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Tongan‐English language contact and kinship terminology
Author(s) -
VÖLKEL SVENJA
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/weng.12193
Subject(s) - terminology , kinship , linguistics , phenomenon , meaning (existential) , language contact , point (geometry) , sociology , genealogy , psychology , history , anthropology , epistemology , philosophy , mathematics , geometry , psychotherapist
‘[D]o all humans mean the same things by words that can be used successfully to point to the same thing?’ (Leavitt [Leavitt, John, 2015]: 51). This study shows that the same words used in different English varieties might not have the same meaning. The typological comparison of standardised English and Tongan kinship terminology reveals that the categorisation is based on different underlying features. While standardised English focuses on the concept of ‘core family’, Tongan merges ‘same‐sex siblings’ and emphasises the concept of ‘extended family’. The emerging contact phenomenon in Tongan English is the use of English terminology according to Tongan categorisation, that is, a case of semantic transfer.