Semantic Domains

Last modified 22 November 2022

SEMANTIC DOMAINS
for vocabulary of Australian languages

Voegelin

Features of the physical and biological world
Physical attributes and activities of people
Intellectual and emotional expressions and values
People and interpersonal relations

Features of the physical and biological world

A Topography, soil and natural resources

.0 general (not in A.1,.2,.3), place names

.1 eminences in the landscape

.2 holes in the earth

.3 types of landscape differing by growth and/or soil

.4 soil and natural resources

B Environment

.1 Sky and heavenly bodies

.2 Temperature

.3 Wind

C Water

.1 precipitation and attending phenomena

.2 cultural and natural sources of confined water

.3 water sources which intermittently flow

.4 types of immersion and application of water

D Animals and animal products

.0 general terms

.1 mammals

.2 large birds (emu, turkeys)

.3 snakes

.4 reptiles, amphibians

.5 birds

.5.01 owls

.5.02 terrestrial hawks

.5.03 ducks, teals and geese

.5.04 pigeons and doves

.5.05 parrots

.5.06 bitterns and night-herons

.5.07 herons, stilts, waders etc

.5.08 beach birds

.5.09 sea birds

.5.10 quail

.5.11 other birds

.6 delicacies

.7 insects

.8 fish, shellfish, crustaceans

.8.00 gropers, codfish

.8.01 rays

.8.02 sharks

.8.03 catfish

.8.04 mullets

.8.05 perch

.8.06 long-toms and garfish

.8.07 parrotfish and tuskfish

.8.08 toadfish

.8.09 emperors, trevallies, darts, sweetlips

.8.10 rock cods etc

.8.11 batfish and butterfish

.8.12 tuna, large jumping fish

.8.13 gudgeons and muskippers

.8.14 small freshwater fish

.8.15 salmon

.8.16 herring, anchovy, bony bream

.8.17 other fish

.9 introduced animals

E Plants and plant products

.0 general terms

.1 tree parts

.2 trees & bushes

.3 plant foods

.4 tubers

.5 tobaccos

.6 grasses

F Locations and Directions

.1 cardinal directions

.2 demonstratives

.3 location, distance

G Time

.1 diurnal

.2 longer than a day, not related to diurnal cycle

H Quantification

.1 exact

.2 qualitative

Dimension

.3 size, weight

.4 distance

.5 shape

.6 arrangement

.7 surface properties

Physical attributes and activities of people

I Body parts

.1 head

.2 torso, internal organs

.3 limbs

.4 non-localised

.5 hair

.6 secretions and substances

J Physiological reactions

.1 semi-voluntary

.2 sleep

.3 alimentation

.4 sex

.5 fitness

K Disease and bodily afflictions

.1 aging

.2 physical disability

.3 mental disability

.4 sickness

.5 medicine

.6 bodily discomfort

L Senses and perception, attention

.1 senses and attention

.2 colours, light

.3 Concealment

M Speech acts, vocal sounds, noises

.1 linguistic, speech acts

.2 non-linguistic

N Stance, change of stance

O Motion

.0 general terms

.1 horizontal motion

.2 vertical motion, falling

.3 walking

P Physical transfer and holding

.1 transfer

.2 manipulation, induced motion

.3 holding

Q Impact and concussion (as in Warlpiri roots:)

.1 /pu- ~ pi-/, etc.

.2 /paka-/ striking, chopping

.3 /paji-/ cutting

.4 /panti-/ piercing

.5 /luwa-/ throwing

.6 /kati-/ pressing

R Activity tempo, manner

Intellectual and emotional expressions and values

S Mentation (incl. possibility, etc.)

