[Lexicog] Re: Words that are absent in particular languages

Wed Mar 29 00:44:53 UTC 2006

There are several areas of the lexicon where we would expect cultural
scripts or cultural activities to vary. Someone has already mentioned that
technologies vary. In English we need a domain for 'Space travel'. NASA,
scientists, and science fiction writers have a large vocabulary in this
domain, including 'astronaut' and 'warp drive'.

Work related domains are culture specific. For instance some lexicographers
working in Thailand requested that I include a semantic domain for 'Working
with domesticated elephants'. Some languages in southeast Asia will require
such a domain, but it will be missing from every other part of the world. In
places where water is delivered in pipes, you would need a domain for
'Plumbing', but in other places you would need a domain for
'Drawing/fetching water'.

Another area is cultural activities such as ceremonies and games/sports. We
do not initiate young men into our tribe. But in many places this ceremony
has specific components that are lexicalized. So many languages need a
domain, 'Initiation'. There are other cultural practices like 'Circumcision'
'Tatoo' and 'Tribal scarring' that won't exist in some cultures. We have
'Birthday party' mostly filled with lexical phrases such as 'Happy birthday'
and 'birthday cake'. We have a huge vocabulary for 'Baseball'. Other
cultures have other games. A person who had used the DDP word collection
method reported that all the words for games and sports could be put into a
single small domain. We need a domain for each (major) sport and lots of
games. 'Poker' has its own vocabulary.

There are also small language groups that will not have any words for large
scale activities such as 'War'. Some African tribes had no tribal
organization corresponding to our 'Government', but might have borrowed
words in recent times to deal with modern national governments. I would
imagine that some nomadic groups have a domain for 'migrate' and other
settled groups don't.

Some languages won't have a domain 'School' or 'Disciple'. In the Lunyole
word collection workshop, no words were collected in the domains 'Drama' or
'Playing [e.g. toy]'.

I've heard from several languages that some groups have a domain
'Condiments' and others don't. The larger domain of 'Food' seems to be
divided up quite differently from language to language.

There are financial domains such as 'Bank' and 'Insurance' that will be
lacking in some cultures. Some may lack money and finances altogether.

I wish I could give specific names of languages that lack these domains, but
I can't. Sorry. I've come across these examples in the literature but I
don't have a photographic memory.

Ron Moe
  -----Original Message-----
  From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of David williams
  Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 11:50 AM
  To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
  Subject: RE: [Lexicog] Re: Words that are absent in particular languages

  Thanks Ron, Could you suggest some of the languages which have such
missing domains.

  Best wishes,

  David

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  From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Ron Moe
  Sent: 23 March 2006 17:18
  To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
  Subject: RE: [Lexicog] Re: Words that are absent in particular languages

  Ken has made an important observation about lexical gaps. If we look at
all
  the words in a language that are used to talk about a domain, we may find
a
  plethora of words and phrases that cover the domain quite nicely. But if
we
  look for an exact match between a complex concept in one language and the
  same identical concept in another language, we will usually be
disappointed.
  What may be of more relevance to David is when an entire domain is
missing.
  For instance in English we have a large domain 'thank, thankful,
  thanksgiving, say thanks, gratitude, grateful, appreciate, show your
  appreciation, You're welcome, ingratitude, (and many others)'. These all
  refer to various aspects of a cultural script. I've heard of languages
where
  this cultural script is missing, and therefore all the words refering to
it.

  Ron Moe

  -----Original Message-----
  From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
  [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Kenneth C. Hill
  Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 6:02 PM
  To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
  Subject: Re: [Lexicog] Re: Words that are absent in particular languages

  One has to be careful with quick assessments as to whether a language has
  a term for a given concept. Hopi has long been famous for the wrong claim
  (by Benjamin Lee Whorf) that it has no word for time. In fact Hopi has
  many words for 'time'; two that translate as English 'time' are taawa and
  qeni:

  taawa (which also means 'sun' or 'day') refers to time as some sort of
  entity, as in Taawa a'ni hÃ²yta. [time very be.moving] 'Time is really
  moving fast.'

  qeni (which also means 'space') means 'time' in the sense of time to do or
  for doing something, as in Pay naat itamungem a'ni qeni. [well still
  for.us very time] 'There is still plenty of time for us [to do it].'

  Hopi also has various expressions things like 'at that point in time', 'an
  occasion', 'have time for'.

  Of similar interest along with the question of lexical gaps is the fact
  that sometimes quite distinct concepts are conflated under the same term.
  An example is the usage in English of 'hot' to refer to temperature and to
  certain kinds of spiciness, the sensory effect of chile peppers and of
  mustard (which in turn are very different sensory experiences). In Spanish
  these concepts of temperature and of spiciness are clearly distinct:
  caliente has to do with temperature and picante has to do with the
  spiciness. The confusion in English is such that some people refer to the
  property of chile as 'heat' and commercial packages of foods containing
  chile often have little thermometer icons on them telling how 'hot' the
  contents are. I suspect such icons would not work very well in Mexico.

  --Ken Hill

  --- David Williams <david at dwdw1.com> wrote:

  > --- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, "David Williams" <david at ...>
  > wrote:
  > >
  > > HI I'm researching words which some languages omit. I'm trying to
  > > build up some examples. I believe, for instance, that in Swedish
  > there
  > > is no direct counterpart for 'mind'.
  > > If anyone has any examples I'd be delighted to hear them.
  > > cheers
  > > DW
  > >
  > Many thanks to those who have offered suggestions. Just to clarify,
  > I'm particularly interested in the abscence of words which by their
  > omisision might reflect the culture of the language group. I remeMber
  > reading many yers ago of a tribe who saw the ability to deceive as a
  > virtue and their language refelcted this. This might well have been an
  > apocryphal tale, but it's this avenue I'm looking at.
  > best wishes to all,
  > DavidW
  >
  >
  >
  >

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