The Shifting Now: Aspect, Deixis, and Narrative in Classic Maya Texts

Abundant and complex, Maya hieroglyphic texts serve as a crucial resource for understanding pre-Columbian narrative. This essay documents and discusses the discursive structure of Maya texts. New evidence on glyphic aspect and deixis show the presence of a "shifting now" or "alternati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American anthropologist 1997-06, Vol.99 (2), p.291-305
Main Author: Houston, Stephen D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American civilisations
Art and archaeology
Deixis
Hieroglyphics
Historic artifacts
Language
Linguistic anthropology
Linguistic research
Linguistics
Maya
Mayan civilization
Mayan culture
Mayas
Mexico
Mexico and Central America civilisations
Narratives
Orthographies
Phonetics
South Amerindians
Syllables
Verbs
Writing systems
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Summary:Abundant and complex, Maya hieroglyphic texts serve as a crucial resource for understanding pre-Columbian narrative. This essay documents and discusses the discursive structure of Maya texts. New evidence on glyphic aspect and deixis show the presence of a "shifting now" or "alternating historical incompletive" in Classic narratives. There were two possible motivations for this pattern: to sequence events and establish textual boundaries between incompletive events and, more speculatively, to provide performance cues from hieroglyphic inscriptions.
ISSN:0002-7294
1548-1433
DOI:10.1525/aa.1997.99.2.291