Presentations

Abstract

Children on the Trobriand Islands are breastfed until they can walk - usually at about the age of 2 years. When they have reached this stage of their development, they are abruptly weaned and the parents – especially the mothers – dramatically reduce the amount of pervasive loving care and attention that their children experienced before this traumatic moment in their lives. To compensate for this deficit in their experience of intimate social bonding, the children have to find a place and position within the children’s groups in their village. In these groups the children gradually take over specific roles which they internalize and thus secure the continuance of norms that are accessible by appearance alone. In the various playgroups and in their children’s group the children also learn that they have to obey and follow certain norms which as implicit social rules govern social life and interaction within their community. Norms which affect the understanding of gender roles and sex differences are directly experienced by children when they are playing together. Between the age of two and 7 years the children also learn to control their emotions in order to behave according to the norms, rules and values that are valid for the Trobrianders’ community. During this time of their life they acquire a relatively strict form of self-discipline, which is necessary to keep the balance between the individuals within their open and very public society. This implies that they also have to learn to laugh about themselves, even in situations when they feel deeply insulted. During this acquisition process the pragmatic concept of the "biga sopa" - the joking language, the language which is not vouched for (see Senft 2010: 149ff) - plays the most important role for the overall socialization process on the Trobriands. By gradually acquiring the basic concepts and the rules and norms of language use that is manifest in the biga sopa concept, children realize more and more that they can behave properly and adequately with respect to all situations they experience not only in their everyday life, but also in the ritualized forms of life within their community. This provides them with an important emotional security and with a general aplomb. The practicing of the forms of verbal and non-verbal behavior that conform to the Trobrianders’ social norms takes place while playing with other children in the playgroups; it is controlled by older members of the children’s groups. Thus, it is the children's "small republic" ” (Malinowski 1929: 44f.) which provides the most important framework for their socialization into their culture. The attempts of parental education are confined to a minimum.

References:

Malinowski, Bronislaw. 1929. The Sexual Life of Savages in Northwestern Melanesia. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Senft, Gunter. 2010. The Trobriand Islanders' Ways of Speaking. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.

Abstract

This talk provides an inevitably subjective summing up of experiences I made during 30 years of field research on the Trobriand Islands. I first provide some information about how I came to do this kind of research. Then I briefly introduce the Trobriand Islands, their inhabitants and some central aspects of their language and their culture. To illustrate my situation as a greenhorn in the Pacific at the beginning of my staying in the field, I briefly mention some of the mistakes I made, some misunderstandings and some forms of my misbehavior with respect to Trobriand etiquette and conventions. A brief survey on the research I carried out there is followed by a discussion of aspects of language and culture change which I witnessed and documented between 1982 and 2012. The presentation ends with some unfortunately pessimistic prospects on the Trobrianders' future which is severely challenged by overpopulation and climate change affecting the Islands.

Abstract

Kilivila, the Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea, has a rich inventory of terms - nouns, verbs, adjectives and idiomatic phrases and expressions - to precisely refer to, and to differentiate emotions and inner feelings. This paper describes how the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea deal with the public display of emotions. Forms of emotion control in public encounters are discussed and explained on the basis of ritual communication which pervades the Trobrianders' verbal and non-verbal behavior. Especially highlighted is the Trobrianders' metalinguistic concept of "biga sopa" with its important role for emotion control in encounters that may run the risk of escalating from argument and conflict to aggression and violence.

Abstract

Pragmatics is the discipline within linguistics that deals with actual language use. Language use is not only dependent on linguistic, that is grammatical and lexical knowledge, but also on cultural, situative and interpersonal contexts and conventions. One of the central aims of pragmatics is to research how context and convention – in their broadest sense – contribute to meaning and understanding. Thus, the social and cultural embedding of meaning is a central prerequisite for understanding pragmatics. Research in linguistic pragmatics deals with how speakers use their language(s) in various situations and contexts: what speakers do when they speak and why they do it. Pragmatics focuses on the actual language users, their communicative behavior, their world and their point of view. Pragmatics studies language and its meaningful use from the perspective of language users embedded in their situational, behavioral, cultural, societal and political contexts, using a broad variety of methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches depending on specific research questions and interests. Indeed, if we look at core domains of the discipline, we realize that linguistic pragmatics can be regarded as a transdiscipline that is relevant for, and has its predecessors in, many other disciplines such as Philosophy, Psychology, Ethology, Ethnology, Sociology and the Political Sciences. In this talk I take up this point and discuss a selection of core issues of Pragmatics that were introduced into the field via these six disciplines.