Emotion

.1 sorrow

.2 desire

.3 hate

.4 fear

.5 anxiety

T Values

.1 goodness

.2 excess

People and interpersonal relations

U Human classification

.1 peoples

.2.1 age-grade terms

.2.2 initiation

.3 terms for females

V Kinship

.1 family

.2.1 matrilines

.2.2 /yikirrinji/ respect terms

.3 subsections

.4 age-mate terms

.5.1 Ego's subsection

.5.2 Fa subsection

.5.3 Mo subsection

.5.4 spouse subsection

.5.5 cross-cousins

.5.6 MoMo subsection

.5.7 WiFa subsection

.5.8 WiMo subsection

.6 spouse pairs

.7 father-child pairs

.8 mother-child pairs

.9.1 Fa-MoFa pairs

.9.2 Ego-WiMo pair, Fa-MoMo pair

.9.3 Ego-MoFa,MoMo pair

.9.4 semi-patrimoiety terms

W Social satisfactions and displeasures

.1 play

.2 fighting, bystanders' reactions

.3 socially prescribed action

X Material culture

.1.1 tools, weapons esp. men's

.1.2 tools, weapons esp. women's

.2 clothing, adornments

.3 shelter, camp

.4 marine, riverine

Y Cooking, Fire

Z Ritual, Sorcery

.1 Mourning

Elaboration of birds and fish added by Jane Simpson. Slightly adapted by David Nash and Jane Simpson, 1984, from Kenneth L. Hale's typescript Warlpiri 'Introduction to Vocabulary and Domains' (1959), in turn based on Hopi domains; a lexical approach to the problem of selection, by Charles F. Voegelin & Florence M. Voegelin (Baltimore, Waverly Press, 1957. Series title: Indiana University publications in anthropology and linguistics. Memoir 14).

Also available as a FileMaker Pro v.3 file (MacBinary) (by Tony Williams).

Barry Alpher

Semantic domain codes, p.390 of Appendix 5.1, 'Proto-Pama-Nyungan etyma' in Claire Bowern and Harold Koch (eds). 2004. Australian languages: classification and the comparative method. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 249) Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

A animal, fauna
B body part or product
C bugs (“crawlers”): arthropods--insects, arachnids, centipedes, crustaceans)
E earth: including fire, water, sky, geography
F fish
H human, including age categories, languages, dreams, ceremonies, songs
K kin
L location, direction, time
M maritime
O bird
P plant
Q quantifier
S (“shellfish”): molluscs
T (“thing”, “tool”, “technology”): artefact
V vegetable food
Z animal (“zoic”): the minya (“game animal”, excluding birds) and dog categories

March 2006 Revisions to the above list of domains for nouns:
A    animal, fauna (inclusive of birds; exclusive of fish) <<overlap with Z not noticed at time of publication in 2004>>
H    human, including gender categories, age categories, kinship categories, language, dreams, ceremonies, songs
O    bird (including the emu, not normally classed with the birds in the languages themselves)
Z    animal (“zoic”): the minya (‘game animal’, excluding birds) and dog categories <<see note at “A”>>

AIATSIS

Semantic domains promoted by AIATSIS (formerly AIAS), and used in the Handbook of Australia Languages volumes (ed. by Dixon & Blake, OUP), and Macquarie Aboriginal Words (ed. by Thieberger & McGregor, paperback published by Macquarie Library, 1994).
Source: Wordlist for Australian languages / compiled by Peter Sutton and Michael Walsh. 2nd ed. Canberra:Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1987.
Note: The 1979 booklet also has numerical marking of individual items, not yet added here.

Nouns
A: body parts and products
B: human classification
C: language, mythology, ceremony (and associated objects)
D: human artifacts (weapons, tools, clothing, etc.)
E: food, cooking and fire
F: water (fresh, salt, mud, current, etc.)
G: elements (weather, sky, topography, etc.)
H: mammals
I: reptiles (marine and land)
J: birds
K: marine life (except mammals and reptiles)
L: insects and spiders
M: plants
Adjectives
N: physical (bodily states, colours, dimensions, quantity)
O: non-physical (values, emotions, etc.)

Verbs
P: motion
Q: state
R: vocalising and thought
S: bodily function
T: impact and violence
U: holding and transfer

Miscellaneous
V: locationals, temporals, directionals
W: interrogatives
X: interjections
Y: particles
Z: pronouns

Dyirbal thesaurus across ten dialects, Supplements (b) and (c) to A New Grammar of Dyirbal
R.M.W. Dixon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022) https://global.oup.com/booksites/content/9780192859907/ Microsoft Word - Supplement 2 Nominals 2022 with map.doc

NOUNS, A–N
A Bodyparts1
B Human classification, etc. 37
C Kinterms50
D Mammals 64
E Reptiles and amphibians 72
F Birds 83
G Fishes and other water creatures 104
H Insects and other small creatures 110
I Language and noises 124
J Artefacts 134
K Fire, water and food 164
L Weather and celestial 176
M Geography and places 183
N Flora 199

Details of individual plants 208
Flowering plants 208
I Two-seed leaves 208
II One-seed leaves 254
Non-flowering vascular plants 266
Usnea (mosses), Algae, and Bracket fungi 272

