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Article published In: Sex, Death & Politics: Taboos in Language
Edited by Melanie Keller, Philipp Striedl, Daniel Biro, Johanna Holzer and Benjamin Weber
[Pragmatics & Cognition 28:1] 2021
► pp. 25–56

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Tongan honorifics and their underlying concepts of mana and tapu

A verbal taboo in its emic sense

 | University of Mainz
Published online: 16 March 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.00020.vol
Abstract
The Tongan language has honorific registers, called a ‘language of respect’ (Churchward, Clerk. 1953. Tongan grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). These are two limited sets of lexemes used to refer to people of chiefly and kingly rank and thus honour the societal stratification. Anthropological-linguistic research reveals that these honorifics are a tapu-motivated linguistic practice. The Polynesian concept of tapu (source of the loanword taboo) means that entities with more mana (‘supernatural power’) such as persons of higher rank and their personal belongings are ‘sacred’, and it is ‘forbidden’ to get in physical touch with them. The respectful terminology (hou‘eiki and tu‘i) is restricted to such tapu entities (signifiers), and its generic character shows that direct verbal contact with the common kakai signifier is avoided. Thus, the honorific registers function as a verbal taboo in its emic sense.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The cultural context
    • 2.1Stratification in Tongan society
    • 2.2The meaning of mana and tapu
    • 2.3Practices of physical avoidance in Tonga
  • 3.Honorifics
  • 4.Honorific registers in Tongan language
    • 4.1Semantics of the vocabulary of respect
    • 4.2The use of the respectful registers
  • 5.Speech preludes
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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