Abstract

Dieser Vortrag gibt zunächst einen Überblick darüber, wie die Trobriander im Alltag sprachlich auf „Zeit“ und auf „Aktionen & Handlungsabläufe in der Zeit“ verweisen; dann wird das trobriandische Konzept von „Zeit“ vorgestellt, wie es sich in der wichtigsten Periode im Jahresverlauf, nämlich im Zeitraum der „milamala“ genannten Erntefeiern und in all den diese Feiern begleitenden Ritualen und Zeremonien manifestiert.

Abstract

In my talk I emphasize that with respect to levels of endangerment Kilivila, the Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea, can still be classified as a viable but relatively small language: it is "spoken in [a community] that [is relatively] isolated [and] with a strong internal organization, and aware of the way [its] language is a marker of identity" (Crystal 2000:20). However, I also point out that two of its varieties, the ‘biga megwa’ – the ‘language of magic’ and the ‘biga baloma’ – the ‘language of the spirits of the dead’ are highly endangered and actually moribund these days. I first present examples of text genres that constitute these two indigenous varieties of Kilivila and then explain how and why they have to be classified as being doomed to die. The presentation ends with an assessment of this development and its impact on the language and culture of the Trobriand Islanders.

Abstract

This talk provides an inevitably subjective summing up of experiences I made during 30 years of field research on the Trobriand Islands. I first provide some information about how I came to do this kind of research. Then I briefly introduce the Trobriand Islands, their inhabitants and some central aspects of their language and their culture. To illustrate my situation as a greenhorn in the Pacific at the beginning of my staying in the field, I briefly mention some of the mistakes I made, some misunderstandings and some forms of my misbehavior with respect to Trobriand etiquette and conventions. A brief survey on the research I carried out there is followed by a discussion of aspects of language and culture change which I witnessed and documented between 1982 and 2012. The presentation ends with some unfortunately pessimistic prospects on the Trobrianders' future which is severely challenged by overpopulation and climate change affecting the Islands.

Abstract

This talk provides an inevitably subjective summing up of experiences I made during 30 years of field research on the Trobriand Islands. I first provide some information about how I came to do this kind of research. Then I briefly introduce the Trobriand Islands, their inhabitants and some central aspects of their language and their culture. To illustrate my situation as a greenhorn in the Pacific at the beginning of my staying in the field, I briefly mention some of the mistakes I made, some misunderstandings and some forms of my misbehavior with respect to Trobriand etiquette and conventions. A brief survey on the research I carried out there is followed by a discussion of aspects of language and culture change which I witnessed and documented between 1982 and 2012. The presentation ends with some unfortunately pessimistic prospects on the Trobrianders' future which is severely challenged by overpopulation and climate change affecting the Islands.

Abstract

This talk provides a survey of the geographical distribution of gender and classifier systems in the languages of the world - based on the WALS and on Alexandra Aikhenvald's monograph "Classifiers" published in 2000 by Oxford University Press.

Abstract

Pragmatics is the discipline within linguistics that deals with actual language use. Language use is not only dependent on linguistic, that is grammatical and lexical knowledge, but also on cultural, situative and interpersonal contexts and conventions. One of the central aims of pragmatics is to research how context and convention – in their broadest sense – contribute to meaning and understanding. Thus, the social and cultural embedding of meaning is a central prerequisite for understanding pragmatics. Research in linguistic pragmatics deals with how speakers use their language(s) in various situations and contexts: what speakers do when they speak and why they do it. Pragmatics focuses on the actual language users, their communicative behaviour, their world and their point of view, in short, ‘the total human context of [language] use’ (Mey 1994: 3265). Pragmatics studies language and its meaningful use from the perspective of language users embedded in their situational, behavioural, cultural, societal and political contexts, using a broad variety of methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches depending on specific research questions and interests. Indeed, if we look at core domains of the discipline, we realize that linguistic pragmatics can be regarded as a transdiscipline that is relevant for, and has its predecessors in, many other disciplines such as Philosophy, Psychology, Ethology, Ethnology, Sociology and the Political Sciences. In this talk I take up this point and briefly discuss a selection of core issues of Pragmatics that were introduced into the field via these six disciplines (see Senft 2014). References: Mey, Jacob. 1994. Pragmatics. In R. E. Asher and J. M. Y. Simpson (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 6, 3260-3278. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Senft, Gunter. 2014. Understanding Pragmatics. London: Routledge