[Papuanlanguages] 'Eat' and 'burn'

[Claudia Wegener]

Hi Stuart,

Savosavo (East Papuan, Solomons) has a verb tei which is used to express 
'say', 'be thus', 'do thus', 'want to X' (in this case it follows a verb 
meaning 'to X'), or, if used with an object suffix, 'to do sth. to so.' 
(the object is the thing or person sth. is done to).

Best,
Claudia


Stuart Robinson wrote:

>In relation to Alex Francois' post from a few months ago, I wanted to ask
>about another type of 'colexification'/polysemy--namely, between 'say' and
>'make/do'. I have found that in Rotokas (East Papuan, Bougainville) there
>is a single verb stem (pura) which means either 'to say' when it is
>intransitive or 'to make' or 'to do' when it is transitive. I am wondering
>how common this sort of things is in the region. Can people steer me to
>some examples of other languages in the region that also have a single
>term covering both meaning?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>Stuart Robinson
>  
>

-- 
Claudia Wegener
Insitut für Sprachwissenschaft
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
Merangasse 70
8010 Graz
Austria

Tel.: +43-316-380-2423
Fax: +43-316-380-9783
Email: claudia.wegener at uni-graz.at