https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Index ${session.getAttribute("locale")} 5 https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:42896 Tue 06 Sep 2022 14:53:27 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:32560 Sat 29 Jul 2023 12:20:58 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:48257 Sat 11 Mar 2023 12:57:45 AEDT ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:32058 north is an abstract point on a compass, an arrow that tells you which way to hold up a map. Though scientifically defined according to the magnetic north pole, and/or the earth’s axis of rotation, these facts are not necessarily discernible to the average person. Perhaps for this reason, the Oxford English Dictionary begins with reference to the far more mundane and accessible sun and features of the human body, in defining north as; “in the direction of the part of the horizon on the left-hand side of a person facing the rising sun” (OED Online). Indeed, many of the words for ‘north’ around the world are etymologically linked to the left hand side (for example Cornish clēth ‘north, left’). We shall see later that even in English, many speakers conceptualise ‘north’ in an egocentric way. Other languages define ‘north’ in opposition to an orthogonal east-west axis defined by the sun’s rising and setting points (see, e.g., the extensive survey of Brown). Etymology aside, however, studies such as Brown’s presume a set of four cardinal directions which are available as primordial ontological categories which may (or may not) be labelled by the languages of the world. If we accept this premise, the fact that a word is translated as ‘north’ is sufficient to understand the direction it describes. There is good reason to reject this premise, however. We present data from three languages among which there is considerable variance in how the words translated as ‘north’ are typically used and understood. These languages are Kuuk Thaayorre (an Australian Aboriginal language spoken on Cape York Peninsula), Marshallese (an Oceanic language spoken in the Republic of the Marshall Islands), and Dhivehi (an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Maldives). Lastly, we consider the results of an experiment that show Australian English speakers tend to interpret the word north according to the orientation of their own bodies and the objects they manipulate, rather than as a cardinal direction as such.]]> Mon 23 Sep 2019 13:38:06 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:32443 Mon 23 Sep 2019 10:08:23 AEST ]]> https://ogma.newcastle.edu.au/vital/access/ /manager/Repository/uon:35604 Fri 13 Sep 2019 15:56:06 AEST ]]>