4.1 Introduction
It was indicated briefly in chapter 3 that the extent to which the Abu' noun class system might be influenced by factors other than phonology has not been delved into. This chapter will attempt to show that the Abu' noun class system (chapter 3) is not an arbitrary
system. Equally, it is not determined by phonology alone as has been suggested elsewhere.”' It is of course possible to argue that phonology is in fact the more pervasive phenomenon in the determination of many of the noun classes. At least my recent analysis of the Abu' noun class system suggests that the bases for determining the Abu' noun classes are in fact far more complex. There appears to be substantial grounds to suggest that the Abu' noun classes are determined by a
combination of phonological and semantic factors that can be attributed to the
^e.g., Fortune 1942, Pagotto 1976, Foley forthcoming, Nekitel 1977 and MacGregor and MacGregor 1983.
, o
way the Abu perceive the world. For discussion on the way in which
the Abu' world-view might be reflected in the language noun class system, we must at the very outset understand some features of the Abu' world-view.
2
There is a widely held view that an ongoing interaction exists
between language and people's perceptions of the world. cf. e.g.,
Hymes 1964, part III:'World View and Grammatical categories',
especially the articles by Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf, Harry Hoijor, and Madeleine Mathiot. Joshua Fishman (i960) also attempted to
systematize the long disputed Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Broadly
speaking, this school of thought claims that the language a given speech community speaks reflects its views about what life is all
about. Accordingly, the study of a language may provide insights into
the perceptions that a given speech community has about the world, or in other words its world-view.
In this respect, the Abu' language is no exception. Abu' , as a
language, is complex. It has an elaborate system of noun classes, a
phenomenon which has caused some to wonder just how the Abu' come to have such an elaborate noun system. Through a study of the noun class
system, we can discover the underlying factors (i.e. linguistic or
extralinguistic t h e m e s of the Abu' society's world-view) that might
have influenced the development of the noun classes.
"^Ethnographic studies that provided accounts of various Papua New Guinea communities' world views to date posited two general types.
First, there is the view that detailed cosmological beliefs are either absent or fragmentary and a piecing together of coherent accounts of word-views is not feasible (cf. Malinowski, 1922:403; Mead 1940:339-40 and Brown 1972:5).
Second, there is the view that recognizes the universe as a total cosmic entity either with spiritual elements as described by Narakobi (1980:12-15) and Waisi (1982:2) or one that lacks any direct spiritual influence as suggested by Lawrence (1964:9) and that suggested by the West Sepik Tumleo islanders' creative myth (Andreas Nekitel, pers.com.
1978) and the Miye culture-hero creative myth (Mahite Butehe,
pers.com., 1 981 ).
The most recent work dealing with Melanesian world-views is by Aerts
(1983:1-54). In his article, the author synthesized Melanesians'
beliefs in gods and established three fundemental types: animism,
polytheism and monotheism cum polytheism. He concluded that
Melanesians, like people of many of the world's communities, have had
certain beliefs in spirituality antedating external (especially
Christian) influence. He posited the view that a community's
pre-Christian belief in deities w a 5 largely determined by the nature
and the conditions, including the cultural environnxenb of the
community. However, the author made no comments about the potential
interaction between language and beliefs in cosmology. I offer my
views on this vacuum in this chapter based on my recent study of the Abu' language and hope thereby to make some headway towards a theory
of metaphysics or cosmology from a linguistic viewpoint. In so doing
I am not negating the interaction between environment and belief, but
merely emphasing what appears to have been misconceieved or
4.1.0.1 The Abu' world-view paradigm
The Abu' world-view suggests that it is an encompassing
philosophy. It includes both innate and acquired knowledge (i.e. an
integration of social, philosophical, religious beliefs, opinions,
and attitudes) about the community's relationship with the
world itaf and its relationship with Iluhina Ru'anari
Ka'atuman, the supreme deity. This complex world-view will be
represented in a paradigm below. This rich, complex and obviously difficult subject is not easy to analyse in ordinary language. It is even more difficult to correlate concepts, perceptions and beliefs
from one language — Abu' - to another - English. Inevitably,
translations whether literal or approximate will be inadequate.
Nevertheless, I am making an effort to summarize and present as
faithfully as I can the Abu' world-view as given to me by Abu'
experts. I will use the paradigm to describe it in detail.
4.1.0.2 Meaning of the paradigm
To better understand the complex nature of the Abu' world-view
paradigm, designed to faithfully represent that world-view in a
symbolic way (especially the basic elements of that world-view), we
need to clarify what the basic elements are. In other words, to
understand the whole, we need to take out the parts, examine them and then put them together to make the whole picture. We must not forget all the time that in truth, they are intertwined and not separable.
These elements are: iluh 'up and beyond' utaka 'cloud ' and itaf
^The Abu' world-view presented here is based on data obtained mainly from my Upper Abu' informants in Womsis village and so the views represented here may not necessarily be representative of the entire Abu' community. From my general interviews with members of other Abu'-speaking villagers, there seems to be a general agreement with what is presented here, though there were slight deviations noted among the Lower Abu' informants.