Words: origins, structures, meanings

Abstract

Abstract In this chapter we look at the vocabulary of East and Southeast Asian languages. First we see how the lexicon reflects the cultural history of speech communities, through its stock of words borrowed over the centuries from other languages. Then we will turn to the internal structure of words, i.e. to the area of study linguists call morphology. In the second part of the chapter we look at words from a different angle—as the bearers of meanings which may be language-specific and culture-specific. We survey some of the distinctive meanings and meaning patterns in East and Southeast Asian languages, then examine some of the cultural key words of Malay, Chinese, and Japanese.