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                                                    Language in Society

                                                    Article contents

                                                    Kinship and collective activity in the Ngayarda languages of Australia*

                                                    Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

                                                    Alan Dench
                                                    Alan Dench
                                                    Affiliation:
                                                    Department of Anthropology, University of Western Australia
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                                                    Abstract

                                                    This paper describes the functions of a verbal derivational suffix found in the Ngayarda languages Panyjima, Martuthunira, Yinyjiparnti, and Kurrama. This suffix, which appears at first blush to be an essentially syntactic device very like the reciprocal suffix found in other Australian languages, may be used to indicate the existence of a particular kin relationship between participants involved in the action described by a verb. The paper presents firstly the more general functions of the suffix in the Ngayarda languages and then discusses the use of the suffix to mark kin relationships. It is argued that the general “collective activity” meaning of the suffix has generalised to the marking of certain kin relationships through the recognition that collective activity is a feature of these particular relationships. The successful analysis of the data thus relies on a knowledge of the social uses to which utterances involving the suffix are put. (Anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, syntactic theory, cultural anthropology, Australian linguistics)

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                                                    Language in Society , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 321 - 339
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                                                    Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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                                                    References

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                                                    9
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                                                    Evans, Nicholas 1993. The Role of Theory in Language Description.
                                                    Matsuda, Kenjirô 1993. Dissecting analogical leveling quantitatively: The case of the innovative potential suffix in Tôkyô Japanese. Language Variation and Change, Vol. 5, Issue. 1, p. 1.
                                                    Dench, Alan 1994. The historical development of pronoun paradigms in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Australian Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 14, Issue. 2, p. 155.
                                                    Evans, Nick 1995. Quantification in Natural Languages. Vol. 54, Issue. , p. 207.
                                                    Evans, Nick 1995. Quantification in Natural Languages. Vol. 54, Issue. , p. 207.
                                                    Austin, Peter K. and Sallabank, Julia 1999. The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages.
                                                    Evans, Nicholas 2003. Context, Culture, and Structuration in the Languages of Australia. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 32, Issue. 1, p. 13.
                                                    Fleming, Luke 2025. L’évitement par degré : un structuralisme de l’intensité. L'Homme, Vol. 254, Issue. 254, p. 149.
                                                    Evans, Nicholas 2025. From both sides now: Revisiting Dalabon kintax. Australian Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 45, Issue. 3, p. 491.
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