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Spatial Frame of Reference in Amharic
This article examines spatial frame of reference in Amharic, particularly in the Godʒdʒam variety and identifies the main types of reference frame in the language. To attain the objective, real objects including culturally relevant materials are used as stimulating scenes. The study has identified that Amharic employs absolute, intrinsic and relative coordinate systems, but the latter two are mainly used in everyday language. Within absolute frame of reference, coordinate systems that depend on altitude of landscape are more common than other absolute direction system strategies (cardinals and toponyms). In most cases, the absolute frame is preferable in contexts when the figure is immobile or cannot undergo self-propelled movement (e.g., doors, houses, land). On the other hand, body part terms grammaticalize to spatial nouns with intrinsic reference frame and relative reference frame interpretations. The intrinsic coordinate systems are preferably deployed in contexts when the ground entity has the features of top and down, front and back, and left and right sides. In addition, it should arguably have a big size, if not, the relative coordinates are preferable.