Gunter Senft

Publications

Displaying 1 - 9 of 9
  • Senft, G. (2015). Tales from the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea: Psycholinguistic and anthropological linguistic analyses of tales told by Trobriand children and adults. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Abstract

    This volume presents 22 tales from the Trobriand Islands told by children (boys between the age of 5 and 9 years) and adults. The monograph is motivated not only by the anthropological linguistic aim to present a broad and quite unique collection of tales with the thematic approach to illustrate which topics and themes constitute the content of the stories, but also by the psycholinguistic and textlinguistic questions of how children acquire linearization and other narrative strategies, how they develop them and how they use them to structure these texts in an adult-like way. The tales are presented in morpheme-interlinear transcriptions with first textlinguistic analyses and cultural background information necessary to fully understand them. A summarizing comparative analysis of the texts from a psycholinguistic, anthropological linguistic and philological point of view discusses the underlying schemata of the stories, the means narrators use to structure them, their structural complexity and their cultural specificity. The e-book is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
  • Senft, G. (2015). The Trobriand Islanders' concept of karewaga. In S. Lestrade, P. de Swart, & L. Hogeweg (Eds.), Addenda. Artikelen voor Ad Foolen (pp. 381-390). Nijmegen: Radboud University.
  • Claassen, S., D'Antoni, J., & Senft, G. (2010). Some Trobriand Islands string figures. Bulletin of the International String Figure Association, 17, 72-128.

    Abstract

    Some Trobriand Islands string figures by Stephan Claassen, Best, the Netherlands, and Joseph D'Antoni, Queens, New York, USA, in cooperation with Gunter Senft, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands (pages 72-128) - The construction and execution of fourteen string figures from the Trobriand Islands is given, along with accompanying chants (in the original, and in translation) and comparative notes. The figures were made during a 1984 string figure performance by two ladies in the village of Tauwema, on the island of Kaile’una. The performance was filmed by a team of German researchers. One of the figures appears to be not recorded before, and the construction method of another figure was hitherto unknown. Some of the other figures have their own peculiarities.
  • Senft, G. (2010). Culture change - language change: Missionaries and moribund varieties of Kilivila. In G. Senft (Ed.), Endangered Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal languages: Essays on language documentation, archiving, and revitalization (pp. 69-95). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Senft, G. (Ed.). (2010). Endangered Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal languages: Essays on language documentation, archiving, and revitalization. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

    Abstract

    The contributions to this book concern the documentation, archiving and revitalization of endangered language materials. The anthology focuses mainly on endangered Oceanic languages, with articles on Vanuatu by Darrell Tryon and the Marquesas by Gabriele Cablitz, on situations of loss and gain by Ingjerd Hoem and on the Kilivila language of the Trobriands by the editor. Nick Thieberger, Peter Wittenburg and Paul Trilsbeek, and David Blundell and colleagues write about aspects of linguistic archiving. Under the rubric of revitalization, Margaret Florey and Michael Ewing write about Maluku, Jakelin Troy and Michael Walsh about Australian Aboriginal languages in southeastern Australia, whilst three articles, by Sophie Nock, Diana Johnson and Winifred Crombie concern the revitalization of Maori.
  • Senft, G. (2010). Argonauten mit Außenbordmotoren - Feldforschung auf den Trobriand-Inseln (Papua-Neuguinea) seit 1982. Mitteilungen der Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte, 31, 115-130.

    Abstract

    Seit 1982 erforsche ich die Sprache und die Kultur der Trobriand-Insulaner in Papua-Neuguinea. Nach inzwischen 15 Reisen zu den Trobriand-Inseln, die sich bis heute zu nahezu vier Jahren Leben und Arbeit im Dorf Tauwema auf der Insel Kaile'una addieren, wurde ich von Markus Schindlbeck und Alix Hänsel dazu eingeladen, den Mitgliedern der „Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte“ über meine Feldforschungen zu berichten. Das werde ich im Folgenden tun. Zunächst beschreibe ich, wie ich zu den Trobriand-Inseln kam, wie ich mich dort zurechtgefunden habe und berichte dann, welche Art von Forschung ich all die Jahre betrieben, welche Formen von Sprach- und Kulturwandel ich dabei beobachtet und welche Erwartungen ich auf der Basis meiner bisherigen Erfahrungen für die Zukunft der Trobriander und für ihre Sprache und ihre Kultur habe.
  • Senft, G. (2010). [Review of the book Consequences of contact: Language ideologies and sociocultural transformations in Pacific societies ed. by Miki Makihara and Bambi B. Schieffelin]. Paideuma. Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde, 56, 308-313.
  • Senft, G. (2010). Introduction. In G. Senft (Ed.), Endangered Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal languages: Essays on language documentation, archiving, and revitalization (pp. 1-13). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Senft, G. (2010). The Trobriand Islanders' ways of speaking. Berlin: De Gruyter.

    Abstract

    The book documents the Trobriand Islanders' typology of genres. Rooted in the 'ethnography of speaking/anthropological linguistics' paradigm, the author highlights the relevance of genres for researching language, culture and cognition in social interaction and the importance of understanding them for achieving linguistic and cultural competence. Data presented is accessible via the internet.

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