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Kinship and collective activity in the Ngayarda languages of Australia*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Alan Dench
Alan Dench
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Western Australia
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Abstract

This paper describes the functions of a verbal derivational suffix found in the Ngayarda languages Panyjima, Martuthunira, Yinyjiparnti, and Kurrama. This suffix, which appears at first blush to be an essentially syntactic device very like the reciprocal suffix found in other Australian languages, may be used to indicate the existence of a particular kin relationship between participants involved in the action described by a verb. The paper presents firstly the more general functions of the suffix in the Ngayarda languages and then discusses the use of the suffix to mark kin relationships. It is argued that the general “collective activity” meaning of the suffix has generalised to the marking of certain kin relationships through the recognition that collective activity is a feature of these particular relationships. The successful analysis of the data thus relies on a knowledge of the social uses to which utterances involving the suffix are put. (Anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, syntactic theory, cultural anthropology, Australian linguistics)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 321 - 339
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

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