The Linguistic Expression of Affective Stance in Yaminawa (Pano, Peru)
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The Linguistic Expression of Affective Stance in Yaminawa (Pano, Peru) By Kelsey Caitlyn Neely A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Lev D. Michael, Chair Professor Eve Sweetser Professor Justin Davidson Summer 2019 Copyright by Kelsey Caitlyn Neely Abstract The Linguistic Expression of Affective Stance in Yaminawa (Pano, Peru) by Kelsey Caitlyn Neely Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Lev D. Michael, Chair This dissertation explores affective expression in Yaminawa, a Panoan language ofPe- ruvian Amazonia. In this study, ‘affect’ is used to refer broadly to the English language concepts of ‘emotion’ and ‘feeling’. Affective expression is approached as an interac- tional phenomenon and it is analyzed in terms of affective stancetaking, i.e., the way speakers position themselves to objects in the discourse as well as their interlocutors via linguistic performance. This study considers affective resources at the levels of the lex- icon, morphology, prosody, acoustics (voice quality, speech rate and volume, etc.), and interactional features (turn duration, complexity of backchannels, etc.). This study contextualizes affective expression in Yaminawa with a detailed descrip- tion of Yaminawa ethnopsychology and the lexical resources that describe affective states, as well as behaviors and bodily sensations that are associated with particular affects by the Yaminawa. Using methods from Cognitive Anthropology, I investigate the ways that native Yaminawa speakers categorize emotion terms, and show that prosociality vs. anti- sociality is a major cultural axis along which emotion terms are conceptually organized. This dissertation also provides both a general ethnographic sketch of daily life among the Yaminawa community of Sepahua and a grammar sketch of the Yaminawa language. Yaminawa is notable for its rich inventory of bound morphemes that are used in affec- tive expression. Some of the affective categories expressed by these bound morphemes, such as sadness, appear to be typologically unusual. In everyday conversation, certain morphological, acoustic, and interactional features cluster together in recurrent affective ways of speaking that are identifiable by speakers even when the propositional content of the utterances cannot be clearly heard. This dissertation describes two salient affective ways of speaking in detail: shĩnã́ ì̀ ‘sad’ speech and sídàì ‘angry’ speech. Shĩnã́ ì̀ ‘sad’ speech is characterized by creaky voice, low speech volume, and high frequency and complexity of backchannelling by co-participants, among other features. Sídàì ‘angry’ speech is char- acterized by breathy voice, slow and rhythmic speech rate, and scarcity and simplicity 1 of backchannels. I also briefly describe the key features of three additional, minor affec- tive stances: dúì ‘affection’, rátèì ‘surprise’, and bésèì ‘fear’. Some affective resources are used in more than one type of affective speech, for example, high pitch is used in affec- tionate speech, surprised speech, and commands issued in angry speech. Other affective resources appear to be unique to a single affective type, such as delayed stop release in fearful speech. While previous descriptions of affective expression in individual languages have tended to focus on single levels of analysis, such as metaphor or morphology, this dissertation aims to provide a model for the holistic description of affective expression in an individual language. 2 Para todos los yaminahua y nahua, los que ya se fueron y los que van a venir, que siempre se hable nũkũ tsãĩ. i Contents List of Tables ix List of Figures xi Acknowledgments xiii Abbreviations xvi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Goals and contributions . 1 1.2 The ethnography of communication and the theoretical orientation of this dissertation . 4 1.3 Stance and stancetaking . 6 1.4 What is ‘affect’? . 7 1.5 Field methodologies and practical considerations . 9 1.6 Ethical considerations . 14 1.7 Outline . 16 2 Introduction to the Yaminawa language and people 18 2.1 Introduction . 18 2.2 Yaminawa, the Headwaters Nawa dialect complex, and the Panoan family . 19 2.3 History . 22 2.3.1 Prior to the Rubber Boom period and the 20th century . 23 2.3.2 Separation and the Amahuaca massacres . 25 2.3.3 Early contact and relocation of the Río Sepahua and Río Las Piedras Yaminawa . 27 2.3.4 Contact of the Nahua of Río Mishahua . 28 2.3.5 Yaminawa and Nahua life in the 21st century . 29 2.4 A brief general ethnography of contemporary Yaminawa life . 