Reviewed by Wolfgang Schulze, University of Munich

Since the late 1980’s, studies in the grammar of space (i.e. spatial grammar) have become a focus of both cognitive linguistics and functional descriptivism. This book is another highly welcomed contribution to this growing field of interdisciplinary linguistics. Gabriele Cablitz does not assert that the grammar of a language emerges from basic spatial or locational strategies in cognition. Rather, she concentrates on those grammatical and lexico-semantic domains and categories that are said to reflect spatiality in terms of source domains.

The book includes eight chapters, half of which are devoted to the details of the Marquesan grammar of space. Marquesan is a partly endangered Central Eastern Polynesian language spoken on the Marquesas (a part of French Polynesia). After describing the basic layout of the book and its general aims, Ch. 2 introduces the ‘Ethnographic and linguistic background and methodology’ of Marquesan and addresses issues of field work and methodology. C not only refers to data that stem from direct elicitation and text recordings but also employs several tests that are related to drawing and photo recognition and other types of tasks and games (e.g. route description). All games and tasks are nicely documented in an appendix. This volume is thus based on a broad variety of data that go beyond what is usually included in standard descriptive grammars.

Ch. 3 summarizes the grammar of (Northwest) Marquesan. This comprehensive chapter (roughly 150 pages) is a highly developed presentation of Marquesan, which by itself has the value of a monograph. Ch. 4 turns to the peculiarities of a grammar of space, discussing the relevant parameters from a cognitive and psycholinguistic point of view. This section can serve as a guideline for analogous studies in other languages.

Ch. 5 presents a ‘Semantic and morphosyntactic analysis of locative constructions in North Marquesan’. Using a construction-based approach, C provides both a survey and an analysis of several types of locative constructions, arranged according to the type of grounded reference (e.g. place names, body parts, local nouns) indicated. The world of ‘Modifiers in locative constructions’ is the theme of Ch. 6. The analyses nicely demonstrate the extent to which such locational or directional particles can modify the semantics of a locative construction. Ch. 7, ‘Usage of locative constructions in large-scale and small scale reference’, addresses the Marquesan strategies to linguistically express different types of orientation. C distinguishes large-scale (e.g. ‘bay’, ‘ocean’, ‘up’, and ‘down’) from small-scale reference (e.g. intrinsic reference) before describing preferred frames of reference and aspects of topology. Ch. 8 is a helpful summary of the data and analyses.

In sum, the methodologically convincing Marquesan: A grammar of space is a major step towards unveiling and describing the spatial foundations of grammar.