GUUGU-YIMITHIR CARDINAL DIRECTIONS

Speakers of Guugu Yimithirr (GY) make heavy use in discourse of four r oots that mean north, south, east, and west. Describing location with cardinal directions involves principles strikingly different from syst ems based on the anatomies of reference objects, including speakers an d hearers themselves. Nonetheless, the relational and situated nature of cardinal term systems has been insufficiently appreciated. This art icle explores the linguistic details of the GY cardinal term system, t o expose the internal logic of the elaborated set of directional terms , to analyze the conceptual and ethnographic underpinnings of their us e, and to demonstrate the anchored and deictic nature of GY directiona l discourse generally.