The Fish and the Loom: Toward a United Semantic Reconstruction

In his foundation-laying study of the early Austronesian lexicon, Dempwolff (1938) proposed the reconstructions *bali[dD]a 'k.o. fish' and *balija 'weaver's sword'. Although these formally similar lexical reconstructions show no obvious semantic connection, both are assignab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oceanic linguistics 2010-06, Vol.49 (1), p.144-162
Main Author: Nothofer, Bernd
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Austronesian languages
Dempwolff, Otto
Descriptive studies and applied theories
Dictionaries
Eels
Fish
Freshwater fishes
Landscape
Language history
Language reconstruction
Lexicology
Linguistics
Linguists
Loan words
Looms
Marine fishes
Metaphor
Musical instruments
Native languages
Proto languages
Reflexes
Semantics
Swordfish
Swords
Weaving
Words
Works
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Summary:In his foundation-laying study of the early Austronesian lexicon, Dempwolff (1938) proposed the reconstructions *bali[dD]a 'k.o. fish' and *balija 'weaver's sword'. Although these formally similar lexical reconstructions show no obvious semantic connection, both are assignable to Proto-Austronesian *baRija ' weaver's sword'. This etymon became Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balija, which is reconstructed with the meanings ' weaver's sword' and 'k. o. fish', since reflexes of this form refer not only to a part of the loom, but also metaphorically to certain kinds offish or, less frequently, kinds of plants, landscapes, or parts of constructions (musical instrument, house, etc.). The use of metaphorical extensions taking "cultural" objects as the model for representing "natural" objects is also discussed briefly.
ISSN:0029-8115
1527-9421
1527-9421
DOI:10.1353/ol.0.0066