Cover not available

Article published In: Lexical flexibility in Oceanic languages
Edited by Eva van Lier
[Studies in Language 41:2] 2017
► pp. 502–520

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

Dozing eyes and drunken faces

Nominalized psycho-collocations in Daakaka (Vanuatu)

 | Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin
Published online: 5 October 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.41.2.08von
Abstract
Like many languages of the world, the Oceanic language Daakaka (Vanuatu) uses idiomatic combinations of body-part terms and verbs to express emotions, medical conditions and related concepts. However, languages differ in how they express the same concepts nominally. I will contrast the nominalization strategy found in Daakaka with other languages and discuss the differences. I will argue that the nominalization strategy in Daakaka is less transparent than its alternatives but that it allows for the formation of a paradigm that also includes meteorological expressions. This phenomenon highlights the need to look beyond individual lexemes when comparing lexical classes and derivational processes cross-linguistically.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Expressing emotions
    • 2.1Overview
    • 2.2Psycho-collocations in Oceanic languages
    • 2.3Expressing emotions in Daakaka
  • 3.Nominalizing psycho-collocations
    • 3.1Strategies for nominalizing psycho-collocations
    • 3.2Nominalizing psycho-collocations in Daakaka
      • 3.2.1Overview
      • 3.2.2Exocentricity
      • 3.2.3Uninflected body-part terms
      • 3.2.4Paradigm consistency
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (26)
References
Bauer, Laurie. 2001. Compounding. In MartinHaspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher & Wolfgang Raible (eds.), Language universals and language typology: An international handbook, 695–707. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Besnier, Niko. 2000. Tuvaluan: A Polynesian language of the Central Pacific. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creissels, Denis. 2012a. The flexibility of the noun vs. verb distinction in the lexicon of Mandinka. [URL].
. 2012b. Materiaux pour un dictionnaire Mandinka. [URL].
Creissels, Denis & Pierre Sambou. 2013. Le mandinka: phonologie, grammaire, textes. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. 2004. Adjective classes in typological perspectives. In R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Aikhenvald (eds.), Adjective classes: A cross-linguistic typology, 1–49. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Enfield, Nick J. & Anna Wierzbicka. 2002. The body in description of emotion. Pragmatics & Cognition 10(1/2). 1–25. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ezard, Bryan. 1997. A grammar of Tawala, an Austronesian language of the Milne Bay Area, Papua New Guinea, vol. 137 C1. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
François, Alexandre. 2013. Shadows of bygone lives: The histories of spiritual words in northern Vanuatu. In Robert Mailhammer (ed.), Lexical and structural etymology: Beyond word histories, vol.111 (Studies in Language Change), 185–244. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Idström, Anna & Elisabeth Piirainen (eds.). 2012. Endangered metaphors, vol.21 (Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacques, Guillaume. 2012. From denominal derivation to incorporation. Lingua 122(11). 1207–1231. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Japhug corpus, Pangloss Collection, LACITO-CNRS. [URL]. (Accessed 28 Aug 2015).
. to appear. From ergative to index of comparison: multiple reanalyses and polyfunctionality. Diachronica.
Lichtenberk, Frantisek. 2010. Subject incorporation in Toqabaqita and other Oceanic languages. In John Bowden, Nikolaus Himmelmann & Malcolm Ross (eds.), A journey through Austronesian and Papuan linguistic and cultural space. Papers in honour of Andrew Pawley. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Margetts, Anna. 1999. Valence and transitivity in Saliba: An Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea. Nijmegen: Radboud University Nijmegen PhD thesis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matisoff, James A. 1986. Hearts and minds in South-East Asian languages and English: an essay in the comparative lexical semantics of psycho-collocation. Cahiers de Linguistique d’Asie orientale 15(1). 5–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mosel, Ulrike & Even Hovdhaugen. 1992. Samoan reference grammar. Scandinavian University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
von Prince, Kilu. to appear. A dictionary of Daakaka. Dictionaria.
. 2015. A grammar of Daakaka. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Alienability as control: the case of Daakaka. Lingua 1821 (SI: Understanding Possession). 69–87.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sharifian, Farzad, René Dirven, Ning Yu & Susanne Niemeier (eds.). 2008. Culture, body and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages. Berlin: de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vittrant, Alice. 2013. Psycho-collocational expressives in Burmese. In Jeffrey P. Williams (ed.), The aesthetics of grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1999. Emotions across languages and cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Ponsonnet, Maïa, Dorothea Hoffmann & Isabel O’Keeffe
2020. Introduction. Pragmatics & Cognition 27:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Bárány, András & Irina Nikolaeva
2019. Possessors in switch-reference. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 4:1 DOI logo
Prince, Kilu von & Anna Margetts
2019. Expressing possibility in two Oceanic languages. Studies in Language 43:3 ► pp. 628 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2021. A History of the Study of the Indigenous Languages of North America [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 129], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 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