Gunter Senft

List of John Benjamins publications for which Gunter Senft plays a role.

Book series

Subjects Anthropological Linguistics | Austronesian languages | Sociology
Subjects Anthropological Linguistics | Austronesian languages | Narrative Studies
Subjects Anthropological Linguistics | Austronesian languages | Cognition and language | Psycholinguistics
Subjects Anthropological Linguistics | Austronesian languages

Culture and Language Use

Edited by Gunter Senft, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren

[Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights, 2] 2009. xiii, 280 pp.
Subjects Discourse studies | Pragmatics
This paper presents the complex system of classifiers in Kilivila, the language of the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea. After a brief introduction to the language and its speakers, the classifier system is briefly described with respect to the role of these formatives for the word… read more
Senft, Gunter 2022 FieldworkHandbook of Pragmatics: Manual, Verschueren, Jef and Jan-Ola Östman (eds.), pp. 1618–1624 | Chapter
Senft, Gunter 2022 ElicitationHandbook of Pragmatics: Manual, Verschueren, Jef and Jan-Ola Östman (eds.), pp. 1539–1542 | Chapter
Senft, Gunter 2018 Pragmatics and anthropology: The Trobriand Islanders’ ways of speakingPragmatics and its Interfaces, Ilie, Cornelia and Neal R. Norrick (eds.), pp. 185–211 | Chapter
Bronislaw Malinowski – based on his experience during his field research on the Trobriand Islands – pointed out that language is first and foremost a tool for creating social bonds. It is a mode of behavior and the meaning of an utterance is constituted by its pragmatic function. Malinowski’s… read more
Kilivila, the Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea, has a rich inventory of terms – nouns, verbs, adjectives and idiomatic phrases and expressions – to precisely refer to, and to differentiate emotions and inner feelings. This paper describes how the Trobriand… read more
This chapter first compares data collected on Kilivila colour terms in 1983 with data collected in 2008. The Kilivila lexicon has changed from a typical stage IIIb into a stage VII colour term lexicon (Berlin & Kay 1969). The chapter then compares data on the Kilivila taste vocabulary collected in… read more
Senft, Gunter 2011 13. To have and have not: Kilivila reciprocalsReciprocals and Semantic Typology, Evans, Nicholas, Alice Gaby, Stephen C. Levinson and Asifa Majid (eds.), pp. 225–232 | Article

Kilivila is one of the languages of the world that lacks dedicated reciprocal forms. After a short introduction the paper briefly shows how reciprocity is either not expressed at all, is only implicated in an utterance, or expressed periphrastically.

read more
Senft, Gunter 2009 Bronislaw Kasper MalinowskiCulture and Language Use, Senft, Gunter, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren (eds.), pp. 210–225 | Article
Senft, Gunter 2009 ElicitationCulture and Language Use, Senft, Gunter, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren (eds.), pp. 105–109 | Article
Senft, Gunter 2009 Phatic communionCulture and Language Use, Senft, Gunter, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren (eds.), pp. 226–233 | Article
Senft, Gunter 2009 IntroductionCulture and Language Use, Senft, Gunter, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren (eds.), pp. 1–17 | Article
Senft, Gunter 2009 FieldworkCulture and Language Use, Senft, Gunter, Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren (eds.), pp. 131–139 | Article
Senft, Gunter 2001 Frames of spatial reference in KilivilaStudies in Language 25:3, pp. 521–555 | Article
Members of the MPI for Psycholinguistics are researching the interrelationship between language, cognition and the conceptualization of space in various languages. Research results show that there are three frames of spatial reference, the absolute, the relative, and the intrinsic frame of… read more
Senft, Gunter 1999 Bronislaw Kasper MalinowskiHandbook of Pragmatics: 1997 Installment, Verschueren, Jef, Jan-Ola Östman, Jan Blommaert † and Chris Bulcaen (eds.), pp. 1–20 | Article
Senft, Gunter 1999 Enter and Exit in KilivilaStudies in Language 23:1, pp. 1–23 | Article
Based on film animation scenes and on an elicitation-task devised by members of the Cognitive Anthropology Research Group I elicited data on how the concepts ENTER and EXIT are expressed in Kilivila, the Austronesian language of the Trobriand Islanders. The paper presents the methodology used for… read more
Senft, Gunter 1996 Phatic communionHandbook of Pragmatics: 1995 Installment, Verschueren, Jef, Jan-Ola Östman, Jan Blommaert † and Chris Bulcaen (eds.), pp. 1–10 | Article
Senft, Gunter 1995 ElicitationHandbook of Pragmatics: Manual, Verschueren, Jef, Jan-Ola Östman and Jan Blommaert † (eds.), pp. 577–581 | Article
Senft, Gunter 1995 FieldworkHandbook of Pragmatics: Manual, Verschueren, Jef, Jan-Ola Östman and Jan Blommaert † (eds.), pp. 595–601 | Article
Senft, Gunter 1987 Kilivila Color TermsStudies in Language 11:2, pp. 313–346 | Article
This paper documents the results of a study of color terms produced by Trobriand Islanders. Eleven color stimuli were presented to 60 informants in five different age-groups ranging from approximately 4 to 75 years. These informants, native speakers of Kilivila, live in Tauwema village on Kaileuna… read more