Patrick McConvell from Centre for Research on Language Change, School of Language Studies, Australian National University gives a guest lecture on: Kinship typology and kinship evolution in Aboriginal Australia: linguistic evidence

29.03.2012

Dato	man 16 apr
Tid	12:00 — 13:00
Sted	Aarhus Universitet, bygning 1467/415

Department of Aesthetics and Communication – Linguistics
Seminar, Monday 16th April, 2012
All welcome!
Venue: 1467-415

Time: 12-13

Patrick McConvell, Centre for Research on Language Change,

School of Language Studies, Australian National University

Kinship typology and kinship evolution in Aboriginal Australia: linguistic evidence

Abstract

The typology of kinship terminologies in Australia generally takes a lead from Radcliffe-Brown, who distinguished types with names of language groups such as Kariera and Aranda.

The types are defined by the patterns of polysemy of terms in them eg in Kariera systems the term for ‘mother’s mother’ is also the term for ‘father’s father’s sister’, whereas in Aranda systems the terms are different.  These polysemy patterns can be searched for using the online database  AustKin and their distributions displayed on a map.

How do we know which type preceded and was transformed into which other ones? One source of evidence lies in the reconstruction of semantic change in terms. For instance terms cognate with a root *kaala means ‘mother’s brother’ in the north-east of Australia but ‘mother’s brother’s child’ , cross-cousin, or spouse, in areas south and west. There are also languages in which both meanings are found – a pattern known as Omaha skewing.

This leads to the conclusion that the development was from the ‘uncle’ to ‘cousin’ meaning via a bridging polysemy. Another type of system is Aluridja, a type found in the Western Desert and some other areas in which some cross-cousins are called ‘siblings’.

In the Western Desert this kind of ‘cross-parallel neutralisation’ is also found in grandparent terms. Instead of distinguishing between for instance ‘father’s father’ and ‘mother’s father’ as in Kariera or Aranda system, there is one term like the European ‘grandfather’ term, covering both.

In the Western Desert one of the ‘grandfather’ terms is tyamu cognate with a root meaning ‘mother’s father’ elsewhere. Taken together with other etymological evidence about terms, it can be concluded that the more highly differentiated Kariera system came first and was replaced by the simpler Alurija system.