Corporeality and patiency: a lexical, grammatical and ethnological study of Arawakan languages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15381/lengsoc.v23i2.28098Keywords:
corporeality, personhood, patiency, Arawak, morphosyntaxAbstract
The objective of this paper is to characterize the lexical and grammatical manifestations of corporeality in Arawakan languages. We argue that the notion of corporeality in these languages is central for the expression of personhood and patiency/patientivity; in other words, a state or quality having the typical traits of the patient. This paper starts with a lexical reflection on the question of inalienability of body parts, their nomenclature – especially concerning lexical creation– and the locus of emotions such as the Terena okóvo, translated as "belly" but also as "soul", as the Wayuu -a’ain "heart, soul" or the Tariana -kale "heart, mind, life force, soul, breath". These examples show that the body is the site of physical, physiological and even psychological sensations. Evidence of this statement appears through specific constructions for stative verbs, such as an opposition between subject marking and object marking, or the existence of differential subject marking. These different constructions allow the speaker to express specifications and subtleties concerning the aforementioned sensations.
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