Iolume 3/1994 Number 1
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AöIAN. A \ T r " \ Ālovak LAN) YL 11—y orAf^emy oaences AFRICAN 6TUDIE6 Iolume 3/1994 Number 1 CONTENTS Editor in Chief: Viktor K r u pa Articles Associate and Managing Editor: Jozef Ge n z o r Křupa, Viktor: Structuration of Space and Time in Polynesian Languages.................... 3 Findeisen, Raoul David:Professor Luo. We would like to inform our readers that Reflections on Bertrand Russell in since 1992 our periodical ASIAN AND China ............................................................... 10 AFRICAN STUDIES is published semi E b e r , Irene: Western Literature in Chinese annually in journal form rather than Translation, 1949-1979 .............................. 34 annually in book form. The conception of M ú č k a , Ján: Phan Boi Chau (1867-1940) our journal, however, has not undergone dans le contexte de ľExtréme-Orient 55 any major changes. KopČan, Vojtech: Zur Versorgung der The Editors osmanischen Armee während des Vyvar Seferi im Jahre 1663 ................................... 69 Gordon, April: Class and Ethnicity in Address of the Editorial Office Kenya: The Otieno Case .............................. 77 Klemensova 19 813 64 Bratislava Slovakia Book reviews The editors bear no responsibility what K ir c h , Patrick V. - Sahlins, Marshall: soever for the views expressed by the Anahulu. The Anthropology of History contributors to this journal. in the Kingdom of Hawaii. By Viktor Krupa ............................................................. 97 M i t t a g , Achim (hrsg.): In memoriam Achim Hildebrand. Gesammelte Aufsätze. By Marián Gálik .................................................................................................................................................... 98 Schm idt-Glintzer, Helwig: Geschichte der chinesischen Literatur. Die 3000jährige Ent wicklung der poetischen, erzählenden und philosophisch-religiösen Literatur Chinas von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. By Marián Gálik .................................................... 99 Schm idt-Glintzer, Helwig (Ed.): Lebenswelt und Weltanschauung im frühzeitlichen China. By Marián Gálik ............................................................................................................................... 101 W r i g h t , Arthur F.: Studies in Chinese Buddhism. By Marina Čarnogurská ............................. 103 SÁRKÔZI, Alice: Political Prophecies in Mongolia in the 17th-20th Centuries. By Eva Juří ková ..................................................................................................................................................... 104 Yerasimos, S.: Les voyageurs dans VEmpire ottoman (Xl^-XVE siecles). By Vojtech Kopčan .....................................:....................................................................................................... 106 T u l u , Sultan: Chorasantürkische Materialien aus Kalät bei Esfaräyen. By Jitka Zamrazilo- vá-Weltman ........................................................................................................................................ 107 K ÁKOSY, László: Zauberei im alten Ägypten. Von Ján Komorovský ........................................... 108 M cClellan, Charles W.: State Transformation and National Integration: Gedeo and the Ethiopian Empire, 1895-1935. By Juraj C hm iel...................................................................... 110 Pankhurst, Richard: The History of Famine and Epidemics in Ethiopia Prior to the Twentieth Century. By Juraj C hm iel............................................................................................. 112 ASIAN LAwn V l\| 1 ' of& (Sciences AFRICAN STUDIES INSTITUTE OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES SLOVAK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, BRATISLAVA SAP - SLOVAK ACADEMIC PRESS, LTD. BRATISLAVA SLOVAKIA ASIAN AND AFRICAN STUDIES, 3, 1994, 1, 3-9 ARTICLES STRUCTURATION OF SPACE AND TIME IN POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES V iktor K r u pa Institute of Oriental and African Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64 Bratislava, Slovakia Nonspatial uses of spatial markers are described in this paper. Space as a more concrete concept is universally used in the domain o f temporal markers. Data from some Polynesian lan guages are analysed here. Space and time are both in everyday practice and in theory treated as twin concepts of central importance. If a philosopher would nevertheless be asked to decide which of the two concepts is more elementary, he would probably opt for time, and with good reason: everything that is known to exist in space inevitably exists in time as well - but what exists in time, e.g., thoughts and feelings, need not automatically exist in space, that is, take up