[ Index of Recent Volumes | Previous Issue | Next Issue | Order ]

Vol. 57, no. 1 (Spring 2015)

Contents

Abstracts

Distance, Direction, and Relevance: How to Choose and Use a Demonstrative in Manambu

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Language and Culture Research Centre, James Cook University

Abstract. Manambu, a Ndu language from East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea, has a complex system of demonstratives, with many typologically unusual features. Nominal demonstratives distinguish three degrees of distance: close to speaker, close to addressee, and distal from both. They can contain markers of further distance or of topographic deixis, which reflects spatial orientation frames ‘uphill’, ‘upriver’, ‘downhill’, ‘downriver’, and ‘off-river’. A special set of demonstratives marking ‘current relevance’ can express further distance and topographic deixis. Some, but not all, demonstratives have anaphoric functions. Cataphoric functions are attested just for manner demonstratives. A noun phrase may contain two demonstratives, specifying information that cannot be expressed within one word. The article concludes with a discussion of functional markedness within the Manambu demonstrative system.

Idioms, Polysemy, and Context: A Model Based on Nigerian Arabic

Jonathan Owens
Bayreuth University

Abstract. This article contributes to the debate between monosemic and polysemic approaches to linguistic semantics by a close examination of Nigerian Arabic idiomatic expressions involving the keyword ‘head’. Three broad categories of constraints on polysemy can be identified, which limit polysemy, but not to the extent that a fully monosemic account can be motivated. An inherent, stipulative polysemy resides in idioms and in their constitutive lexemes. The attempt to motivate a monosemic account highlights factors constraining polysemy, sets limits to their effects, suggests a taxonomy which brings together essential structural and semantic aspects of idioms, and simultaneously elucidates the rich, multifaceted world of a simple lexeme.

Last updated: 17 Feb 2016
URL: https://anthling.indiana.edu/v57-1.html
Comments: anthling@indiana.edu
Copyright © 2016 Anthropological Linguistics.