Tiwi and English/Lexical selection
From LING073
Tiw → Eng
Case 1
mwarlinjangi → caterpillar, Milky Way
Example sentences:
Tiwi Sentence | English Translation |
---|---|
Mwarlinjangini arikulani. | Milky Way is big. |
Mwarlinjangini yirrima. | Caterpillar flies. |
Generalization for how to decide which translation is right:
- Caterpillar is generally a more common word in English and can be used with action verbs while Milky Way cannot. Because we could think of more instances where caterpillar could be used rather than Milky Way, we set Milky Way as the default and added rules for when the word can be translated as caterpillar
Case 2
milawiyini → sun ray, paperbark
Example sentences:
Tiwi Sentence | English Translation |
---|---|
apakupunarligi milawiyini. | He is causing the rays to sink. |
Ngampamirali milawiyini ngawa ngarikirimi yikwani. | We light the paperbark to make a fire. |
Generalization for how to decide which translation is right:
- If it co-occurs with the verb amirali ("to light") it should translate to paperbark. Otherwise, it probably means sun rays.