GetRecord:  OAI-PMH request for simple DC format

Search Info

Citation: James Slotta; Kensy Cooperrider; Raphael Nunez. n.d. James Slotta.
Terms: area_Pacific country_PG iso639_yut

Inferred Metadata

Country: Papua New Guinea
Area: Pacific


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Up-to-date as of: Mon Oct 18 19:26:15 EDT 2021