Browsing results for Papuan Languages
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (1989). Modality in Mangap-Mbula: An exploration of its syntax and semantics. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, 20(1/2), 9-39.
In this paper I describe the encoding of modality in the Austronesian language Mangap-Mbula. Rather than relying upon the somewhat vague notion of “irrealis”, I propose an analysis in terms of three independent parameters – presupposition versus assertion, epistemic certainty/commitment, and factuality – and characterize these parameters using a more controlled semantic metalanguage. The latter parameter is somewhat deictic in nature, encoding a proposition which has been true at a specific time prior to the time of utterance or some other deictic center.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (1990). Experiential constructions in Mangap-Mbula. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 10(2), 183-215. DOI: 10.1080/07268609008599441
A variety of constructions used to express experiential notions in the Austronesian language Mangap-Mbula are examined and their meanings explicated. By an “experiential situation” is meant a situation in which something “happens” to an animate entity – someone or something who is able to know that something is happening. Furthermore, the animate entity does not affect or produce any other entity, including himself/herself. Experiential situations are encoded in Mangap-Mbula by six overall construction types:
- uninflected experiential verbs with coreferential Experiencer Subjects and Objects
This subclass contains just five items, two of which are explicated: menmeen ‘happy (about)’ and kaipa ‘selfishly rejoice (over)’.
Since there are only a few verbs in the language which encode experiential notions, a number of other constructions are employed as well. They include:
- inflected experiential verbs with experiencer subjects
This subclass includes verbs of knowledge; verbs of perception, including –re ‘see, look’ and –leŋ ‘hear, listen’; verbs encoding semi-controllable physical states; the verb –mbot ‘stay, be at, be alive’; verbs encoding emotional responses, including –morsop ‘be startled’, –murur ‘be surprised’, and –twer ‘worried about, longing for’); verbs encoding uncontrolled physical states; the verb –moto ‘fear’; the verb –mbel ‘be in trouble’
- inflected experiential verbs with experiencer objects
- a construction involving the verb –kam, a polysemous form which can be variously glossed as ‘do, cause, receive, get’
- a construction in which the forms le– and ka– are added immediately following the verb
- body image expressions
More important than all of the above, however, are body image constructions, in which a body part plus a verb function together as a kind of composite predicate.
The final section of the paper is a study of the different encodings of the notion of ‘fear’.
Tags: (E) ka-, (E) kaipa, (E) kokena, (E) kuli- imoto, (E) le, (E) leŋ, (E) mbel, (E) menmeen, (E) morsop, (E) moto, (E) moto- ikam, (E) murur, (E) ni- imozooro, (E) re, (E) twer
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Pawley, Andrew (1994). Kalam exponents of lexical and semantic primitives. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 387-422). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.19paw
For most of the proposed primitives it is not hard to find one or more Kalam equivalents. Most concepts on the list of primitives have one or more translation equivalents. However, there are a few problematic cases, namely those in which: (a) Kalam has two partial equivalents (WANT); (b) Kalam has a translation equivalent but this term has a more general meaning which subsumes the putative primitive (‘mental predicates’, especially KNOW, FEEL, and SAY; IF). The question arises in these cases whether the general meaning is properly analysed into a number of distinct senses, one of which coincides with the primitive, or whether it is better left unanalysed with specific interpretations determined by pragmatic factors.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (1994). The exponents of semantic primitives in Mangap-Mbula. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical Universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 87-108). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.08bug
This paper examines the applicability of the proposed set of lexical and semantic universals to Mangap-Mbula, an Austronesian language spoken in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 28, 2018.
