Yurok speech registers and ontology

Bibliographic Data

ID2909892
AuthorsThomas Buckley (0009-0000-5889-5503, University of Massachusetts Amherst, corresponding author)
Year1984
Volume13
Issue4
Pages467-488
Publication date1984-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s004740450001071x
OpenAlexW1983369123
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited29

Aspects of the precontact ontology of the Yurok Indians of northwestern California may be explored through analysis of lexical and semantic shifts that occur between two speech registers in Yurok: "ordinary" speech and an auxiliary. "high," or esoteric, speech style. In the "high" register, use of which was the prerogative of a social and spiritual elite, a variety of mechanisms are implemented in altering "ordinary" lexation and in attributing different meanings to parts of the "ordinary" lexicon. These include circumlocution, antonymy, attribution, and, most significantly, the shifting of referential focus. Semantic shifts are systematic within specifiable lexical sets and implicitly comprise subtle ontological exegeses. (Ritual languages, speech registers, translation, world view, Native North America

Art · Epistemology · Focus (optics) · Lexicon · Linguistics · Literature · Ontology · Prerogative · Register (sociolinguistics) · Style (visual arts) · Variation (astronomy) · Variety (cybernetics) · Artificial Intelligence · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy

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