Represents the means language has at its disposal for using a reference object in order to locate a figure. A reference frame serves to locate the figure by virtue of establishing a spatial relation holding between the figure and a reference object. This is achieved by utilising axial properties associated with the reference object in order to establish the direction and relative proximity of the figure with respect to the reference object. There is a limited set of reference frames employed by the world's languages. These can be divided into (1) reference frames that involve the reference object alone: a ground-based reference frame ; and (2) reference frames that also involve a secondary reference object. There are three reference frames of this kind: field-based reference frame, guidepost- based reference frame and projector-based reference frame.