Names and naming in Papuan languages of New Guinea (original) (raw)
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Syntactic properties of proper names in Iatmul (Papuan) and beyond
The Papuan language Iatmul has various types of anthroponyms, ie. specific means of addressing and refering to people. First, terms determined by clan membership are used as honorific address terms; these are roughly comparable to titles. Second, traditional Iatmul names are used both as terms of third-person and second-person reference. The third type are Western names, which are preferred for younger people. The important difference between Iatmul and Western names is that Iatmul names are a closed set considered to be the possession of a sub-group (cf. Harrison 1990), whereas Western names constitute an open set from which people can choose freely. Syntactically, the names from the first set are used as vocatives, but are not attested with the vocative suffix, which can go on names from the second and third set, and even on common nouns, when their vocative use is to be emphasized. Another property of names in Iatmul is that they can carry a plural suffix otherwise restricted to kinship terms. On proper names, this plural suffix indicates an associative plural, ie. X-PL will refer to ‘X plus people associated with X’ or ‘a group of which X is the most salient member’. Another syntactic property of names in Iatmul is their behaviour in differential object marking: as direct objects they are always case-marked, whereas common nouns in the function of direct object can appear without case-marking depending on their individuation. The second part of the talk will be a typological outlook. In particular, we will look at the Basque case-system, where common nouns, proper names, and pronouns all behave differently (see e.g. Bendel 2006: 15-79). This can be taken as evidence that proper names are a morphosyntactially separate word class.
Cross- and trans-language morphology / The lexicography of Indonesian names
Different form many other name-giving possibilities in the world, in Indonesia parents are free to give their children any name they like. These names, many of which are auspicious in view of the child's future, are often constructed by means of productive morphological procedures. Seven suffixes are followed through history and culture and their possibilities in making new names are explored. The suffixes concern the female-ingsih,-ingrum,-ingtyas,-ingdyah,-astuti,-wati, and the male-wan. Various ins and outs concerning these suffixes are explored and their attachments to various words from various word classes from Indonesian, Javanese and other language revealed. Cross-language name construction leads to trans-language creations that play a possible role in the constitution of Indonesian nation building. The procedures moreover seem to indicate trends away from the inclination to give children Muslim names.
A side from a few well-known pioneering studies, 1 it has been only in the last fifteen years that there has been a research boom in the anthropology of personhood, attesting new interest in the ideas members of all societies have about individual identity. This area of anthropology is concerned with the ways each culture goes about defining the person, its primary object of study being the discourses and practices surrounding the personal attributes recognised by the society: body, name(s), spirit(s), emotions, personality, physical features and so on.
Mabia languages and cultures expressed through personal names
International Journal of Language and Culture, 2023
This paper is a comparative study of names and naming practices among speakers of Dagbani, Kusaal, Likpakpaanl and Sɩsaalɩ. We discuss in detail the ceremonies that accompany the naming of a newborn among speakers of these languages. By using the framework of ethnopragmatics, the study explores the culture-internal dynamics of personal names by comparing the typology of names in the four languages. It draws attention to the fact that personal names are not given randomly but rather influenced by the special circumstances surrounding the birth of the name bearer and also by the advice of a diviner. This study reveals how culture is crafted through language and transmitted from one generation to the other through personal names. It is also observed that speakers of these languages have a common perception or worldview evident in their traditional cultural practices.
Dick van der Meij - Cross-and trans-language morphology The lexicography of Indonesian names
2010
Different form many other name-giving possibilities in the world, in Indonesia parents are free to give their children any name they like. These names, many of which are auspicious in view of the child's future, are often constructed by means of productive morphological procedures. Seven suffixes are followed through history and culture and their possibilities in making new names are explored. The suffixes concern the female -ingsih, -ingrum, -ingtyas, -ingdyah, -astuti, -wati, and the male -wan. Various ins and outs concerning these suffixes are explored and their attachments to various words from various word classes from Indonesian, Javanese and other language revealed. Cross-language name construction leads to trans-language creations that play a possible role in the constitution of Indonesian nation building. The procedures moreover seem to indicate trends away from the inclination to give children Muslim names.
Voprosy Onomastiki, 2019
The present paper deals with the current trends in name-giving among the Buton people, one of indigenous ethnicities of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. The traditional anthroponymic pattern of the Buton is typologically peculiar; it consists of an etymologically obscure element denoting the gender of the person, a marker of the noble status (upon the case), and a gender-neutral given name. Unfortunately, the indigenous given names, as well as the use of the traditional anthroponymic pattern have been in decline for decades, to the extent that they may get obliterated very soon. This study aims to identify (1) the degree of extinction of Buton personal names, (2) the most common borrowed personal names adopted by Buton people, and (3) the reasons of the decay of traditional naming practices as they are comprehended by people themselves. To this aim, a series of in-depth interviews and a quantitative analysis of of? cial data retrieved from the Civil Registry and Population Bureau of the Buton Regency covering the period from 1997 to 2016 were carried out. The study found that the process of extinction of traditional names has drastically accelerated over the last twenty years and, as of today, has reached dangerous level. From 2012 to 2016, of 5,331 newborns, only 28 received traditional names. The interviews show that the Buton people consider traditional names to be inferior, akward, out of date. They increasingly tend to adopt Arabic and Javanese personal names as well as names of Western origin that they regard to be more prestigious. This xenocentric trend in name-giving practices can be explained by the impact of globalization and, as for Arabic names, by the increasing signi? cance of the religious factor.
Names and Naming Principles in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Names, 1981
of personal names are based on the cultural attitude that personal names, as labels, are not supposed to have semantic content-i.e., the encoding of retrievable information in their lexico-grammatical structure. 2 This attitude roughly typifies the European conception of the semantico-cultural significance of personal names and contrasts with widely held views about the subject in several other parts of the world, especially Africa, Asia, Oceania, and aboriginal North America. 3 For example, Goodenough reports that among the Lakalai, an Oceanic community, personal naming practices hinge on two basic principles: (i) fixed sequences of names reflecting one's place in a procreational chain, and (ii) naming children for their sib, or for the place, time of year, weekday, or other event or circumstance associated with their birth. 4 Indeed, since one's II am ordinarily indebted to all the sources cited in this paper, but especially to C. A. Weslager for the Delaware data. For comments on portions of this paper which appeared in earlier versions, I would like to thank John J. Gumperz, Paul Kay, Dell Hymes, and David Parkin. I am also grateful to the Editors of Names and especially to Steve Murray for editorial suggestions. However, responsibility for the analysis and conclusions rests with me. 2See F.