Language Ambiguity

In today's post, I would like to take your attention to the principle of diversity of meaning in the Dusun language or specifically termed as language ambiguity within the language itself.

According to Cecilia Quiroga-Clare, something is ambiguous when it can be understood in two or more possible senses or ways. If the ambiguity is in a single word it is called lexical ambiguity. In a sentence or clause, structural ambiguity.

Examples of lexical ambiguity are everywhere. In fact, almost any word has more than one meaning. "Note" = "A musical tone" or "A short written record." "Lie" = "Statement that you know it is not true" or "present tense of lay: to be or put yourself in a flat position."

Kara (monkey)

Dusun Lexical Ambiguity

1. Kara (monkey)

• Mintundok po ih kara hilod tuntuh timadang. (The monkey is jumping on top of the timadang tree)

• Pointimpak ilo kara id tansar mingkid-kingkid do luong. (The "monkey" is sitting on the fence munching maize). The noun kara here is to refer to an individual (usually a naughty boy).

Tanak oikum-ikum (A shy boy)

2. Nipon (teeth)

• Kasadu, karatu om kotipu nipon dau. (He slipped, fell and broke his teeth)

• Notipu nipon diti ragus ku. (The chisel of my plough is broken)

Tansar (A traditional fence made of bamboo and rattan)

Ambiguity tends to increase with frequency of usage. Some examples of structural ambiguity: "John enjoys painting his models nude." Who is nude? "Visiting relatives can be so boring." Who is doing the visiting? It is either John who is nude while painting or the models that he is painting are in the nude. In the second sentence, it could be that the writer is visiting relatives or he/she is being visited by relatives

Dusun Structural Ambiguity

• Yadaai di Korimput sawo dau moi pogiboboros dit komolohingan. (Korimput left his wife to talk to the elders)
• There could be two possible meanings of this sentence, either Korimput left his wife to talk to the elders (his wife is the agent of the talking)
• or He left his wife and talked to the elders himself (Korimput is the agent)

My next post would be on the discussion of the Syntactic and Paradigmatic Relations of the Dusun Language.

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Adjective and Adverb Inflections

Adjective Inflection

Normally in English, only one and two syllables words are inflected in the comparative and superlatives modes.

One syllable words

• small - smaller
• kill - killer
• big - bigger

Two syllable words

• heavy - heavier
• busy - busier
• clumsy - clumsier

Adjectives with two or more syllables do not accept inflectional morpheme; for them, the entire words rather than morphological suffixes, are used to indicate the comparative and superlative.

• more beautiful - most beautiful
• more reluctant - most reluctant

Adverb Inflection

Comparative and superlative inflections do appear in adverbs. They too can be compared or made superlative by using more and most.

• He ran faster than his dad.
• He ran the fastest of the three.
• She held the baby more securely.
• How are verbs used most effectively in a sentence?

Dusun Adjective Inflection

Comparative and Superlative

Root:-

• okoro (small)
• agayo (big)

• it poinkoro-koro / poingkoro-koro - smaller 
• it tokoro kopio, tokoro tomod, it totos tokoro, it poingkoro kopio - smallest
• it poingayo-gayo - bigger
• it tagayo kopio / tomod, or it totos tagayo

Poingayo-gayo ti kakanan dau ko ih dogo

(His jar is bigger than mine)

Photo courtesy of beritutuan.blogspot.com

Poingumu-gumu gia diolo pusas

(They have more pusas or food)

Photo courtesy of ijonghairie.blogspot.com

Note that there are an inflection and a reduplication in the comparative mode - (prefix poin / poing and reduplication of koro) however, no inflection or reduplication in the superlative mode. Kopio, tomod and totos are the superlative adjectives functioning similar to "most" in the English language.

Dusun Adverb Infelection

Comparative and Superlative

Root:-

• osiau (fast)
• ogirot (secure)

Poinlumis-lumis tirak dilo sumandak id pointanga-tanga.

(The girl in the centre smiles more sweetly)

• Manangkus isio poinsiau-siau ko tapa dau.(He ran faster than his dad)
• Manangkus isio poinsiau kopio / tomod ko mantad ilo tolu. (He ran the fastest of the three)
• Poingirot-girot pongingigit disio ilo tanak. (She held the child more securely.)
• Poingirot tomod pongingigit disio ilo tanak. (She held the child most securely.)

poinpoit-poit pondo ih tumpung ku ko ih disio

(My rice wine is better than his)

Note that both inflection and reduplication are used in the transformation of the roots osiau and ogirot into the comparative mode.Prefix p and infix in are commonly used with a reduplication on the root to indicate comparison. On the second root word - ogirot, the same rules apply to form the comparative - a prefix p, an infix in and a reduplication of the root..Thus, it is evident that the comparative mode of the Dusun adverbs follow a simple rule - affixes p and in and a reduplication of the root word such as poinlumis-lumis pongingirak dau, poinkolit-kolit kowowoyoon dau and so on.

Dusun adverbs as in its adjectives make use of the superlatives such as kopio, tomod or totos used similar to most in the English Language.

Note: The adjective pointalib can also be used to denote comparative in both adjectives and adverbs.

Root:-

talib (pass through) as in talib oku po. (May I pass through?)

• Pointalib-talib o kokoroon dau ko yoku. (adjective) - He is smaller than me.
• Pointalib-talib pananangkus dau ko isio. (adverb) - He ran faster than me.

But it cannot be used in the inflected form alone without the reduplication.

• Pointalib oh pomusarahan disio. (He is over thinking - signifying a very proud person or snobbish)
• Pointalib oh  pananangkus dau. (He is making up his style of running to get attention)

End of lesson.........Ba kanou moi poginum tumpung. Umbayaan tokou momolositik it kakang di Kong, wonsoion tokou pusas.