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Senft, G. (2020). “.. to grasp the native's point of view..” — A plea for a holistic documentation of the Trobriand Islanders' language, culture and cognition. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 24(1), 7-30. doi:10.22363/2687-0088-2020-24-1-7-30.
Abstract
In his famous introduction to his monograph “Argonauts of the Western Pacific” Bronislaw
Malinowski (1922: 24f.) points out that a “collection of ethnographic statements, characteristic
narratives, typical utterances, items of folk-lore and magical formulae has to be given as a corpus
inscriptionum, as documents of native mentality”. This is one of the prerequisites to “grasp the
native's point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world”. Malinowski managed
to document a “Corpus Inscriptionum Agriculturae Quriviniensis” in his second volume of “Coral
Gardens and their Magic” (1935 Vol II: 79-342). But he himself did not manage to come up with a
holistic corpus inscriptionum for the Trobriand Islanders. One of the main aims I have been pursuing
in my research on the Trobriand Islanders' language, culture, and cognition has been to fill this
ethnolinguistic niche. In this essay, I report what I had to do to carry out this complex and ambitious
project, what forms and kinds of linguistic and cultural competence I had to acquire, and how I
planned my data collection during 16 long- and short-term field trips to the Trobriand Islands
between 1982 and 2012. The paper ends with a critical assessment of my Trobriand endeavor. -
Senft, G. (2020). Kampfschild - vayola. In T. Brüderlin, S. Schien, & S. Stoll (
Eds. ), Ausgepackt! 125Jahre Geschichte[n] im Museum Natur und Mensch (pp. 58-59). Freiburg: Michael Imhof Verlag.Additional information
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Senft, G. (2020). 32 Kampfschild - dance or war shield - vayola. In T. Brüderlin, & S. Stoll (
Eds. ), Ausgepackt! 125Jahre Geschichte[n] im Museum Natur und Mensch. Texte zur Ausstellung, Städtische Museen Freiburg, vom 20. Juni 2020 bis 10. Januar 2021 (pp. 76-77). Freiburg: Städtische Museen. -
Senft, G. (2006). Prolegomena to Kilivila grammar of space. In S. C. Levinson, & D. P. Wilkins (
Eds. ), Grammars of space: Explorations in cognitive diversity (pp. 206-229). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Abstract
This paper presents preliminary remarks on some of the central linguistic means speakers of Kilivila use in expressing their conceptions of space and for referring to objects, persons, and events in space . After a brief characterisation of the language and its speakers, I sketch how specific topological relations are encoded, how motion events are described, and what frames of spatial reference are preferred in what contexts for what means and ends. -
Senft, G. (2006). Völkerkunde und Linguistik: Ein Plädoyer für interdisziplinäre Kooperation. Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik, 34, 87-104.
Abstract
Starting with Hockett’s famous statement on the relationship between linguistics and anthropology - "Linguistics without anthropology is sterile; anthropology without linguistics is blind” - this paper first discusses the historic perspective of the topic. This discussion starts with Herder, Humboldt and Schleiermacher and ends with the present debate on the interrelationship of anthropology and linguistics. Then some excellent examples of interdisciplinary projects within anthropological linguistics (or linguistic anthropology) are presented. And finally it is illustrated why Hockett is still right. -
Senft, G. (2006). A biography in the strict sense of the term [Review of the book Malinowski: Odyssee of an anthropologist 1884-1920, vol. 1 by Michael Young]. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(4), 610-637. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.06.012.
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Senft, G. (2006). [Review of the book Bilder aus der Deutschen Südsee by Hermann Joseph Hiery]. Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde, 52, 304-308.
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Senft, G. (2006). [Review of the book Narrative as social practice: Anglo-Western and Australian Aboriginal oral traditions by Danièle M. Klapproth]. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(8), 1326-1331. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.11.001.
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Senft, G. (2006). [Review of the book Pacific Pidgins and Creoles: Origins, growth and development by Darrell T. Tryon and Jean-Michel Charpentier]. Linguistics, 44(1), 195-200. doi:10.1515/LING.2006.006.
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Brown, P., Senft, G., & Wheeldon, L. (
Eds. ). (1992). Max-Planck-Institute for Psycholinguistics: Annual report 1992. Nijmegen: MPI for Psycholinguistics. -
Levinson, S. C., Brown, P., Danzinger, E., De León, L., Haviland, J. B., Pederson, E., & Senft, G. (1992). Man and Tree & Space Games. In S. C. Levinson (
Ed. ), Space stimuli kit 1.2 (pp. 7-14). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. doi:10.17617/2.2458804.Abstract
These classic tasks can be used to explore spatial reference in field settings. They provide a language-independent metric for eliciting spatial language, using a “director-matcher” paradigm. The Man and Tree task deals with location on the horizontal plane with both featured (man) and non-featured (e.g., tree) objects. The Space Games depict various objects (e.g. bananas, lemons) and elicit spatial contrasts not obviously lexicalisable in English.Additional information
1992_Man_and_tree_and_space_games_stimuli.zip -
Senft, G. (1992). Bakavilisi Biga - or: What happens to English words in the Kilivila Language? Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, 23, 13-49.
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Senft, G. (1992). Das System der Klassifikationspartikeln im Kilivila: Habilitationsschrift vorgelegt für die Habilitation (Allgemeine Linguistik) im Fachbereich I - Kommunikations- und Geschichtswissenschaften der Technischen Universität Berlin. Mimeo: Berlin.
Abstract
German Version of (1996) Classificatory particles in Kilivila. New York: Oxford University Press -
Senft, G. (1992). As time goes by..: Changes observed in Trobriand Islanders' culture and language, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. In T. Dutton (
Ed. ), Culture change, language change: Case studies from Melanesia (pp. 67-89). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. -
Senft, G. (1992). [Review of the book The Yimas language of New Guinea by William A. Foley]. Linguistics, 30, 634-639.
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Senft, G. (1992). Everything we always thought we knew about space - but did not bother to question. Working Papers of the Cognitive Anthropology Research group at the MPI for Psycholinguistics, 10.
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Senft, G. (1992). What happened to "the fearless tailor" in Kilivila: A European fairy tale - from the South Seas. Anthropos, 87, 407-421.
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