: Gunter Senft
: The Trobriand Islanders' Ways of Speaking Trobriand Islanders' Ways of Speaking
: De Gruyter Mouton
: 9783110227994
: Trends in Linguistics. Documentation [TiLDOC]ISSN
: 1
: CHF 284.20
:
: Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
: English
: 345
: Wasserzeichen/DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: PDF

The book documents the Trobriand Islanders' typology of genres. Rooted in the 'ethnography of speaking/anthropological linguistics' paradigm, the author highlights the relevance of genres for researching language, culture and cognition in social interaction and the importance of understanding them for achieving linguistic and cultural competence. Data presented is accessible via the internet.


Gunter Senft, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Preface8
Acknowledgements14
Contents16
Abbreviations20
1 Introduction22
2 Non-diatopical registers or “situational-intentional varieties” and genres in Kilivila30
3 ‘Biga bwena’, ‘biga gaga’ and ‘matua’ – ‘Good speech’, ‘bad speech’ and ‘insults, curses, swear words’38
4 ‘Biga baloma / Biga tommwaya’ and ‘Wosi milamala’ – ‘Speech of the spirits of the dead / Old peoples’ speech’ and ‘songs of the harvest festival’47
5 ‘Biga megwa’ and ‘megwa’ – ‘Magic speech’ and ‘magical formulae’61
6 ‘Biga tapwaroro’ and ‘tapwaroro’ as well as ‘wosi tapwaroro’ – ‘Language of the church’ and ‘Christian texts’ as well as ‘church songs’81
7 ‘Biga taloi’ and ‘taloi’ – ‘Greeting and parting speech’ and ‘greeting and parting formulae’93
8 ‘Biga pe’ula / biga mokwita’ and ‘yakala’, ‘kalava’, ‘kasolukuva’, and ‘liliu’ – ‘Heavy speech / true speech’ and ‘litigations’, ‘counting baskets full of yams’, ‘mourning formulae’, and ‘myths’96
9 ‘Biga sopa’ and ‘sopa’, ‘kukwanebu (sopa)’, ‘kukwanebu’, ‘kasilam’, ‘wosi’, ‘butula’, ‘vinavina’, and ‘sawila’ – ‘Joking or lying speech, indirect speech, speech which is not vouched for’ and ‘jokes’, ‘jokes in the form of a story’, ‘tales’, ‘gossip’, ‘songs’, ‘personal mocking songs’, ‘ditties’, and ‘harvest shouts’170
10 ‘Kena biga sopa kena biga mokwita’ – ‘Either joking speech or true speech’: ‘kukwanebu’ – ‘stories’, ‘kavala’ – ‘personal speeches as well as ‘luavala’ – ‘admonishing speeches’, and ‘-nigada-’ – ‘requesting’265
11 Concluding remarks: Genres, their functions and their relevance for researching the role of language, culture and cognition in social interaction and an attempt to assess the contribution of this study to the ‘ethnography of speaking’ paradigm295
Appendix I: Other metalinguistic expressions for speaking about speaking309
Appendix II: An illustrative example of mother – child interaction311
Appendix III: Outline of Kilivila grammar318
References327
Index343