31 2.4.1 Community structure . 31 2.4.1.1 Sepahua . 31 2.4.1.2 Barrio Centroamérica, Barrio Nuevo Belén, Barrio San Miguel, and Barrio San Francisco . 33 2.4.1.3 Family life and residence groups . 34 ii 2.4.2 Subsistence and economic aspects of life . 36 2.4.2.1 Small-scale farming and animal husbandry . 36 2.4.2.2 Fishing, hunting, and wild-gathering . 39 2.4.2.3 Resource extraction and other major economic activities . 40 2.4.2.4 Formal education . 42 2.4.3 Material culture . 43 2.4.3.1 The Yaminawa home . 43 2.4.3.2 Tools . 44 2.4.3.3 Clothing, adornment, and art . 45 2.4.4 Community beliefs and practices . 46 2.4.4.1 General cosmology . 46 2.4.4.2 Parties and other social occasions . 47 2.5 Yaminawa communicative practices . 50 2.5.1 Language attitudes . 50 2.5.2 Traditional genres . 52 3 Yaminawa ethnopsychology and cultural domains relating to affect 54 3.1 Introduction . 54 3.2 Theoretical background and orientation . 55 3.3 Methodological approaches to Yaminawa ethnopsychology . 58 3.3.1 Interpersonal and ethical considerations . 59 3.3.2 Ethnopsychological interviews . 60 3.3.3 The emotion scenario interview . 61 3.3.4 Text elicitation based on the emotion scenarios . 62 3.3.5 Text elicitation based on emotion terms . 63 3.3.6 Emotion description task . 63 3.3.7 Pile sort tasks . 64 3.4 Yaminawa ethnopsychology . 67 3.4.1 ‘Reason’ vs. ‘emotion’, ‘thought’ vs. ‘feeling’ . 67 3.4.2 The body and mind . 68 3.4.3 Attitudes toward ‘emotion’ in Yaminawa culture . 73 3.5 Descriptive affective resources in Yaminawa . 77 3.5.1 Lexical resources for describing internal states . 77 3.5.1.1 Lexical resources describing ‘affect’ . 78 3.5.1.2 Lexical resources describing ‘personality traits’ . 80 3.5.1.3 Lexical resources describing ‘cognition’ and ‘perception’ . 81 3.5.2 Lexical resources for describing bodily states and affective behaviors 82 3.5.2.1 Lexical resources for describing bodily states . 82 3.5.2.2 Lexical resources describing social activities and speech types . 84 3.5.3 Categorization of selected affect terms . 86 3.5.4 Emotion metaphors . 97 iii 4 Affective bound morphology in Yaminawa 101 4.1 Introduction . 101 4.2 The diminutive suffix -shtá ........................... 102 4.2.1 The word-prosodic features of the diminutive . 103 4.2.2 The diminutive in nouns . 105 4.2.3 The diminutive in verbs . 109 4.2.4 The diminutive in adverbs . 111 4.2.5 The diminutive in other word classes . 114 4.2.6 Summary of the distribution and semantics of the diminutive . 118 4.3 The augmentative suffix -wã ........................... 118 4.3.1 The word-prosodic features of the augmentative . 119 4.3.2 The augmentative in lexicalized stems . 120 4.3.3 The functions and semantics of the augmentative . 121 4.3.3.1 Nouns and adjectives: size . 121 4.3.3.2 Nouns: negative affect . 124 4.3.4 Summary of the distribution and meanings of the augmentative . 125 4.4 The intensifier -kṹĩ̀ ................................ 126 4.4.1 The morphological and word-prosodic features of the intensifier . 126 4.4.2 The intensifier in lexicalized stems . 128 4.4.3 The intensifier in verbs . 128 4.4.4 The intensifier in nouns . 131 4.4.5 The intensifier in other word classes . 132 4.4.6 The effect of the intensifier combined with the diminutive andaug- mentative . 135 4.4.7 Summary of the distribution and meanings of the intensifier . 139 4.5 Other affective stance-taking suffixes . 139 4.5.1 -shara ‘positive evaluation’ . 140 4.5.2 -chaka ‘negative evaluation’ . 142 4.5.3 -betsa ‘intense emotion/effort’ and -nãbe ‘pity’ . 144 4.5.4 -xud and -ã, the benefactive and malefactive applicatives . 147 4.5.5 =pu, the mirative . 148 4.5.6 Affective interjections . 149 4.6 Summary . 150 5 The expression of shĩnã́ ì̀ ’sadness, concern’ 151 5.1 Introduction . 151 5.2 The acoustic features of shĩnã́ ì̀ ‘sad’ speech . 153 5.2.1 Example: the death of María’s father . 153 5.2.2 Example: the massacre . 156 5.2.3 Example: Wadu’s dog bite . 159 5.2.4 Example: Umba’s ankle . 163 5.3 The interactional features of shĩnã́ ì̀ ‘sad’ speech . 165 5.3.1 Example: waiting for Jairo . 165 iv 5.3.2 Shĩnã́ ì̀ ‘sad’ affect in troubles telling . 170 5.4 The use of shĩnã́ ì̀ ‘sad’ features in non-affective stancetaking . 174 5.4.1 Shĩnã́ ì̀ speech in requests . 175 5.4.2 The use of shĩnã́ ì̀ features to index advanced age . 177 5.5 Conclusion . 179 6 The expression of sídàì ‘anger’ in Yaminawa 182 6.1 Introduction . 182 6.2 Acoustic features of sídàì ‘angry’ speech . 183 6.2.1 Example: Teresa tells-off Mother Mercedes . 184 6.2.2 Example: ‘I’m not making fun of you; that’s just how it is’ . 187 6.2.3 Example: bothersome grandchildren . 189 6.2.4 Example: “you’re going out again?!” .