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Salishan Lexical Suffixes: A Study in the Conceptualization of Space
Academic Work
This dissertation addresses the semantics of lexical suffixes in Salish, a family of twenty-three languages indigenous to British Columbia and the northwestern United States. Lexical suffixes denote entities usually referred to by full noun phrases in other languages. There are a hundred or more lexical suffixes denoting basic vocabulary such as body parts (FACE, HAND, BACK), cultural implements (CANOE, HOUSE, CLOTHING), and natural elements (FIRE, GROUND, WATER). Most lexical suffixes are extremely old and can be reconstructed for ProtoSalish. Though they appear in many frozen expressions, lexical suffixes are still actively used today to coin new words. Control of the lexical suffix system is considered a mark of a fluent speaker. I undertake a study of the cognitive semantics of lexical suffixes based both on secondary source materials and on original field work. My research uncovers semantic relationships that appear unmotivated if viewed within a single language, but which can be seen by the systematic comparative study of all the Salishan languages. I establish that lexical suffixes are polysemous entities, and that metaphorical processes, grounded in culture and cognition, define the conceptual categories of meaning underlying their polysemy. I show how the different meanings and functions of a suffix develop from a central concept by means of principles of semantic extension. After a general survey of lexical suffixes and their properties, I give a detailed treatment of the meaning extensions of three body part suffixes and two material culture suffixes. These suffixes extend semantically to take on various functions including locational and relational concepts. This study, which gives the first systematic treatment of the semantic properties of lexical suffiies, contributes to Salishan linguistics. It compares the Salishan system to semantic studies of body-part terminology in other languages of the world. The Salish facts provide verification for the mechanisms of semantic extension of body parts into spatial concepts that have been proposed as universals of human language. Thus this study contributes to our understanding of the interface between language and cognition.
AW.00069
1999
Language and Linguistics
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Thesis / Dissertation
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