| Summary: | Rather than using abstract directionals, speakers of the Australian Aboriginal language
Murrinhpatha make reference to locations of interest using named landmarks, demonstratives and
pointing. Building on a culturally prescribed avoidance for certain placenames, this study reports on the
use of demonstratives, pointing and landmarks for direction giving. Whether or not pointing will be used,
and which demonstratives will be selected is determined partly by the relative epistemic incline between
interlocutors and partly by whether information about a location is being sought or being provided. The
reliance on pointing for the representation of spatial vectors requires a construal of language that includes
the visuo-corporal modality.
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