Markedness query

[Alan Rumsey]

I have received the following query from Marshall Sahlins about a kind of
markedness pattern he finds in Fijian, and about whether there are parallel
examples from elsewhere. I told him I didn't know of any, but offered to
post the query on linganth for him. If you feel moved to respond, you can
email him directly or send your message to me and I will forward it to him.
You might also want to post your response for discussion on the net.

>X-Sender: marshall at anthro.spc.uchicago.edu
>Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 16:14:19 -0500
>To: Alan Rumsey <alr at coombs.anu.edu.au>
>From: Marshall Sahlins <m-sahlins at uchicago.edu>
>Subject: Re: Deixis found.
>
>Alan;
>have you ever heard of a marking practice where the unmarked term is
>invariably the inferior member of the category--the opposite of English
>"man"?  (or old English meat ='food.') Fijian classification is always like
>this, the lower of the pair is the category-- and more than just in
>category words. All lands are named after their indigenous, commoner
>peoples.( The god of the land is likewise that of the original  people not
>the chief's god.) Food = kakana the root component (vs, icoi, the meat/fish
>complement). The chief is "gone turaga" 'child chief'--he is reckoned as
>the people's offspring, originally from their woman. (If you are wondering,
>'human' is a distinct word [tamata], neither 'male' [tagane] nor female
>[yalewa]. However tamata, is also 'common person' in opposition to turaga,
>'chief,' which it otherwise includes as the unmarked term--so there again.)
>______________________
>Marshall Sahlins
>Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology Emeritus
>Department of Anthropology
>University of Chicago
>1126 E. 59th Street
>Chicago, IL 60637
>
>phone:  (773) 702-7703
>fax:    (773) 702-4503
>home:   (773) 241-5459
>fax (h):        (773) 241-7016
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/linganth/attachments/20000905/f0c0b637/attachment.htm>