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Kinship Terms in Ecuadorian Siona: a First Analysis

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Kinship Terms in Ecuadorian Siona: a First Analysis Felicitas Brodbeck Kinship terms in Ecuadorian Siona: A first analysis Regensburg Papers in Linguistics 07 FAKULTÄT FÜR SPRACH-, LITERATUR- UND KULTURWISSENSCHAFTEN Herausgeber: Universität Regensburg Universität Regensburg Universitätsstraße 31 93053 Regensburg © 2019, Felicitas Brodbeck Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ DOI: 10.5283/epub.40552 Formatierung: Felicitas Brodbeck Coverdesign: Maximilian Weiß Redaktion: Katarzyna I. Wojtylak Der Text stellt eine überarbeitete Version der B.A.-Arbeit der Autorin dar, die sie 2015 an der Fakultät für Sprach-, Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften der Universität Regensburg eingereicht hat. Die Regensburg Papers in Linguistics werden in unregelmäßigen Abständen vom Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft veröffentlicht. https://www.uni-regensburg.de/sprache-literatur-kultur/allgemeine-vergleichende- sprachwissenschaft/regensburg-papers-in-linguistics/index.html Abstract This bachelor thesis, “Kinship terms in Ecuadorian Siona: A first analysis”, is divided in a theoretical part summarizing the background knowledge for the second part which is about the analysis of kinship terms in Ecuadorian Siona. The theory includes a short overview of the development of the linguistic field of kinship, the essential concepts and terminologies, as well as an introduction to the two techniques of analysis of Componential Analysis and Optimality Theory, which were chosen as a structural approach to Siona’s kinship system. The second part, apart from the analysis, contains a description of the situation of the Siona language, its location and the situation of speakers and the methodology used in the elicitation sessions of the fieldwork trip to raise the data, which are the basis for this work. The focus in the analysis done by the techniques of Componential Analysis, Optimality theory and a resulting from these a classification to a certain kinship terminology is divided according to the two communities. Reason for this are the found differences between the villages of Puerto Bolívar and Sototsiaya, which even lead to a distinct classification of kinship terminology: either as an Eskimo or Iroquois type. The results from these analyses and the comparison to the Spanish kinship system, as explained in its most basic traits, bring up the question of Spanish influence. The last section hence examines the differences between the two villages in comparison to the structures in the Spanish system, and includes the different language contact situations of the two villages. As a result, hypotheses about the influence on the Siona kinship system in the village of Puerto Bolívar are formed, which will have to be tested by further research. ii Content 1 Kinship in Ecuadorian Siona: An Introduction to this Work .............................................. 1 2 Theory of Kinship ............................................................................................................... 3 2.1 A Brief Summary of the History of the Study of Kinship in the Field of Linguistics 3 2.2 The Essentials of Kinship Terminology ...................................................................... 6 2.2.1 The Kinship Code and Important Definitions ...................................................... 7 2.2.2 Key Concepts ..................................................................................................... 10 2.2.3 Major Types of Kinship – Kinship Terminology ............................................... 15 2.3 Theories and Techniques of Analysis in Kinship ...................................................... 20 2.3.1 Componential Analysis ...................................................................................... 21 2.3.2 Transformational Analysis ................................................................................. 22 2.3.3 Core Terms and Derived Ones ........................................................................... 24 2.3.4 Optimality Theory .............................................................................................. 25 3 Analysis of Kinship Terms in Ecuadorian Siona .............................................................. 28 3.1 Siona - a Tukanoan Language ................................................................................... 29 3.2 Methodology .............................................................................................................. 32 3.3 The Spanish Kinship System ..................................................................................... 34 3.4 Analysis of the System in Puerto Bolívar .................................................................. 37 3.4.1 Componential Analysis of Puerto Bolívar ......................................................... 38 3.4.2 Classification of Siona of Puerto Bolívar Siona to the Eskimo Terminology ... 51 3.5 Analysis of the System in Sototsiaya ........................................................................ 52 3.5.1 Componential Analysis of Sototsiaya ................................................................ 52 3.5.2 Classification of the System of Sototsiaya as a Mixture of the Eskimo and the Iroquois Terminology ....................................................................................................... 63 3.6 Application of Optimality Theory to the System of Puerto Bolívar and Sototsiaya . 65 3.6.1 General Overview of Ruling Constraints and a Basic Ranking of Siona ........... 65 3.6.2 Special Cases: the Realm of Cousins and Siblings and of Aunts and Uncles .... 69 3.7 Comparison of the two Systems to the Spanish System: Indicators for Language Influence ............................................................................................................................... 75 3.7.1 Differences between Sototsiaya and Puerto Bolívar, and Recent Tendencies ... 76 3.7.2 Spanish Influence? ............................................................................................. 79 4 Conclusions of the Analysis of Kinship Terms in Ecuadorian Siona ............................... 83 List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ 87 List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ 88 List of Figures .......................................................................................................................... 89 iii Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 90 Directly Cited Literature ....................................................................................................... 90 Literature Cited out of Sources Listed as Directly Cited Literature ..................................... 91 A. Appendix ........................................................................................................................... 92 A.1. Tables of sources .......................................................................................................... 92 A.2. Tables of elicitation sessions ........................................................................................ 99 Statement about Plagiarism .................................................................................................... 130 iv 1 Kinship in Ecuadorian Siona: An Introduction to this Work The idea for this work resulted from an introductory course on anthropologic linguistic and the fact that I was offered the possibility to work with Dr. Martine Bruil, a lecturer of the department of linguistics of the University of Regensburg. In accordance with the Professor of the institute for linguistics, Prof. Dr. Johannes Helmbrecht, the topic of kinship was chosen for the elicitation work and as a subject for this thesis. The fieldwork trip to Ecuador from the beginnings of August to the end of September offered me an inside view of the empirical side of linguistics and has this paper as academic result. The topic of kinship is subject to the field of anthropologic linguistics, which in turn is part of the field of sociolinguistics. In general, its aim is “to discover the appropriate use of language, to formulate these and to discover and demonstrate the underlying cultural specifics of communicative behavior of a community of speakers” (Glück 2010: 187, [my own translation]). The aim of the research was to gain as much data on the topic of kinship terms in Ecuadorian Siona as possible. All data were raised in elicitation sessions with one speaker at a time, and in total with four different speakers. The methodology was mainly to use the genealogical technique, by generating family trees of the speakers, and the elicitation of sentences. An analysis of discourse and narrating situations was not included in this work, but would be suitable for further research. Further information to the methodology will be given in the respective chapter 3.2. The documentation of Ecuadorian Siona, in comparison to Columbian Siona, started mainly with the research by Dr. Martine Bruil, who is doing a documentation program on the language of Ecuadorian Siona at the moment. The first description of Ecuadorian Siona’s grammar is mostly covered by her dissertation “Clause-typing and evidentiality in Ecuadorian Siona” from 2014, which also represents the most recent bibliography
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