ADJECTIVES, O
OA Alone, possession 273
OB Quantity 275
OC Together, away 280
OD Orientation 286
OE Dimension 300
OF Physical property 312
OG Clean, colours 325
OH Age, value 331
OI Speed 341
OJ Corporeal 345
OK Noise 360
OL Human propensity 363
OM Adverbal-type adjectives 398
ON Loan adjectives - work, swear 401
TIME, Y
YA Relative time 402
YB Concrete time 406
YC Duration 410
YD Too soon and not yet 411
YE Meanwhile 413 VERBS 1 — MOTION AND REST 11 Simple motion 1 12 Simple Rest 24 13 Position in water 34 14 Follow 37 15 Induced motion 38 16 Induced rest 68 2 — AFFECT 21 Strike 71 22 Rub 86 23 Wrap, tie 90 24 Obscure 91 25 Build, weave 95 26 Burn and shine 99 3—GIVING 108 4—ATTENTION 41 Take no notice 114 42 Hear, imagine, believe, dream 116 43 Seeing 119 44 Show 127 5—SPEAKING ADVERBALS 51 Speaking and telling 129 52 Asking 137 53 Telling to do and not to do 139 54 Rouse 144 55 Calling 148 56 Sing 150 57 Other noises 151 6—CORPOREAL 61 Consume 157 62 Kiss, spit at, smell, blow 164 63 Feel, touch, and tickle 168 64 Sex 170 65 Grow up 173 66 Laugh, cry, cough, sneeze 174 67 Be ill 177 68 Recover, cure 185 69 Inanimate agent affecting well-being 186 7—BREAK AND FALL 187 8—WANT AND LIKE 196 9—PROPENSITY 201 10—MISCELLANEOUS 207 AdA Start, do first 211 AdB Finish, stop 212 AdC Do too much 213 AdD Don't do enough 214 AdE Do too soon 214 AdF Delay 215 AdG Too fast 216 AdH Too slow 216 AdI Repeat 217 AdJ Do properly 218 AdK Do badly 219 AdL For no reason 220 AdM Shouldn't be done 220 AdN Can't do something 221 AdO Do something with the aid of a light 222 AdP Join in 222 AdQ Do on one's own 223 AdR Interrogative (& indefinite) verb 223 AdS Deictic verb 226

Kendon sign dictionaries

A=Body Parts B=Human Classification D=Camp and Dwellings E=Artifacts, traditional F=Artifacts, modern G=Fire, cooking and consumables (food and tobacco) H=Celestial bodies, weather, topography J=Mammals K=Birds L=Amphibians and reptiles M=Invertebrates N=Plants and plant products O=Time Q=General attributes R=Human attributes S=Verbs U=interrogatives V=deictics W=pronouns Y-placenames
As used by Adam Kendon in his c1995 'Sign dictionaries for NT languages'
AIATSIS Library Call Number AILEC 0675

Picture Dictionary sections

people
relations
    what skin are you?
ceremonies
body
    foot
    hand
    face
    skeleton
    internal organs
country, place
landscape
home
sky
weather
time of day
water
animals
    introduced animals
birds
    ground birds
    birds that nest in trees
    birds that nest in hollow trees
    birds of prey
    night birds
    water birds
lizards and snakes
insects
plants
vegetable food
sweet things
tobacco
seeds
medicines
edible grubs
going hunting
fire
cooking and food preparation
what are you making?
cooking
what are you doing?
what's happening?
how are you feeling?
what's it like?
where?

A domain scheme similar to the above is used in:

Central Anmatyerr picture dictionary compiled by Jenny Green with the communities of Ti Tree, Mount Allan and Laramba (Napperby)
Alice Springs, N.T.: IAD Press, 2003. ISBN 1864650524 (IAD Press picture dictionary series)

Kaytetye picture dictionary compiled by Myfany Turpin and Alison Ross with Kaytetye communities.
Alice Springs, N.T. : IAD Press, 2004. ISBN 1864650583 (IAD Press picture dictionary series)

beyond

• Indo-European Semantic Fields as used in Carl Darling Buck's (1949) Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principle Indo-European Languages (Chicago: Chicago University Press). These are the basis for the IDS (Intercontinental Dictionary Series) list, and in turn The Loanword Typology Meaning List (LWTML) used by the Loanword Typology project which contains 1460 lexical meanings (in HTML orWord format, around 2MB). 'The words have been divided into 24 "semantic fields" (the 22 domains from Buck, plus a domain called "modern world" and a domain called "function words"). … Some words have been added for particular ecoregions (Africa, Amazonia, Arctic, etc.), to balance the (Indo-)European bias of Buck.'

• Jorge Luis Borges' salutary remarks about any general system for the classification of archival entities (per Mark Liberman).
Levin, Beth. 1993 English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary Investigation. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. (Web-accessible version of the Index)

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Last modified: 122 November 2022
URL: http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/aust/domains.html