North at the top: Cardinal directions in languages, maps, and Hollywood movies

Abstract

Humans rely on variety of different systems to describe location, with different cultures and languages having differentials in the ways they express location and movement through space. The three main ways that such spatial concepts are verbalized are: 1） relative – relating location to the speaker（ e.g., to my left; behind me）, 2） intrinsic – ascribing some fixed orientation system to an object and using this as a reference （e.g., the front of the classroom; behind the truck） and 3） absolute – referring to cardinal directions （e.g., north of the river, west of the town）. Absolute locational systems are described as being central to the spatial systems of languages such as Gugu Yimithirr and Tzeltal. It is generally assumed that speakers of such languages as English have a poor here-and-now awareness of cardinal directions and make sparse use of this resource for every day small-scale expressions of location. In this paper I will examine the way that cardinal directions are visually encoded in several mainstream Hollywood movies and suggest that although cardinality is not as prominent in English as some other languages, English speakers do orient to cardinal directions in certain visual situations and seem align with ‘north at the top’ representations in visual media, especially for larger scale narrative activities and events.