[Lingtyp] Folk definition of “word”

[David Gil]

Dear all,

On 29/11/2021 12:11, Guillaume Jacques wrote:
> [...]
>
> On a related topic, some ancient languages such as Ugaritic and Old 
> Persian had word separators other than space.

And some very modern languages too.Here are some texts from my 
Indonesian SMS corpus, dating from the early 2000s, when semi-literate 
speakers began writing their colloquial varieties of Indonesian for the 
very first time, and were inventing orthographic conventions on the fly 
(Gil 2004,2020).

In (1) the speaker uses a full stop for word boundaries, and a question 
mark for sentence boundaries.In (2) the speaker uses a full stop for 
word boundaries and upper case for the beginning of the next word 
(though I suspect the latter was produced automatically by the mobile 
phone's texting software).in (3) the speaker uses a comma for word 
boundaries.And in (4) the speaker uses a plus sign.What these examples 
show is that in spite of numerous deviations from the orthographic 
conventions of Standard Indonesian (many of which reflect particular 
phonological properties of the respective dialects), the speakers 
experienced a strong drive to represent word boundaries in one way or 
another.

(1)

Dapit?ini.no.mama.adi?klu.mau.kirim.pls.no.ini.ya.pit?

(2) 
Pit.Sori.Yah.Pian.Antar.Teman.Nyjum.Dulu.Kasian.Ama.Dia.Yah.Pian.Kaga.Bawa.Hape.Takut.Ada.Jambret.Hp.Di.Taro.Di.Rumah.Pian.Kaga.Aptipin.Dulu.Yah.Jangan.Marah.Soalnya.Kalaw.Pian.Idupin.Kasian.Ama.Sodara.Pian.Dia.Udah.Tidur.

(3)

Terus,gimana,aku,disining,tak,mungkin,bang,rudi,menanggung,makanku,disini,sampai,kamu,sampai,dipakan,vid.bls.

(4)

Pit+kalao+udah+siyam+kerja+tlp+aku+ya+pit+

Gil, David (2004) "Learning About Language from Your Handphone; /dan, 
and /and /&/ in SMSs from the Siak River Basin", in Katharina Endriati 
Sukatmo ed., /Kolita 2, Konferensi Linguistik Tahunan Atma Jaya, /Pusat 
Kajian Bahasa dan Budaya, Unika Atma Jaya, Jakarta, 57-61.

Gil, David (2020) "What Does It Mean to Be an Isolating Language? The 
Case of Riau Indonesian", in D. Gil and A. Schapper eds., /Austronesian 
Undressed: How and Why Languages Become Isolating/, John Benjamins, 
Amsterdam, 9-96.


-- 
David Gil

Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany

Email:gil at shh.mpg.de
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091
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