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Expressions of Emotion and Character in Makasae

This study explores the linguistic expressions of emotion and character in the Makasae language, spoken by 124,000 people in East Timor. The study reveals that Makasae expressions often involve collocations of body parts and adjectives, verbs, nouns, or numbers. The results also show that these expressions can be lexically separated and have both literal and metaphorical meanings. This research sheds light on the unique linguistic features of the Makasae language.

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Expressions of Emotion and Character in Makasae

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  1. “Does he have sharp eyes or sharp lungs?”Expressions of emotion and character in Makasae 7th East Nusantara Conference 14/5/2018 Francisca Cecilia X. dos Santos Diliinstitute of Technology

  2. Makasae • Papuan • 124,000 speakers, 10% of East Timor’s population (2015 census) • SOV

  3. Location of Makasae speakers Williams-van Klinken & Williams, 2015

  4. Emotion and character Mostly collocations of a body part noun and an adjective, verb, noun or number

  5. Structure: 2 constructions • Subject = person + body part, predicate = characteristic • Subject = person, predicate = body part + characteristic.

  6. Negation Negative can precede just the second part of the expression, or the whole expression.

  7. Intensification and comparatives lita ‘very/more’ precedes just the second part of the expression when it means ‘very’. In comparatives it precedes the whole expression.

  8. da'e“head”: intelligent, faithful

  9. mutu “inside”: feel, know, character

  10. fanu “face”: angry, crazy, absent, dead

  11. tana “hand”: contribute, diligent; throw straight

  12. nana“eye”: able to see, awake; untrustworthy

  13. wali “ear”: able to hear; naughty

  14. muni “nose”: smell; able to find things

  15. a’a “mouth”: talkative

  16. gula “body”: energetic

  17. sada “lungs”, waboku ‘heart’: feel

  18. ari “liver”: firm

  19. atu “stomach”: greedy, worried

  20. Other

  21. Conclusion • Lexicalised, but the two parts of the expression can be separated. • Productive: • 16 body parts • Can create new expressions, or create literal translations from Tetun. • Metaphorical: • One expression can have a physical and a metaphorical meaning, or two different metaphorical meanings.

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