Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar

Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar. This paper looks at  the  linguistic coding of a typologically unusual type of causation in Matses, a Panoan language spoken in Amazonian Peru and Brazil. Specifically, the topic is the nominalizing suffix -anmës, whose function can be defined...

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Main Author: David W. Fleck
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Société des américanistes 2001-01-01
Series:Journal de la Société des Américanistes
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/1959
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author David W. Fleck
author_facet David W. Fleck
author_sort David W. Fleck
collection DOAJ
description Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar. This paper looks at  the  linguistic coding of a typologically unusual type of causation in Matses, a Panoan language spoken in Amazonian Peru and Brazil. Specifically, the topic is the nominalizing suffix -anmës, whose function can be defined as specifying that: « the referent of the nominalization is an entity that non-volitionally, invisibly and often mysteriously causes helpless victims to enter some undesirable, enduring state ». This notion of causation appears to be particular to the Matses, suggesting that in addition to putative universal notions of causation, culture-specific notions of causal understanding should be taken into consideration in linguistic description.
format Article
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institution Kabale University
issn 0037-9174
1957-7842
language English
publishDate 2001-01-01
publisher Société des américanistes
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series Journal de la Société des Américanistes
spelling doaj-art-214941d521d747eab265a9cabecc37bf2025-02-05T15:53:47ZengSociété des américanistesJournal de la Société des Américanistes0037-91741957-78422001-01-018717719610.4000/jsa.1959Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammarDavid W. FleckCulture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar. This paper looks at  the  linguistic coding of a typologically unusual type of causation in Matses, a Panoan language spoken in Amazonian Peru and Brazil. Specifically, the topic is the nominalizing suffix -anmës, whose function can be defined as specifying that: « the referent of the nominalization is an entity that non-volitionally, invisibly and often mysteriously causes helpless victims to enter some undesirable, enduring state ». This notion of causation appears to be particular to the Matses, suggesting that in addition to putative universal notions of causation, culture-specific notions of causal understanding should be taken into consideration in linguistic description.https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/1959causationlinguistic relativity
spellingShingle David W. Fleck
Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar
Journal de la Société des Américanistes
causation
linguistic relativity
title Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar
title_full Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar
title_fullStr Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar
title_full_unstemmed Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar
title_short Culture-specific notions of causation in Matses grammar
title_sort culture specific notions of causation in matses grammar
topic causation
linguistic relativity
url https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/1959
work_keys_str_mv AT davidwfleck culturespecificnotionsofcausationinmatsesgrammar