EARTH LANGUAGE: MARKING POSSESSION AND MEANINGS

Abstract

This text is based on the initial phase of a research project that analyzes gaps in the specific literature on possession marking in the Terena language, observing not only phonological and morphological issues, but also the semantic issues that justify its uses. In this sense, the general objective of the proposed work is to identify possible criteria that justify or not the organization of nouns into two groups: alienable and non-alienable; grounding the more complete morphological marking (first-person singular marker + suffix -na), and the less complete (first-person singular marker). The theoretical basis used to justify current classifications has not been sufficient to answer the needs of Terena teachers. Through data collection via field research, supported by the theoretical framework of Cultural Semantics, the intention is to organize a corpus sufficient to observe the semantic relationships between language and culture and, thus, to deduce the criteria applicable to the reality of the current Terena language. In this initial research phase, we have records collected in the field regarding the issues, gaps, and a partial survey of collected data, which are contrasted with data from three works: “Learn Terena 1 and 2” and “Grammatical Aspects of the Terena Language”.