some portion of it. However, a purely pragmatic human perspective puts the relation of these two ideas into a somewhat different light. Space or, to be precise, distances in space may readily be perceived by our senses, especially by our sight; we can move in space just as we can measure distances between objects or points situated in space. And yet time - unlike space - is abstract or at least “invisible”; it eludes our senses, being extremely fuzzy and quite difficult for an unsophisticated mind to quantify. In this paper, space is dealt with largely in its relation to time and therefore the tridimensionality of the former is not discussed here at any detail. As observers we are aware that space extends in front of us just as behind our backs and to some extent even vertically, above and below. We can move forward or backward within it and return to the starting point but what about time? Is time moving or are we, in a way, moving in it? This uncertainty is reflected in the “moving-ego metaphor” versus “moving-time metaphor” (cf. Clark 1973). Is the direction of movement in (or of) time always the same or is it reversible? What about the speed of movement in time - is it constant or variable? People would obviously give different answers to these questions in different societies and in different ages. The perception and analysis of time 3 was obviously not as important to our ancestors as was the perception and analysis of space. In earlier cultures, if time was considered at all, it was often viewed as diffuse and cyclic; this impression was seemingly confirmed by astronomical observations of celestial bodies and has found its reflection in calendars of various civilizations. It was Western thought that “made” time linear, uni-directional and divis ible (Stonier 1990: 77). But time had been linguistically categorized before any plausible physical theory of time was constructed and its intuitive categorization necessarily leans on the categorization of space as a more con crete concept. The basis of the categorization of time is a metaphorical pro jection of the categorization of space because there is no genuine and unambi guous correlation between the two domains. In this paper the principles of structuration of the bidimensional space in several Polynesian languages, namely in Maori, Hawaiian, Tongan, and Samoan are being examined alongside with the instances of application of spatial terminology to the domain of time and to other conceptual domains, if necessary. First of all the most abstract terms referring to space and time will be briefly surveyed and described. A comparison of these expressions confirms that it is hard to separate the terms for space from those for time just as it is hard to draw a clear line between concrete and abstract terms within both conceptual domains. The proliferation of concrete lexemes or of lexemes that combine meanings of varying degree of abstraction points out to the ways of creating truly abstract spatial and temporal terms. Abstract Spatial and Temporal Terms in Polynesian Languages MAORI space: maanawanawa (aperture, space, gap), mokoaa - mokowaa (space, interval, particularly between the main posts in palisading of a fort),rnoko- tawhaa, takiwaa (district, space, time, period),tarawaha (opening, entrance, space, interval, district),tiriwaa (space, compartment, district, distance),waa (definite space, interval, area, region, indefinite, unenclosed country, time, season), whaitua (side, region, space), whanga (bay, bight, nook, stretch of water, space, any place to one side) time: raro (day, time, season), taaima (time), takiwaa (district, space, time, period), waa (definite space, interval, area, region, indefinite or unen closed country, time, season) HAWAIIAN space: waa (space, interval within objects, channel, period of time, epoch, era, time, season, age), koowaa (intervening space or time, channel, strait), aakeaa (broad, wide, spacious) time: waa (period of time, epoch, era, time, season, age space, interval within objects, channel),trnnawa (time, turn, season, chronology),au (period 4 of time, age, era, the passing of time; current, movement, eddy, tide, motion; weather) TONGAN space: ’ataa (space, room, clearing, air, atmosphere, space between earth and sky, freedom), vaha (space between, space apart, space, distance, ex tended area, esp. at sea; open sea, high seas, strait, channel),vaa (distance between, distance apart; fig. attitude, feeling, relation to),vaha’a (intervening space or time, fig. relationship, attitude to);’ataaloa (empty space, unoccu pied space or position), ’ataanoa (plenty of room); and seevahatoka (space left between yammounds),langanga (distance or space between two consecu tive transverse stripes on a piece of tapa cloth), kauefii (space between rows of planted yams) time: tavnú (time), tu ’o (time, occasion) SAMOAN space: