Text genres in non-Indo-European languages

Ever since Aristotle's Poetics which proposes a classification of literary forms into the three genres 'drama', 'narrative', and 'lyric', the literary concept of 'genre' has been under continuous attack. In general, all criticism so far has been dealing with the following two questions:

1. How is a 'genre' defined? – and

2. What functions do genres fulfill?

Moreover, when the concept and the technical term 'genre' saw its extension into anthropology, ethnography, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and anthropological linguistics, a third question became central for the critical discussion of this concept, namely:

3. What is the relevance of genres for researching the role of language, culture and cognition in social interaction?

It has always been highly problematic to classify text genres for non-Indo-European languages, especially if this classification is based on the tradition of, and the technical terms defined in, European philology and discourse analysis.

In his 2010 monograph "The Trobriand Islanders' Ways of Speaking" Gunter Senft presents and illustrates the Trobrianders' indigenous typology of text categories or genres, covering the spectrum from ditties children chant while spinning a top, to gossip, songs, jokes, tales, and myths. The typology is based on Kilivila metalinguistic terms for these genres; these metalinguistically differentiated genres constitute specific registers or varieties which are also metalinguistically labeled and distinguished by the Trobriand Islanders.

The study is rooted in the 'ethnography of speaking' paradigm and in the 'anthropological linguistics/linguistic anthropology' approach. The author presents all the Kilivila genres and the varieties which are constituted by these text-categories. The genres and varieties are metalinguistically labeled by the Trobrianders. This indigenous typology of text categories reveals that they are marked as distinct ways of speaking. The study emphasizes how important it is to understand these genre and variety distinctions for achieving linguistic and cultural competence for adequate social interaction within this speech community.

Most of the original audio- and video-data presented are accessible on a special website. Thus, transcriptions can be checked against original data recordings.

This volume finally provides the corpus inscriptionum for Kilivila Bronislaw Malinowski (1922: 24f.) asked for in his famous monograph "Argonauts of the Western Pacific".

Although Kilivila is not an endangered language, two of its metalinguistically labeled varieties or registers are moribund by now: the "biga megwa" - the language of magic and the "biga baloma" - the language of the spirits of the dead.

In his second volume of "Coral Gardens and their Magic" Bronislaw Malkinowski (1935) documented the Trobrianders' magic of gardening. Gunter Senft (1985, 1997, 2001, 2009, 2010) managed to document a rather broad variety of different magical formulae as well.

The "biga baloma" variety is an archaic register of Kilivila. It is constituted by specific songs - the "wosi milamala" - the harvest festivals songs which are not only sung during these festivals but also after the death of a Trobriander during the first mourning ceremonies. Bernard Baldwin (1945, 1950) was the first to document two of these song cycles.

In his 2011 volume "The Tuma Underworld of Love - Erotic and other narrative songs of the Trobriand Islanders and their spirits of the dead" Senft documents 20 of these song cycles.The majority of these songs describe in a highly poetic way the carefree ‘life’ of the spirits of the dead in their ‘underworld paradise’ on Tuma which is one of the Trobriand Island. The songs codify the most important aspects of the Trobriand Islanders' eschatological belief system which explains what happens when someone dies. Although the songs are still sung by the Trobriand Islanders because of their ritual impact, most of the singers no longer understand the lyrics they have learned by heart.

This monograph not only documents these songs and thus contributes to preserve the knowledge of the traditional belief system of the Trobriand Islanders, it also presents an anthropological linguistic analysis of their eschatological content and provides a critical review of Bronislaw Malinowski's ethnography on the topic. In his articles "Baloma: the spirits of the dead in the Trobriand Islands" and "Myth in primitive psychology" Malinowski (1916, 1925) presented the Trobrianders' belief that a "baloma" can be reborn; he claimed that Trobrianders are unaware of the father's role of genitor. Senft's volume provides evidence that contradicts this view, finally settling the so-called "virgin birth" controversy.

The interested reader of this book also has the opportunity to access the internet and listen to most of the original data presented in the volume.

Contact person

Gunter Senft