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A Study of Two Fijian Texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

The two texts which are analysed in the present paper were gathered during a period of fourteen months' lingu stic work in Fiji in 1948 and 1949. As a result of recent developments in linguistics, notably the perceptiblechange of emphasis from comparativeto descriptive work,1 more especially in the study of preliterate languages, the modern field-worker applies himself to gather a large number of texts.He takes down certain utterances and he establishes his text by means of well-defined techniques. Having as alinguist handled the material, both oral and written, to his provisional satisfaction, he can then state his findings in a grammar, under the headings of phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax. When the grammatical system has been stated it would seem that it is.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1952

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References

page 346 note 1 See Firth, J. R., “General Linguistics and Descriptive Grammar”, Transactions of the Philological Society, 1951, pp. 6987.Google Scholar

page 346 note 2 See Malinowski, B., Coral Gardens and their Magic, vol. ii, London, 1935.Google Scholar

page 346 note 3 Microfilm copies of the documents in question may be obtained on application to the Librarian, S.O.A.S., University of London, W.C. 1.

page 347 note 1 See Scott, N. C., “A Study in the Phonetics of Fijian,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. xii, 1948, p. 737.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 347 note 2 Rivers, W. H. R., The History of Melanesian Society, Cambridge, 1914, vol. i, pp. 262297.Google Scholar

page 347 note 3 Op. cit., p. 264.

page 347 note 4 Hocart, A. M., “The Dual Organisation in Fiji,” Man, 1915, No. 3.Google Scholar

page 347 note 5 Op. cit., p. 6.

page 347 note 6 Ibid., p. 7.

page 348 note 1 Ibid., p. 9.

page 348 note 2 Thompson, Laura, Southern Lau, Fiji: An Ethnography, Honolulu, 1940, pp. 3153.Google Scholar

page 348 note 3 Op. cit., p. 32.

page 348 note 4 Ibid., p. 35.

page 348 note 5 Capell, A. and Lester, R. H., “Local Divisions and Movements in Fiji,” Oceania, vol. xi, 4, pp. 313341Google Scholar, and vol. xii, 1, pp. 21–48, 1941.

page 348 note 6 Op. cit., p. 317.

page 348 note 7 Quain, Buell, Fijian Village, Chicago, 1948.Google Scholar

page 348 note 8 Op. cit., p. 244.

page 348 note 9 Author's inverted commas, ibid., p. 245. In a footnote he adds: “at Nakoroka yavosa is usually applied to moiety, yavusa to descent group.”

page 348 note 10 Ibid., p. 246.

page 349 note 1 See Roth, G. K., “Native Administration in Fiji during the past 75 Years,” Occasional Papers of the Royal Anthropological Institute, No. 10, 1951.Google Scholar

page 352 note 1 vanua.

page 353 note 1 mataqali.

page 367 note 1 yavusa.

page 369 note 1 mataqali.

page 369 note 2 itokatoka.

page 377 note 1 Hocart, A. M., Lau Islands, Fiji, Honolulu, 1929.Google Scholar

page 377 note 2 Op. cit., pp. 232–5.