Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics and its Interfaces as related to the Expression of Intention
Edited by István Kecskés
[Pragmatics & Cognition 26:1] 2019
► pp. 39–60

Siberian-American cognitive and cultural interface through eco-ethnic lexicon

| Tomsk State University
| Tomsk State University
| Tomsk State University
The focus of this paper is a possible Siberian link with the Na-Dene Languages, based on cognitive lexical semantics. Dene-Yeniseian is a proposed language family consisting of the Yeniseian languages of Central Siberia and the Na-Dene languages of North-Western North America (Campbell 2011; Trombetti 1923; Vajda 2010, 2011, 2018). The paper connects semantic universals, Ket and Dene folklore, and also comparative historical linguistic research. In analyzing a group of cognates, the paper’s aim is to discuss the cultural, cognitive and pragmatic reasons that enabled these cognates to survive for several thousand years. Our main point is that factors such as the relative importance of linguistic signs in a language community, lingual conservatism of semantic universals and the distinctiveness of its referents, probable frequency with which these words were used, and their cultural symbolism in relatively similar environments significantly contributed to their survival in ethnic groups belonging to the proposed language family. Our cross-disciplinary study helps us identify the essential place of eco-ethnic material in interpreting cross-continental similarities and emphasizes the integrative role of culture. It will be argued that the eco-ethnic lexicon reflected by the Dene-Yeniseian cognates reveals several thousand years of diachronic cognitive processes.
Keywords: Dene-Yeniseian cognates, cognitive linguistics, encyclopedic, lexical semantics, cross-disciplinary and intercultural studies
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Cognitive phenomena and cognates in the Dene-Yeniseian language family
    • 1.2A new approach to cognates
  • 2.Methodology and resources
  • 3.Data interpretation and discussion
  • 4.Case study
    • 4.1Yeniseian – Na-Dene: Earth
    • 4.2Yeniseian – Na-Dene: Trees
    • 4.3Yeniseian ‘dragonfly’ – Na-Dene ‘fly’
    • 4.4Yeniseian ‘mosquito/midge’ – Na-Dene ‘mosquito’
    • 4.5Yeniseian ‘eagle’ – Na-Dene ‘bald eagle’
    • 4.6Yeniseian (Ket tī·p, Yugh čīp) ‘dog’ – Na-Dene (PA ŧǝqʸ) ‘dog’
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Abbreviations
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 27 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.19007.kim
References (38)
References
Alekseenko, Evgenija Alekseevna. 1967. Kety (The Kets). Istoriko-Etnograficheskie Ocherki (Historical- Ethnographic Essays). Leningrad: Nauka.Google Scholar
. 1976. Predstavlenia ketov o mire (The Kets’ notion of the world). Priroda i chelovek v religioznykh predstavleniakh narodov Sibiri i Severa (Nature and the man in religious notions of the people of Siberia and the North). Leningrad: Nauka. 67–105.Google Scholar
. 1977. Kulty ketov (Cults of the Kets). Pamiatniki kultury narodov Sibiri i Severa (Cultural heritage of the people of Siberia and the North). Sbornik muzeia antropologii i etnografii XXXIII (Proceedings of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography). Leningrad: Nauka. 29–65.Google Scholar
. 1996. Categories of the Ket shamans. In Vilmos Diószegi & Mihály Hoppál (eds.), Shamanism in Siberia. Budapest: Akademiai Kiado. 33–42.Google Scholar
. 2001. Mify, predaniya, skazki ketov (Ket myths, stories, and fairy-tales). Moscow: Vostochnaia Literatura, RAN.Google Scholar
Berezkin, Yuri E. 2010. Selecting separate episodes of the peopling of the New World: Beringian-Subarctic-Eastern North American folklore links. Dene-Yeniseian Connection. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, New Series. 5 (1–2). 257–278.Google Scholar
Campbell, Joseph. 1983. The way of the animal powers. San Francisco: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Campbell, Lyle. 2011. Review of The Dene-Yeniseian Connection (Kari and Potter), International Journal of American Linguistics 77(3). 445–451. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Croft, William & Alan D. Cruse. 2004. Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cruse, Alan D. 2000. Meaning in language. An introduction to semantics and pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
