ASPECTS OF SPATIAL RELATIONS IN BILUGU OPO

This paper describes the semantics, syntax, and phonological behaviour of certain prominent morphemes in the grammar of spatial relations in the Bilugu dialect of Opo [lgn], a little-known language of the Koman family of Nilo-Saharan. It covers spatial relations in three broad categories: distance, location, and direction. For distance it describes the demonstrative enclitics, which differentiate three levels: proximal, medial, and distal. For location it describes how a Figure is positioned in reference to a Ground (e.g. via a predicator and the locative prefix /à-/ or certain stative verbs) and via spatial relators (nominals used in an associative relationship with the Ground to specify a particular site). For direction it describes verbs with lexical direction, marking patterns of goal and source, the deictic directional markers (a set of paradigmatically opposed suffixes that deictically orient motion), and the index directional adverb. Notably, the directional verbs and deictic directionals are shown to be primarily goal-oriented, contrary to traditional expectations that they have strictly venitive and andative orientation. Finally, in a brief discussion in the conclusion this paper shows how the description of spatial grams serves as an important foundation for approaching non-spatial grammar in Opo, since more abstract concepts such as temporal deixis and aspect are derived directly from the grammar of space.