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Body part terms in Jahai

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Author

Summary, in English

This article explores the lexicon of body part terms in Jahai, a Mon-Khmer language spoken by a group of hunter–gatherers in the Malay Peninsula. It provides an extensive inventory of body part terms and describes their structural and semantic properties. The Jahai body part lexicon pays attention to fine anatomical detail but lacks labels for major, 'higher-level' categories, like 'trunk', 'limb', 'arm' and 'leg'. In this lexicon it is therefore sometimes difficult to discern a clear partonomic hierarchy, a presumed universal of body part terminology.

Publishing year

2006

Language

English

Pages

162-180

Publication/Series

Language Sciences

Volume

28

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • General Language Studies and Linguistics

Keywords

  • Jahai
  • Mon-Khmer
  • Body part terms
  • Partonomy
  • Meronymy
  • Semantic fields
  • Semantic generality
  • Ambiguity

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0388-0001