De Laguna, Frederica. 1995. Tales from Dena: Indian Stories from Tanana, Koyukuk, & Yukon Rivers. Seattle & London: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Erdoes, Richard & Ortiz, Alfonso (eds.). 1984. American Indian myths and legends. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Haviland, William, Harald Prins, Dana Walrath & Bunny McBride. 2007. Cultural anthropology: The human challenge. Belmont: Wadsworth. Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
Honigman, John J. 1954. The Kaska Indians: An ethnographic reconstruction. New Haven: Yale University Publications in Anthropology.Google Scholar
Ivanov, Vyacheslav V. 1973. Problema Drevneishikh Etnicheskikh Svyazei Ketov I Amerikanskikh Indeitsev v Svete Dannykh Sravnitelnoi Mifologii [The problem of the Ket-Amerindian ancient ethnic connection in the light of comparative mythology]. Problemy Etnogeneza Narodov Sibiri i Dalnego Vostoka. Novosibirsk: RAN. 178–180.Google Scholar
1974. Vosstanovlenie Pervonachalnogo Teksta Ketskogo Mifa o Razoritele Orlinakh Gnezd [The reconstruction of the original text of the Ket myth about the Eagle Nest Destroyer]. Materialy Vsesoyuznogo Simpoziuma po Vtorichnym Modeliruyushim Sistemam, I (5). Tartu: Tartu University Press. 61–64.Google Scholar
Jamsaranova, R. G. 2013. Kontseptosfera Srednevekovoi Mongolskoi Etnonimii [The conceptual sphere of the medieval Mongol ethnonyms]. Chita: Express-Izdatelstvo.Google Scholar
Jetté, Jules & Eliza Jones. 2000. Koyukon Athabaskan dictionary. In James Kari (ed.). Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks.Google Scholar
Kalifornsky, Peter. 1991. A Dena’ina Legacy (K’tl’egh’I sukdu). Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center. University of Alaska Fairbanks.Google Scholar
Kari, James. 2010. The concept of geolinguistic conservatism in Na-Dene prehistory. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, New Series. 5 (1–2). 194–222.Google Scholar
Kari, James & Ben A. Potter. 2010. The Dene-Yeniseian connection: Bridging Asia and North America. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, New Series, vol. 5 (1–2). Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology. 1–24.Google Scholar
Kecskes, Istvan. 2014. Intercultural pragmatics. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kim-Maloney, Alexandra. 2010. Comparison of a pair of Ket and Diné (Navajo) myth motifs. Dene-Yeniseian Connection. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, New Series. 5 (1–2). 279–284.Google Scholar
Kotorova, Elizaveta & Andrey Nefedov. 2015. Comprehensive dictionary of Ket. Munich: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar
Kravchenko, Alexander V. 1996. Yazyk I Vospriyatie: Kognitivnye Aspekty Yazykovoi Kategorizatsii [Language and perception: Cognitive aspects of language categorization]. Irkutsk: Irkutsk University Press.Google Scholar
Leeming, David & Jake Page. 1998. The mythology of Native North America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Mify ob orle [Myths about Eagle]. [URL] (12 October, 2008).
McNeley, James K. 1981. Holy wind in Navajo philosophy. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005. Athapaskan concepts of wind and power. Encyclopedia of Religion. Detroit: MacMillan Reference U.S.A.Google Scholar
New Oxford Dictionary of English. 2001. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Perry, Richard J. 1991. Western Apache heritage. Austin: University of Texas Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1993. Apache Reservation. Indigenous peoples and the American state. Austin: University of Texas Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Perikhvalskaia, E. V. 2016. Etnolingvistika [Ethnolinguistics]. Moscow: Yurait.Google Scholar
Thompson, Stith. 1966. Tales of the North American Indians. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Trombetti, Alfredo. 1923. Elementi di glottologia. Bologna. 486–511.Google Scholar
Vajda, Edward. 2010. A Siberian link with Na-Dene languages. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, New series. 51, 33–99.Google Scholar
. 2011. A response to Campbell. International Journal of American Linguistics 77(3). 451–452. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. Dene-Yeniseian: Progress and unanswered questions. Notes/ Discussion. Diachronica 35(2). 277–295. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Николаев, Вячеслав Романович
2022. FUNERAL RITES OF KET AND NAVAJO INDIANS: EXPERIENCE OF HISTORICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHIC COMPARISON. Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology :1(35) ► pp. 135 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.