Volume 24, Issue 4

Abstract

In this paper I will describe and interpret some data from Southern Quechua and Southern Aymara spoken texts recorded during traditional divinatory sessions. This analysis is aimed to show that divination can be considered as an example of how ritual speech, often described as a phenomenon based on fixed sequences, is characterized by variable elements too, being the relationship between a particular “context of situation” and the divinatory speech event very strong. In particular, the analysis focuses on a specific kind of speech acts, which seem to be built with the help of morphological devices that are normally used to indicate the source of information in the Quechua and Aymara language families. The same devices are used with a specific performative function in the context of divination: To “officialise” the message of the oracle and to oppose this to the speech acts of the diviner.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/prag.24.4.02bon
2015-12-02
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aikhenvald, A.Y
    (2004) Evidentiality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Allen, C
    (1988) The hold life has. Coca and cultural identity in an Andean community. Washington/London: Smithsonian Institution Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Austin, J
    (1962) How to do things with words. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bascom, W
    (1969) Ifa divination: Communication between gods and men in West Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bell, C
    (1997) Ritual. Perspectives and dimensions. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bongiorno, V
    . (in press) Ensayo sobre el lenguaje ritual. La adivinación en Quechua y en Aymara. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Cardona, R
    (1976) Introduzione all’etnolinguistica. Bologna: il Mulino.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. (1988) I sei lati del mondo. Linguaggio ed esperienza. Bari: Laterza.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. (1989) Il proverbio africano. In Cristina Vallini (ed.), La pratica e la grammatica. Viaggio nella linguistica del proverbio. Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale. Dipartimento di studi letterari e linguistici dell’Occidente, pp.31-42.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Cerrón-Palomino, R
    (2000) Lingüística aimara. Cuzco: CBC.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. de Beaugrande, A. , and W. Dressler
    (1981a) Introduction to Text Linguistics. London/New York: Longman.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. (1981b) Einführung in die Textlinguistik. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. doi: 10.1515/9783111349305
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111349305 [Google Scholar]
  13. de Granda, G
    (1996) El sistema de elementos gramaticales evidenciales o validadores en Quechua-Aru y Guaraní paraguayo. Estudio comparativo. Revista andina, año12.2: 457-469.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. du Bois, J
    (1993) Meaning without intention. Lessons from divination. In Jane Hill , and Judith T. Irvine (eds.), Responsibility and evidence in oral discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.48-71.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Duranti, A
    (1992) Language in context and as context: The Samoan respect vocabulary. In Alessandro Duranti , and Charles Goodwin (eds.), Rethinking context. Language as an interactive phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.77-99.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Fernández Juárez, G
    (1996) El banquete aymara. La Paz: HISBOL.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Finnegan, R
    (1969) How to do things with words: Performative utterances among the Limba of Sierra Leone. Man4.4: 537-552. doi: 10.2307/2798194
    https://doi.org/10.2307/2798194 [Google Scholar]
  18. Floyd, R
    (1997) La estructura categorial del quechua wanka. Lima: Instituto lingüístico de verano.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Gnerre, M
    (1986) Il declino del dialogo: Il discorso cerimoniale e mitologico degli Shuar e degli Achuar. In Barbara Turchetta (ed.), Introduzione alla linguistica antropologica. Milano: Mursia, pp.181-207. Original title: “The decline of dialogue: Ceremonial and mythological discourse among the Shuar and Achuar”. In Joel Sherzer, and Greg Urban (eds.), Native South American Discourse. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 307-342.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Grice, P
    (1971) Meaning. In Danny Steinberg , and Leon Jakobovits (eds.), Semantics: An interdisciplinary reader in philosophy, linguistics and psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.53-59.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hardman, M
    (2001) Aymara. München: Lincom Europa.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. (1986) Data source marking in the Jaqi languages. In Wallace Chafe , and Johanna Nichols (eds.), Evidentiality. The linguistic codying of epistemology. Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation, pp.113-136.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Hymes, D
    (1972) Models of interaction of language and social life. In John Gumperz , and Dell Hymes (eds.), Direction in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, pp.35-71.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Matthews, P.H
    (1997) The concise Oxford dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Park, G.K
    (1963) Divination and its social contexts. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, XCIII.2: 195-209.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Rappaport, R
    (1998) Ritual und performative Sprache. In Andrea Belliger , and David Krieger (eds.), Ritualtheorien. Ein einführendes Handbuch. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. (1999) Ritual and religion in the making of humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511814686
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511814686 [Google Scholar]
  28. Schwarz, M
    (2008) Einführung in die kognitive Linguistik. Tübingen: A.Francke.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Staal, F
    (1996) [1990] Rules without meaning: Ritual, mantras and the human sciences. New Delhi: Narendra Prakash Jain.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Stolz, F. , A. Debrunner , and W.P. Schmid
    (1993) Storia della lingua latina. Bologna: Pàtron.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1075/prag.24.4.02bon
Loading
Keyword(s): Aymara; Evidentiality; Intentionality; Quechua; Ritual language

Most Cited