Morevaya and Bukuruvi or: The miserable end of a love story. A tale from the Trobriand Islands

Senft, G. (2013). Morevaya and Bukuruvi or: The miserable end of a love story. A tale from the Trobriand Islands. Talk presented at the 13th International Pragmatics Conference. New Delhi. 2013-09-08 - 2013-09-13.
In 1997 Moagava, a 29 year old man living in the village of Tauwema on Kaile'una, one of the Trobriand Islands in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea, told a group of children and some adults the story of Morevaya and Bukuruvi. In this talk I first present this tale in morpheme-interlinear transcription and translation, then I look at the text in detail with respect to both its form and content. This analysis reveals the macro- and micro-structure of the tale and isolates the verbal means used by the narrator which indicate the linearization principles that underlie the macrostructure of the story. The talk ends with some concluding remarks on the anthropological-linguistic and cognitive linguistic significance of studies like the present one.
Publication type
Talk
Publication date
2013

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