[Papuanlanguages] 'Eat' and 'burn'

[Eva Lindström]

In Kuot (non-AN, New Ireland, PNG) 'say' and 'do' can be expressed with 
the same word (_-ga_ / _-gama_) -- this is the standard for 'say' but 
more restricted as 'do', found primarily in constructions like 'keep 
doing that'. This could be because there is a verb for 'do what' (in 
questions, based on _mani_ 'what') and 'make' is an AN loan _kosar_. 
There is also a noun _d at dema_ (@ for schwa) which means both word and 
behaviour.

Eva
Linguistics
Stockholm U

Stuart Robinson skrev:
> 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?
> 
>