From Ojibwa to Dakota: Toward a Typology of Semantic Transformations in American Indian Languages

In this article we propose a radical new typological approach to the diversity of North American languages that is directly inspired by Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Mythologiques and his concept of transformation. As with mythology, the semantic dimension of phenomena is crucial. A comparison between the g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anthropological Linguistics
Main Authors: Désveaux, Emmanuel, de Fornel, Michel
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Project MUSE 2009
Subjects:
Microbiology
Indian
Subarctic
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/anl.0.0010
Description
Summary:In this article we propose a radical new typological approach to the diversity of North American languages that is directly inspired by Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Mythologiques and his concept of transformation. As with mythology, the semantic dimension of phenomena is crucial. A comparison between the grammars of an Algonquian and a Siouan language will serve as a first illustration of the logical transformations linking two language families that previously have been considered to be fundamentally distinct. A parallel appears between the results obtained and those stemming from a comparison between the principal ritual manifestations of Sioux culture and Subarctic Algonquian culture.

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