SIL Philippines

Sangil elevationals and the performative analysis

Issue Date:
1974
Extent:
pages 139-198
Abstract:
From the introduction: "A prominent feature of Sangil speech is the high frequency of terms such as "up", down", and "on the same level" for a variety of concepts which in the main have nothing to do with physical elevation. For example, when a Sangil tells of a distant land, he may characterize it as "up there" but be speaking of just another island at the same level as the one on which he is located. Thereupon he might call a different place "down" even though it is situated in precisely the same direction as the first. And at the very same time a point up the hill from him could be referred to, in addition to "up", as "on the same level" or even "down"! It is my purpose in this study to suggest a way of accounting for such phenomena in a natural language, and to show how the "performative" proposal of John Ross (1970) or the "hypersentence" approach of Jerrold Sadock (1969b) is of fundamental importance to this suggested analysis."
Description:
repub. in Miscellaneous studies in Indonesian and languages in Indonesia, ed. by John W. M. Verhaar. Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri Nusa (1975), pp. 28-50
Publication Status:
Published
Subject Languages:
Content Language:
Work Type:
Nature of Work:
Part of Series:
Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota, vol. 18
Entry Number:
40048