Cover not available

In:Language Structure and Environment: Social, cultural, and natural factors
Edited by Rik De Busser and Randy J. LaPolla
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts 6] 2015
► pp. 77–98

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 4. When culture grammaticalizes

The pronominal system of Onya Darat

Published online: 9 June 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/clscc.6.04tad
The Onya Darat language of Borneo has a large set of personal pronouns. In addition to encoding the categories of person and number, these pronouns also encode the generational affiliation of their referents. It is suggested that obligatory expression of kinship in the pronoun system arose due to particular patterns of marriage and emerged against the background of a traditional society where an entire village shared one large house. This enabled all members of the community to know each other intimately and to be aware of each other’s generational affiliation.
References (29)
Bibliography
Aikhenvald, A.Y., & Dixon, R.M.W. (1998). Evidentials and areal typology: A case study from Amazonia. Language Sciences, 20(3), 241–257. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asmah, H.O. (2004). Bahasa Diraja: Edisi Baharu [Royal Vocabulary: New Edition]. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blust, R.A. (1977). The Proto-Austronesian pronouns and Proto-Austronesian subgrouping: A preliminary report. Working Papers in Linguistics, 9(2), 1–15.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, R., & Gilman, A. (1960). The pronouns of power and solidarity. In T.A. Sebeok (Ed.), Style in language (pp. 253–276). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cooke, J.R. (1968). Pronominal reference in Thai, Burmese, and Vietnamese. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cysouw, M. (2003). The paradigmatic structure of person marking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, R.M.W. (2010). Basic linguistic theory, Volume 1: Methodology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Errington, J. (1988). Structure and style in Javanese: A semiotic view of linguistic etiquette. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, N. (2003). Context, culture, and structuration in the languages of Australia. Annual Review of Anthropology, 32(1), 13–40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, C. (2002). Ethnosyntax, ethnopragmatics, sign-functions, and culture. In N.J. Enfield (Ed.), Ethnosyntax: Explorations in grammar and culture (pp. 52–73). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, K.L. (1966). Kinship reflections in syntax: Some Australian languages. Word, 22(1-3), 318–324.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Helmbrecht, J. (2013). Politeness distinctions in pronouns. In M.S. Dryer & M. Haspelmath (Eds.), The world atlas of language structures online (Chapter 45).Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Retrieved from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huffman, F.E. (1970). Modern spoken Cambodian. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jayasaro, P.A., & Issara, S. (2009). Reuang Than Lao [Stories He Told]. Bangkok: Panyaprateep Foundation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
LaPolla, R.J. (2003). Why languages differ: Variation in the conventionalization of constraints on inference. In D. Bradley, R.J. LaPolla, B. Michailovsky, & G. Thurgood (Eds.), Language variation: Papers on variation and change in the Sinosphere and in the Indosphere in honour of James A. Matisoff (pp. 113–144). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McKnight, D. (1999). People, countries, and the Rainbow Serpent: Systems of classification among the Lardil of Mornington Island. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morgan, L. (1868). A conjectural solution of the origin of the classificatory system of relationship. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, VII, 436–477.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Myhill, J. (1994). A quantitative analysis of the use of the Javanese speech levels in a modern anthology. Oceanic Linguistics, 33(1), 73–103. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Najwa, A. (2009, October 27). Waking up one morning feeling like P.Diddy. Najwa Arifah. Personal Blog. Retrieved from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rensch, C.R., Rensch, C.M., Noeb, J., & Ridu, R.S. (2012). The Bidayuh Language Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Revised and Expanded). Dallas, TX: SIL International.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ross, M.D. (2006). Reconstructing the case-marking and personal pronoun systems of Proto Austronesian. In H.Y.-L. Chang, L.M. Huang, & D.-A. Ho (Eds.), Streams converging into an Ocean: Festschrift in Honor of Professor Paul Jen-Kuei Li On His 70th Birthday (pp. 521–563). Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sinaga, R. (2006). Kamus Bahasa Batak Toba – Indonesia [Toba Batak – Indonesian Dictionary]. Jakarta: Dian Utama.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tadmor, U. (2007). Grammatical borrowing in Indonesian. In Y. Matras & J. Sakel (Eds.), Grammatical borrowing in cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 301–328). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2009). Developing an orthography for Onya Darat: Practical and theoretical considerations. Wacana, 11(2), 279–293.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Utusan Online. (2002, January 13). “Saya hanya insan biasa” - Sultan Pahang ceritakan pengalamannya harungi banjir [“I am just an ordinary human being” – The Sultan of Pahang tells about his experiences weathering the flood]. Utusan Melayu. Online newspaper. Retrieved 2 September 2012 from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012, July 26). Lupakan ideologi politik sempena Ramadan [Forget political ideologies during Ramadan]. Utusan Melayu. Online newspaper. Retrieved 2 September 2012 from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van der Tuuk, H.N. (1971). A grammar of Toba Batak. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wolff, J., & Poedjosoedarmo, S. (1982). Communicative codes in Central Java. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zaifuzaman, A. (2008). Bila Lampu Padam [When the Lights Go Out]. Shah Alam: Buku Prima.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Evans, Nicholas
2025. From both sides now: Revisiting Dalabon kintax. Australian Journal of Linguistics 45:3 ► pp. 491 ff. DOI logo
Alexander Adelaar & Antoinette Schapper
2024. The Oxford Guide to the Malayo-Polynesian Languages of Southeast Asia, DOI logo
Lismont, Eline
2021. Millennia of Language Change: Sociolinguistic Studies in Deep Historical Linguistics. PeterTrudgill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2020. 170 pp. Hb (9781108477390) £59.99, Pb (9781108708647) £19.99, Ebk (9781108852166) £14.50. Journal of Sociolinguistics 25:2 ► pp. 286 ff. DOI logo
Fleming, Luke & Jack Sidnell
2020. The Typology and Social Pragmatics of Interlocutor Reference in Southeast Asia. Journal of Asian Linguistic Anthropology 2:3 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Müller, André & Rachel Weymuth
2017. How Society Shapes Language: Personal Pronouns in the Greater Burma Zone. Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques 71:1 ► pp. 409 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue