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Discourse in the Longue Durée: A View of Mayan Poetic Inertia
Author(s) -
Law Danny,
Hull Kerry
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1111/jola.12220
Subject(s) - poetry , context (archaeology) , colonialism , literature , inertia , linguistics , history , philosophy , sociology , art , archaeology , physics , classical mechanics
Discourse is dynamic and emergent, yet certain elements of discourse can appear remarkably stable, enduring across centuries. This discursive inertia gives us evidence of discourse in the past, allowing us to put current discursive moments in a longue durée context. Discursive inertia also begs avenues of investigation in its own right. We here discuss the common poetic patterns of chiasmus and difrasismo on one branch of the Mayan language family, consisting of Classic Mayan, documented in hieroglyphic inscriptions, Colonial Ch'olti’, and contemporary Ch'orti’ Mayan. Texts from these languages share poetic discourse that speak to the long perseverance of discursive patterns.