Inside(r)-outside(r): Toward a Linguistics and Sociology of Space on Pitcairn Island

Abstract

This article investigates how the explicit and fixed inside–outside (landward-seaward) absolute spatial axis used to describe offshore space linguistically in the Pitcairn Island language, Pitcairn, can be applied metaphorically to a more implicit and flexible social axis of insider–outsider in Pitcairn Island society. An argument merging the role of the researcher-as-outsider interacting with informant-as-insider and real and perceived social threat is advanced. The piece concludes by reasoning that descriptions of grammaticalised space in the Pitcairn language are stricter and less flexible than the potentially more fluid appreciation of the constitution of the island's insider–outsider consensus.