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The spread of cultural vocabulary in Rondônia

Cronhamn, Sandra LU (2013) ALSK11 20122
General Linguistics
Abstract
This thesis is an investigation of the borrowability of cultural vocabulary among languages of different genetic origin in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world. Since cultural vocabulary is more likely to be borrowed compared to other lexical domains, if there has been language contact in this area, this is expected to be reflected in these terms. Two semantic fields of study were chosen: religion and agriculture.
The study concerns 23 languages of various genetic origin: 11 Tupían, 6 Chapacuran (dialects), 2 Nambiquaran, 1 Macro-Gean, 1 Panoan and 2 isolates. The two semantic fields turned out to show very different results. The religion terms showed almost no borrowability at all,... (More)
This thesis is an investigation of the borrowability of cultural vocabulary among languages of different genetic origin in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world. Since cultural vocabulary is more likely to be borrowed compared to other lexical domains, if there has been language contact in this area, this is expected to be reflected in these terms. Two semantic fields of study were chosen: religion and agriculture.
The study concerns 23 languages of various genetic origin: 11 Tupían, 6 Chapacuran (dialects), 2 Nambiquaran, 1 Macro-Gean, 1 Panoan and 2 isolates. The two semantic fields turned out to show very different results. The religion terms showed almost no borrowability at all, which contradicted previous findings strongly. For the agriculture terms, the results were highly individual and cannot easily be generalized, but were given a more extensive description in the Results and discussion chapter. The maize terms have been attributed an extensive section since they showed the most complex results and were connectable to earlier research. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Cronhamn, Sandra LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A study of borrowability in the semantic fields of religion and agriculture
course
ALSK11 20122
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Amazonia, Rondônia, borrowability, loanwords, areal diffusion, language contact, cultural vocabulary
language
English
id
3450607
date added to LUP
2013-02-21 10:58:31
date last changed
2013-02-21 10:58:31
@misc{3450607,
  abstract     = {{This thesis is an investigation of the borrowability of cultural vocabulary among languages of different genetic origin in the Brazilian state of Rondônia, one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world. Since cultural vocabulary is more likely to be borrowed compared to other lexical domains, if there has been language contact in this area, this is expected to be reflected in these terms. Two semantic fields of study were chosen: religion and agriculture.
The study concerns 23 languages of various genetic origin: 11 Tupían, 6 Chapacuran (dialects), 2 Nambiquaran, 1 Macro-Gean, 1 Panoan and 2 isolates. The two semantic fields turned out to show very different results. The religion terms showed almost no borrowability at all, which contradicted previous findings strongly. For the agriculture terms, the results were highly individual and cannot easily be generalized, but were given a more extensive description in the Results and discussion chapter. The maize terms have been attributed an extensive section since they showed the most complex results and were connectable to earlier research.}},
  author       = {{Cronhamn, Sandra}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The spread of cultural vocabulary in Rondônia}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}