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In:Variation Rolls the Dice: A worldwide collage in honour of Salikoko S. Mufwene
Edited by Enoch O. Aboh and Cécile B. Vigouroux
[Contact Language Library 59] 2021
► pp. 105–131

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Acquisition or shift?

Interpreting variation in Gurindji children’s expression of spatial relations

 | ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
 | ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
 | ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language | School of Languages and Cultures, University of Queensland
Published online: 12 October 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/coll.59.05dun
Abstract
This chapter examines the spatial description system employed by Gurindji children in Kalkaringi (Northern Territory, Australia) to describe ternary relations in small-scale space. While Gurindji is the traditional language of Kalkaringi, a new variety, Gurindji Kriol, has developed as a result of language contact, and is now the first language of young adults and children. Speakers of Gurindji use cardinal directions in descriptions of both small-scale and large-scale space, whereas cardinal terms are almost never used to describe small-scale in naturally-occurring Gurindji Kriol speech. We show that the strategies preferred by children differ from those used by their parents, who produce predominantly cardinal descriptions. Instead, Gurindji Kriol-speaking children show variable use between cardinals and landmark-based strategies.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The absolute FoR, bilingualism and language change
  • 3.Changes in the use of the absolute frame of reference
  • 4.Experimental task: “Man and Tree”
    • 4.1Procedure
    • 4.2Participants
    • 4.3Coding
    • 4.4Summary of major strategies used
      • 4.4.1Children’s use of cardinals
      • 4.4.2Children’s use of landmarks
    • 4.5Discussion
      • 4.5.1Acquisition or language change?
      • 4.5.2A landmark-based or quasi-absolute system?
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (45)
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