Introduction

This chapter presents preliminary remarks on some of the central linguistic means speakers of Kilivila use in expressing their conceptions of space, that is, for referring to objects, persons and events in space. After a brief characterization of the language and its speakers, the chapter sketches how specific topological relations are encoded, how motion events are described and what frames of spatial reference are preferred in what contexts for what means and ends. The paper ends with a summary of the major patterns in topology, motion and frames of references, and with a programmatic outline of how to write a complete grammar of space.

Kilivila – the language of the Trobriand Islanders

Kilivila, the language of the Trobriand Islanders, is one of forty Austronesian languages spoken in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It is an agglutinative language and its general word-order pattern is VOS (Senft 1986). The Austronesian languages spoken in Milne Bay Province are grouped into twelve language families; one of them is labelled Kilivila. The Kilivila language family encompasses the languages Budibud (or Nada, with about 200 speakers), Muyuw (or Murua, with about 4,000 speakers) and Kilivila (or Kiriwina, Boyowa, with about 25,000 speakers); Kilivila is spoken on the islands Kiriwina, Vakuta, Kitava, Kaile'una, Kuiawa, Munuwata and Simsim. The languages Muyuw and Kilivila are each split into mutually understandable local dialects.