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Where - Whither - Whence: Spatial interrogatives and their adverbial demonstrative equivalents in Europe and far beyond

Subject Area General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
Term from 2016 to 2019
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 319446122
 
Final Report Year 2019

Final Report Abstract

Every language employs expressions for the purpose of spatial orientation. Question words and their functional equivalents belong to this class. They serve to inquire about the location in space (where?), the direction of a movement (whither)?) or the point of departure (whence?). The project addresses the question whether the world’s languages treat these expressions and the relations between them identically. To crosscheck the results the same question was raised in connection to those expressions which function as simple answers to where?, whither?, whence?, vis. here/there, hither/thither and hence/thence. The comparison was meant to clarify whether languages organise their grammars of space homogeneously. Two subprojects looked at the problems. Where?, whither?, whence? were studied on the basis of 450 languages, here/there, hither/thither and hence/thence were studied on the basis of 250 languages. The results show that languages prefer to use expressions of different complexity for the different spatial relations. More often than not location at a place (where?/here/there) receives the simplest expression. In contrast the point of departure (whence?/hence/thence) requires almost without exception the most complex expression. In between these two categories, whither?/hither/thither occupies an intermediate position. The expressions are mostly more complex than those of where?/here/there but simpler than those of whence?/hence/thence. It is possible to translate this into a hierarchy according to which PLACE is more basic than GOAL and this in turn is relatively basic in comparison to SOURCE. In addition to the differences in complexity we have looked also at the possibility of spatial relations being expressed identically in individual languages. The two subprojects prove clearly that languages prefer to keep where?/here/there, whither?/hither/thither and whence?/hence/ thence formally distinct. Certain other patterns, however, are attested only exceptionally (e.g. where?/here/there = whence?/hence/thence or whence?/hence/thence = whither?/hither/thither). Languages which have the same expression for all three spatial relations are especially frequent in Africa but almost completely absent from Europe. This largely parallel behaviour of genetically, structurally, and geographically very diverse languages strikes the eye. A further “surprise” is the fact that the vast majority of the sample languages uses the same principles for where?, whither?, whence? and here/there, hither/thither, hence/thence. This suggests that it is preferable for languages to employ a relatively homogeneous grammar of space. However, there is a sizable group of languages which diverge from the picture of homogeneity. Therefore, it is advisable to conduct follow-up studies to determine which factors are favourable for homogeneity or variation to apply.

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