The construal of directional landscapes

This review article takes the recent dissertation by Christoph Winter, Der Kompass der Nordfriesen (2023), inspired by similar work by Hovmark (2007) investigating traditional Danish dialects, as the point of departure in a discussion of a number of theoretical and analytical issues related to the investigation of spatial language. Winter demonstrates an extensive use of the absolute frame of reference in the traditional North Frisian language communities, and he shows how this use is closely connected with historical and socio-cultural factors. Focusing on the argumentation relating to the spatial encoding by the directional adverbs (the subject in Hovmark 2007), the article points to the relevance of a detailed use of concepts like motion event, viewpoint, conceptualization, conventionalization, and speech situation among others in the analysis. On this basis, various proposals are made with relevance not only for Winter (2023) but for the study of spatial language in motion events in general.