Research Catalog

Title

Speaking Kunjen : an ethnography of Oykangand kinship and communication / Bruce A. Sommer.

Author

Sommer, B. A.

Publication

Canberra : Pacific Linguistics, 2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Australian National University. Pacific Linguistics

Description

xvii, 248 p. : ill., map; 25 cm.

Summary

This book examines the interface between language and kinship in the Australian Aboriginal language Kunjen which is spoken in the Cape York region of northern Queensland . The author shows that kinship relations play a major role in determining the kinds of linguistic interactions that are appropriate for different groups of individuals. The social meaning of utterances depends more than anything else on kinship and one's kin relations with those one communicates with. The rules of interpretation used by Kunjen speakers to mediate kinship and language are as complex and as pervasive as the grammatical rules of the language itself, and help to reveal aspects of linguistic structure that might not otherwise be obvious. Conversely, kinship structures can be illuminated, if not revealed, by the study of language use.

Series Statement

Pacific linguistics ; 582

Uniform Title

Pacific linguistics 582.

Subject

• Oykangand language > Social aspects
• Aboriginal Australians > Kinship > Terminology. > Australia > Cape York Peninsula (Qld.)

Genre/Form

Terminology

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-248).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Languages and kinship: a beginning -- Introducing the Oykangand: location and neighbours; The Oykangand and the character of this study; Donald Crimm and Kunjen kinship; The use of kinship terms and personal names -- Theoretical matters I: The Kariera kinship model -- Theoretical matters II: frames of reference: the work of Michael H. Agar; Frames from yet other scholarship; Further traditions of scholarship; This ethnography -- Kinship and language 1: descent and alliabce: what kinship means to verbal behaviour -- a beginning; An exception: when kinship doesn't count; Oykangand kinship; A theory of Oykangand kinship; The derivation of kin terms I; The "great grandson" rule; Linguistic adjustments to apparent generational discrepancies; Sister exchange; First cousin marriage prohibitions; The "change of generation" rule; Avoidance ad infinitum; "Male wives" and "female" husbands; The derivation of kin terms II; Body parts and kin terms; Living with the system; A system of adjustments -- Kinship and language II: disrespect, respect and the Obm curse: apparent disrespect: obscene joking; Obscene joking and verbal abuse; The function of swearing in jural redress; Joking and avoidance; Practical jokes; The forms of avoidance: social; linguistic; The respect vocabulary; OBM: "poison" -- Kinship and language III: the language of death: the Oykangand traditions of grief and separation; The ritual cleansing: smell, smoke and fire; Release and remarriage; The derivation and use of kin terms III -- Names and naming: Inheritance: myths, and the problem of named sections; Personal names and story-figures; Naming the species; Shared names; The name of the dead; Summary: names, naming and kinship -- Conclusions: overview; Some general themes; Methodological and practical limitations; Frames; Kinship and the frame -- Appendix: Conventions for representing the Oykangand language and kinship: language; Morphology; Other conventions; Kinship -- Appendix 2: Texts: introduction; Lawrence's new gun; The Bowman story; Patsy and Carolyn: sex and booze; Minnie's lament; Abmbandhang; Geese eggs: version I, version II.

ISBN

0858835576

LCCN

^^2007386948

OCLC

• 122334007
• SCSB-12006740

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library