The case of pidgin and creole languages - Linguistics

2. Kilivila.
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In a task in which participants were asked to describe a picture to a partner, speakers of
Kilivila used an intrinsic system. These pictures displayed a man in various
configurations relative to a tree (e.g., tree on right/man on left, tree on left/man on right,
man in front of tree on left). Kilivila participants always took the role of the man and
described the tree as being at the man's chest, back, etc. Importantly, this system gives
underspecified descriptions: a picture in which the man is on the left facing a tree on the
right has the same description as a picture in which the man is on the right facing a tree
on the left. Both are described as “tree at the man's chest”. (Pederson et al 1998)
3. Longgo
One other nearby language, Longgo, spoken on the Solomon Islands, uses “local nouns”
meaning behind, in front, inside, beside, under/beneath, on/above, and in the center
(Senft, ed. 1997: 104). However, in most situations, Longgo uses absolute directions
(north/south/east/west) to describe the locations of objects.
Importantly, there is no indication of an intrinsic spatial system in Tok Pisin, nor of the
unusual spatial semantics of Yélî Dnye.
Structurally, Papuan and Austronesian languages express spatial locations in a variety of
ways. Some, like Takia and Waskia, use postpositions, while others have prepositions or,
like Wedau and Tawala, place prepositions in the middle of the phrase. Notably, the
language Gedaged has a postposition lon, meaning 'in'.