EXPLORATION IN THE ACQUISITION OF GEOCENTRIC LOCATION BY TZOTZIL CHILDREN

Some Australian, Austronesian, Papuan, and Mayan languages employ geoc entric locative descriptions. This form of describing both macro-and m icro-location involves fixed points of reference, based on the landsca pe or cardinal directional terms. An example glossed into English woul d be 'The axe is west of the tree'. The use of geocentric location in a Mayan language has been documented by Brown and Levinson (1993), and cognitive implications of languages with these systems have been sugg ested by Levinson (1992). The present paper describes a system of geoc entric location in Tzotzil (Mayan). It explores the development of suc h a system, previously unreported in studies of the acquisition of spa tial language. The use of the system among adults and children is pres ented on the basis of cross-sectional tasks, linguistic and ethnograph ic observations, and preliminary longitudinal work. Our findings sugge st that children acquire the system around age 4;6;2 it appears to dev elop in stages of successively more integrated frames of reference: (a ) egocentric, (b) locally anchored, and (c) abstractly coordinated. Th e acquisition of the geocentric system by Tzotzil-speaking children in the hamlet of Nabenchauk, Zinacantan, Mexico seems to follow Piagetia n predictions that projective location is acquired after topological n otions of space. However, our Tzotzil data show that Tzotzil children begin to master the geocentric system between ages 4 and 5, an age at which European children cannot systematically label their own right an d left (Piaget and Inhelder 1956). This finding suggests that the pres ence of a geocentric system in grammar may orient language learners to more rapid acquisition of a spatial skill than might be predicted by Piagetian research.