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (2001). Emotions and the nature of persons in Mbula. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 73-118). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.69
The present paper seeks to precisely specify the meanings of a number of emotion expressions in the Mbula language of Papua New Guinea, focussing on those involving body part images. In doing so, use is made of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
Explications are proposed for a number of mata- phrases, many of which relate to seeing (mata = ‘eye’) and to emotions triggered by seeing (e.g. jealousy). Lele- phrases (lele = ‘insides’), kete- phrases (kete = ‘chest/liver’), ni- phrases (ni = ‘being’), kuli- phrases (kuli = ‘skin’), and kopo- phrases (kopo = ‘stomach’) are surveyed as well, each with their related emotions. Body parts less frequently used in body image
expressions are included towards the end of the paper
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ikam- phrases, (E) kete- phrases, (E) kopo- phrases, (E) kuli- phrases, (E) kwo- phrases, (E) lele- phrases, (E) mata- phrases, (E) ni- phrases, (E) ŋgure- phrases, (E) talŋa- phrases, (E) ur koi pa
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Priestley, Carol (2002). Insides and emotion in Koromu. Pragmatics & Cognition, 10(1/2), 243-270. DOI: 10.1075/pc.10.12.11pri
This paper describes several emotion expressions in Koromu, a language of Papua New Guinea. As in other languages, emotions can be expressed by reference to body events and processes. Bodily images are used for common and pertinent emotion expressions in Koromu; the alternative grammatical constructions in which some of these expressions occur enable speakers to express varying emotions while still indicating that there are shared semantic components between the expressions. In addition, as the emotion expressions are examined and their meanings explicated, a number of universal concepts and components of meaning can be observed. A study of these language-specific expressions therefore contributes to a cross-linguistic understanding of the relationship between emotion and the body.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) oru mei hekeni wera, (E) oru mere, (E) oru mere mae, (E) oru mereri, (E) oru meresera
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (2002). The syntax of semantic primes in Mangaaba-Mbula. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Meaning and universal grammar: Theory and empirical findings. Vol. II (pp. 1-64). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.61.06bug
The present chapter describes the syntax of the proposed NSM semantic primes in Mangaaba-Mbula, an Austronesian language spoken on Umboi Island in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea by around 3500 people.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Priestley, Carol (2008). The semantics of “inalienable possession” in Koromu (PNG). In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 277-300). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.18pri
This chapter examines the semantics of “inalienable possession” constructions in Koromu, a Madang language of Papua New Guinea. Person and number suffixes or enclitics mark head nouns in possessive nominal constructions and indicate the person and number of the “possessor”. Inanimate, animate and
partially animate nominal constructions describe relationships between two inanimates, two animates, or an animate and an inanimate referent, respectively. The key relationship between the two entities varies across these subtypes but rather than “possession” in the sense of ownership, it commonly
involves the concept ‘part of’; for example, in ‘parts of things’, ‘parts of the same thing’ and things which are ‘like a part of something’. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage is used to explicate the meaning of these constructions.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Brotherson, Anna (2008). The ethnogeometry of Makasai (East Timor). In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 259-276). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.17bro
The identification of language universals has long been a topic of interest. This article tests a number of theories in relation to universal human conceptualisation of space, by analysing spatial concepts in the Papuan language Makasai (East Timor). This analysis is conducted within the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). This chapter provides detailed NSM explications for various Makasai shape adjectives, which are then compared and contrasted with spatial terms of English (Wiezbicka 2003, 2006). This analysis finds that while a number of posited language universals are indeed present in Makasai, others are not, and therefore should no longer be considered
universal. The chapter also demonstrates the value of using NSM in the search for language universals, and for analysing and comparing spatial terms across languages.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 22, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (2010). Semantic molecules and semantic complexity (with special reference to “environmental” molecules). Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 8(1), 123-155. DOI: 10.1075/ml.8.1.05god
In the NSM approach to semantic analysis, semantic molecules are a well-defined set of non-primitive lexical meanings in a given language that function as intermediate-level units in the structure of complex meanings in that language. After reviewing existing work on the molecules concept (including the notion of levels of nesting), the paper advances a provisional list of about 180 productive semantic molecules for English, suggesting that a small minority of these (about 25) may be universal. It then turns close attention to a set of potentially universal level-one molecules from the “environmental” domain (‘sky’, ‘ground’, ‘sun’, ‘day’, ‘night’ ‘water’ and ‘fire’), proposing a set of original semantic explications for them. Finally, the paper considers the theoretical implications of the molecule theory for our understanding of semantic complexity, cross-linguistic variation in the structure of the lexicon, and the translatability of semantic explications.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) children, (E) day, (E) ends, (E) fire, (E) ground, (E) hands, (E) head, (E) hot, (E) legs, (E) long, (E) moon, (E) night, (E) podłużny, (E) round, (E) sky, (E) sun, (E) sweet, (E) tapu, (E) water, (E) women, (T) English, (T) Japanese, (T) semantic molecules, (T) Spanish
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Priestley, Carol (2012). The expression of potential event modality in the Papuan language of Koromu. In Maia Ponsonnet, Loan Dao, & Margit Bowler (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Australian Linguistic Society Conference – 2011 (pp. 389-422). http://hdl.handle.net/1885/9404. PDF (open access)
This paper aims to give an overview of the morphosyntax and semantics of potential event modality in
Koromu (Kesawai), a Madang language in the Papuan group. Potential event modality refers to Palmer’s “events that are not actualized…but are merely potential” (2001: 70). Some characteristics of event modality are compared with English and other Papuan/regional languages. The study is based on Koromu data in recorded texts, collected over a number of years and on earlier grammatical analysis. Meanings are represented in semantic explications in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, a metalanguage that can be used in many different languages. The findings include a range of constructions and meanings for “imperative” and “desiderative” type expressions, a distinction between external, internal and negative desires, and strategies for testing meaning and grammar analysis with Koromu speakers.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Priestley, Carol (2012). Koromu temporal expressions: Semantic and cultural perspectives. In Luna Filipovic, & Kasia Jaszczolt (Eds.), Space and time in languages and cultures: Language, culture and cognition (pp. 143-165). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/hcp.37.12pri
This chapter examines different types of time expressed in Koromu (Kesawai), a Papuan language, to show the interaction of time expressions with cultural and environmental contexts and to investigate semantic description. Meanings are explicated in a metalanguage based on semantic primitives. The discovery of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) temporal primes and investigation of semantic molecules, non-primitive meanings that occur within the meaning of other concepts, promotes comparative and contrastive semantic description. The finding of culture-specific concepts referring to ‘time-’ and ‘event-based’ time intervals, linear and cyclical time, suggests that a range of expressions need consideration when cultural perspectives are assessed.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 3, 2019.
