Amonrat Rattanawong
Research Institute for
Languages and Cultures of Asia,
Polysemy in Mlabri
Body-Part Terms
For speakers of Mlabri, a small Kmuic language of
Mon-Kmer, one way to accommodate innovative items into their language is by
extending the meanings of body-part terms. The meanings of the word tiʔ
range from
human's 'hands' to animal's 'front legs' to car's 'front wheels'. This
indicates how Mlabri speakers make use of limited lexicon to represent new
concepts. Thus, it is a challenge to find a method to clarify the Mlabri
polysemous body-part terms.
The theoretical framework of
'Natural Semantic Metalanguage' is an effective method to explicate cultural
specific lexicon via deliberately selected, sixty primitive words, having been
proved to appear in all languages (Weirzbikca, 1972, 1996). They could be used
to describe the phenomenon of polysemous words in Mlabri body-part terms by
reductively paraphrase them through simple sentences. This very basic method is
supposed to help elucidate particular concepts in the indigenous culture of
Mlabri people.
References
Weirzbicka, A. (1972). Semantic Primitives.
Weirzbicka, A. (1996). Semantics: primes and
universals.