Language shift and cultural reproduction : socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinean village
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Language shift and cultural reproduction : socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinean village
（Studies in the social and cultural foundations of language, no. 14）
Cambridge University Press, 1997, c1992
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 303-313) and index
First hardback ed. published in 1992
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction, first published in 1992, is a fascinating anthropological study of language and cultural change among the villagers of Gapun, in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea. Despite their strong attachment to their own language as a source of identity and as a tie to their lands, people are abandoning their vernacular in favour of Tok Pisin, the most widely spoken language in Papua New Guinea. By examining village language socialization practices and drawing on Marshall Sahlins's ideas about structure and event, Don Kulick reveals how daily interactions, attitudes towards language, children, change, and personhood, all contribute to a shift in language and culture that is beyond the villagers' understanding and control. This is the first detailed documention of the process of language shift. It places linguistic change within an interpretive framework, and treats language as a symbolic system that affects, and is affected by, the thoughts and actions of everyday life.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: Papua New Guinea and the study of language shift
- 1. Villagers and their village
- 2. Language and talk in the village
- 3. Having 'hed'
- 4. Showing 'save'
- 5. Preparing the change
- 6. Becoming monolingual
- 7. Contextualizing the self
- Conclusion: the process of language shift
- Appendix: On being a ghost.
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