Bwénaado: an ethnolexicological study of a culturally salient word in Cèmuhî (New Caledonia)

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    Abstract

    Ever since people have come together in communities, they have felt the need to regulate and control their relationships with members of other groups. One way of building and maintaining a stable society is by sharing wealth. New Caledonia has developed its own unique system of exchange, referred to as la coutume by its French-speaking inhabitants and by the Melanesian part of the population, which also uses indigenous terms that have relatively high cultural visibility and can thus be considered culturally salient. This paper focuses on one such word, bwénaado, and aims to demonstrate that it reflects an important cultural value in Cèmuhî, an Austronesian language spoken by approximately 3300 people dispersed along the north-east coast and in the valleys of New Caledonia’s rugged interior. To the best of our knowledge, no detailed treatment of bwénaado exists. Our semantic analysis therefore breaks new ground. Three different meanings of the word (roughly, ‘large-scale customary celebration’, ‘customary ceremony’ and ‘customary gift’) are distinguished. It will be argued that, even though the Kanak social exchange system (in which all three meanings are highly relevant) seems to be linked to a universal principle of reciprocity, it is highly culture-specific. To ensure utmost respect for this cultural specificity and to break out of the prison walls of the English language, Natural Semantic Metalanguage will be used to frame the description, and applied ethnolinguistics will form the backdrop against which the description is carried out.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationStudies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication
    Subtitle of host publicationmeaning and culture
    EditorsBert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, Lauren Sadow
    Place of PublicationSingapore
    PublisherSpringer, Springer Nature
    Chapter7
    Pages123-148
    Number of pages26
    ISBN (Electronic)9789813299757
    ISBN (Print)9789813299740
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2020

    Publication series

    NameStudies in Ethnopragmatics, Cultural Semantics, and Intercultural Communication
    PublisherSpringer
    Volume2

    Keywords

    • bwénaado
    • Cèmuhî
    • reciprocity
    • applied ethnolinguistics
    • ehnolexicology
    • Natural Semantic Metalanguage

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