Colours, Sounds, Rivers: Descriptive Terms and Informational Priority in Hobongan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/jbk.6453.2024Keywords:
Hobongan, Hovongan, color, austronesianAbstract
In this report on descriptors in Hobongan, an Austronesian language spoken by approximately two thousand people on the island of Borneo, I provide the available expressions and note that the expressions are rarely used. The study is theoretically backed by Nexus Theory (Perkins, 2019), a linguistic approach to analysing elements of language in context. Sensory descriptors occur primarily to distinguish unique entities from broader categories, emphasising observed phenomena more than the sensory methods of observation. These patterns of description correlate with the predominantly oral nature of Hobongan currently (Ong, 2003) and with the emphasis on locational and navigational information in narrative discourses (Perkins, 2017). I therefore hypothesise that descriptive expressions, including colour expressions, can be indicators of linguistic-cultural priorities.
References
Angeles: University of California Press.
Chomsky, N. 1995. The minimalist program. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Culpeper, J. 2011. Impoliteness: Using language the cause offense. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Czaykowska-Higgins, E. 2009. Research models, community engagement, and linguistic fieldwork:
Reflections on working with Canadian indigenous communities. Language Documentation and
Conservation, 3(1), 15-50.
Dimmendaal, G. J. 2001. Places and peoples: Field sites and informants. In P. Newman & M Ratliff
(Eds.), Linguistic Fieldwork (55-75). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dixon, R. M. W. 2010. Basic linguistic theory, vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dryer, M. 2006. Descriptive theories, explanatory theories, and basic linguistic theory. In F. K. Ameka, A. C. Dench, & N. Evans (Eds.), Catching language: The standing challenge of grammar writing (207-234).
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Eberhard, D. M., Simons, G. F., Fennig, C. D. (Eds.). 2021. Ethnologue: Languages of the world, 4th ed.
Dallas: SIL International. https://www.ethnologue.com/language/hov.
Evans, V. 2015. The crucible of language: How language and mind create meaning. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Grice, H. P. 1989. Studies in the way of words. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Grice, H. P. 1978. Further notes on logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax
and semantics, 9: Pragmatics (113-127). New York: Academic Press.
Grice, H. P. 1975. Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. L. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and Semantics, 3:
Speech acts (41-58). New York: Academic Press.
Habermas, J. 1981/1984. Theory of communicative action, vol. 1: Reason and the rationalization of
society, T. A. McCarthy (Trans.). Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. 1981/1987. Theory of communicative action, vol. 2: Lifeworld and system: A critique of
functionalist reason, T. A. McCarthy (Trans.). Boston, Beacon Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. 2014. Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar, 4th ed., C. M. I. M. Matthiessen
(Ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
Hammerström, H, Forkel, R., Haspelmath, M., & Bank, S. 2021. Glottolog. https://glottolog.org/resource/
languoid/id/hovo1239.
Labov, W., & Waltezky, J. 1967. Narrative analysis: Oral versions of person experience. Journal of
Narrative Life History, 7(3), 1-4.
Levinson, S. C. 2000. Yeli Dnye and the theory of basic color terms. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology,
10(1), 3-55.
Levinson, S. C. 1983. Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Longacre, R. 1968. Discourse, paragraph, and sentence structure in selected Philippine languages.
Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Niditch, S. 1996. Oral world and written word: Ancient Israelite literature. Louisville: Westminster John
Knox Press.
Pascual, E. 2014. Fictive interaction: The conversation frame in thought, language, and discourse.
Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Perkins, M. 2019. Real Hobongan: Reconsidering REAL and FAKE in the field. Invited presentation at
the Albert Ludwigs Universität Freiburg, 16 January, 2019.
Perkins, M. 2017. Toward a typology or ranking elements of narrative discourse in languages and
cultures: A cross-linguistic survey. International Journal of Literary Linguistics, 6, 1. https://journals.linguistik.de/ijll/index.php/ijll/article/view/101.
Perkins, M. 2009. There and back again: Discourse and pragmatic strategies for describing spatial
locations in narrative fiction. https://www.proquest.com/openview/684e63ba84d2dcdbff3a37d4b4579df3/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750.
Prince, A., & Smolensky, P. 1993/2002. Optimality theory: Constraint interaction in generative grammar.
Rutgers Optimality Archive Version: http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/537-0802/537-0802-PRINCE-0-0.PDF.
Sawaki, Y. W. 2016. A grammar of Wooi: An Austronesian language of Yapen Island, Western New
Guinea. Australian National University Ph.D. Thesis: https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/136851.
Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. 2002. Relevance theory. https://www.phon/ucl/ac.uk/publications/WPL/
02papers/Wilson_Sperber.pdf.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Marla Perkins
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
-
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds copyright, or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subject to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.