Priestley, Carol (2013). Social categories, shared experience, reciprocity and endangered meanings: Examples from Koromu (PNG). Australian Journal of Linguistics, 33(3), 257-281. DOI: 10.1080/07268602.2013.846457
Speakers of many Trans New Guinea or Papuan languages use a number of reciprocal person-referring expressions. Various examples are found in the Papuan language of Koromu, spoken in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. This paper examines the meanings of Koromu reciprocal expressions that recall shared past experiences, in particular, social category terms connected with coming of age events and spontaneous nicknames created at the time events occur in the course of everyday life. The meanings are explicated in clear simple terms using Natural Semantic Metalanguage primes. The
explications point to important aspects of social cognition, including identification with significant others based on shared experience and relational concepts of personhood. Although this study points to the possibility of some language endangerment for some meanings, it also indicates the ongoing cultural importance of shared experiences, including commensality, in both rites of passage and everyday life.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 1, 2019.
Priestley, Carol (2014). The semantics and morphosyntax of tare “hurt/pain” in Koromu (PNG): Verbal and nominal constructions. International Journal of Language and Culture, 1(2), 253-271.
DOI: 10.1075/ijolc.1.2.07pri
Abstract:
This paper examines the words and constructions that Koromu speakers (PNG) use to talk about tare ‘hurt/pain’ and other painful sensations. It also reflects on links to cultural and environmental influences in daily life and key life events, environmental knowledge and traditional health care. Terms such as warike ‘be/feel bad’, tare ‘hurt/pain’, perere ‘hurt: sting, cut, burn’, and kaho ‘ache: burn, pierce’ are used in different constructions with varying emphases. These constructions are among the most typologically interesting in Koromu grammar. They are related to, but also distinct from, constructions found in other Papuan languages. They include experiencer object constructions, serial verb constructions with the grammaticized valency-increasing verb here/he put, and nominal constructions with, or without, prominent noun-phrase marking.
More information:
Reissued as:
Priestley, Carol (2016). The semantics and morphosyntax of tare “hurt/pain” in Koromu (PNG): Verbal and nominal constructions. In Cliff Goddard & Zhengdao Ye (Eds.), “Happiness” and “pain” across languages and cultures (pp. 123-141). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/bct.84.07pri
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) kaho, (E) perere, (E) tare, (E) warike, (S) pain, (T) Koromu, (T) Tok Pisin
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Priestley, Carol (2017). Some key body parts and polysemy: A case study from Koromu (Kesawai). In Zhengdao Ye (Ed.), The semantics of nouns (pp. 147-179). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198736721.003.0006
This chapter discusses body part nouns, a part of language that is central to human life, and the polysemy that arises in connection with them. Examples from everyday speech and narrative in various contexts are examined in a Papuan language called Koromu and semantic characteristics of body part nouns in other studies are also considered. Semantic templates are developed for nouns that represent highly visible body parts: for example, wapi ‘hands/arms’, ehi ‘feet/legs’, and their related parts. Culture-specific explications are expressed in a natural metalanguage that can be translated into Koromu to avoid the cultural bias inherent in using other languages and to reveal both distinctive semantic components and similarities to cross-linguistic examples.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (various body parts) (Koromu), (E) arms, (E) ehi (Koromu), (E) ehi ahane (Koromu), (E) ehi tikirine (Koromu), (E) hands, (E) tekere (Koromu), (E) wapi, (E) wapi ahane, (E) wapi serene, (E) wapi tikiri/tekere
