Cherokee Classificatory Verbs
Summary This article examines the role played by the Cherokee verbs for ‘wash’, first cited in 1820 by John Pickering (1777–1848), in studies which postulated lexical redundancy and the lack of generic terms in ‘primitive’ languages. Like the more well-known “Eskimo words for ‘snow’”, the Cherokee v...
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Language: | English |
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John Benjamins Publishing Company
2009
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/hl.36.1.03kil http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/hl.36.1.03kil.pdf |
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crjohnbenjaminsp:10.1075/hl.36.1.03kil 2024-06-09T07:45:44+00:00 Cherokee Classificatory Verbs Their place in the study of American Indian languages Kilarski, Marcin 2009 http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/hl.36.1.03kil http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/hl.36.1.03kil.pdf en eng John Benjamins Publishing Company Historiographia Linguistica volume 36, issue 1, page 39-73 ISSN 0302-5160 1569-9781 journal-article 2009 crjohnbenjaminsp https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.36.1.03kil 2024-05-15T13:26:30Z Summary This article examines the role played by the Cherokee verbs for ‘wash’, first cited in 1820 by John Pickering (1777–1848), in studies which postulated lexical redundancy and the lack of generic terms in ‘primitive’ languages. Like the more well-known “Eskimo words for ‘snow’”, the Cherokee verbs provide an example of misanalysis of the complexity of polysynthetic morphology and negligence in the presentation of data from ‘exotic’ languages. In addition, the accounts of the verbs for ‘wash’ demonstrate a misinterpretation of the function of the Cherokee classificatory verbs. In the article the author traces the description of the verbs in 19th and 20th century studies in linguistics, psychology, sociology and anthropology, with the aim of illustrating the claims made about the lexical and grammatical properties of American Indian languages, and the cognitive and cultural characteristics of the American Indians, in particular their inability to express abstract notions and the absence of moral and social values. Article in Journal/Newspaper eskimo* John Benjamins Publishing Company Indian Historiographia Linguistica 36 1 39 73 |
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Open Polar |
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John Benjamins Publishing Company |
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crjohnbenjaminsp |
language |
English |
description |
Summary This article examines the role played by the Cherokee verbs for ‘wash’, first cited in 1820 by John Pickering (1777–1848), in studies which postulated lexical redundancy and the lack of generic terms in ‘primitive’ languages. Like the more well-known “Eskimo words for ‘snow’”, the Cherokee verbs provide an example of misanalysis of the complexity of polysynthetic morphology and negligence in the presentation of data from ‘exotic’ languages. In addition, the accounts of the verbs for ‘wash’ demonstrate a misinterpretation of the function of the Cherokee classificatory verbs. In the article the author traces the description of the verbs in 19th and 20th century studies in linguistics, psychology, sociology and anthropology, with the aim of illustrating the claims made about the lexical and grammatical properties of American Indian languages, and the cognitive and cultural characteristics of the American Indians, in particular their inability to express abstract notions and the absence of moral and social values. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kilarski, Marcin |
spellingShingle |
Kilarski, Marcin Cherokee Classificatory Verbs |
author_facet |
Kilarski, Marcin |
author_sort |
Kilarski, Marcin |
title |
Cherokee Classificatory Verbs |
title_short |
Cherokee Classificatory Verbs |
title_full |
Cherokee Classificatory Verbs |
title_fullStr |
Cherokee Classificatory Verbs |
title_full_unstemmed |
Cherokee Classificatory Verbs |
title_sort |
cherokee classificatory verbs |
publisher |
John Benjamins Publishing Company |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/hl.36.1.03kil http://www.jbe-platform.com/deliver/fulltext/hl.36.1.03kil.pdf |
geographic |
Indian |
geographic_facet |
Indian |
genre |
eskimo* |
genre_facet |
eskimo* |
op_source |
Historiographia Linguistica volume 36, issue 1, page 39-73 ISSN 0302-5160 1569-9781 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.36.1.03kil |
container_title |
Historiographia Linguistica |
container_volume |
36 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
39 |
op_container_end_page |
73 |
_version_ |
1801375254032941056 |