A Comprehensive Comparison of Lexemes in the ... - SIL International

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necessary. Dictionaries in N Tanna, Vaha, and Whitesands have not yet been
published for each language but are being compiled.
There are scores of lexemes present in one or more languages of Tanna
which are not found in others. Language-specific dictionaries include hundreds of
these idiosyncratic lexemes. However, since the nature of this study is to compare
lexemes across language boundaries, only lexemes which appear in three or more
of the languages are listed. Table 2.5 gives some examples of lexemes which are
idiosyncratic to one or more languages of Tanna.
Table 2.5. Idiosyncratic lexemes in the languages of Tanna.†
Language Lexeme Gloss Note
N enatɨg be wise Other lgs use ‘know’
N nəutahlɨmɨs widow
N asɨkitun have mercy
K api cry about something Other lgs use ‘cry’
S əmkərəv be hungry Other lgs use ‘hunger
carries’ or ‘hunger strikes.’
S nɨhupɨn total number of s.th.
S ənyap search for fire Antiquated
K, S təvɨr still, to this day
K, S or nɨmirhien be difficult
K, S, V pig/pegi/pin sniff
K, L, S, V ətgah/ətgase bold
K, L, N, S rɨpĩteitei/rɨp̃ətut motion to stop V and W use ‘block’
/əfətutu/eptutu
K, L, S, V ukaa/əwhən/ going where? N and W say ‘go where?’
ətəən/awəku
L, N, S V autə/autei to supply s.th., give
abundantly/freely
K and W use one of the
verbs for ‘give.’
†The following language abbreviations are used in this table: K: Kwamera, L: Lenakel, N: N Tanna, S:
SW Tanna, V: Vaha, W: Whitesands.
2.2.4 Differentiating between homonyms and polysemous lexemes
A fourth application of a comparative analysis is that it helps us
differentiate between homonyms and polysemous lexemes. Sometimes a lexeme
appears to be polysemous and the supposed connection between the various
senses can be intriguing or puzzling. However, when the data from related
languages becomes available, it appears that it is not an instance of one lexeme
with multiple senses but of two or more lexemes that are homophones. In this
section I discuss several examples.
As shown in example (21), the SW Tanna lexeme kɨr means both ‘lead’ and
‘dig.’ With just this data, it is unclear if there is some sort of semantic connection
between the two ideas of leading and digging, or if there are two homonyms.
However, when the data is compared to Vaha, one finds two different lexemes: kɨl