Tapirapé greetings: tekateka expresions

• Autor(a) principal: Paula, Eunice Dias de
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Signótica (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revistas.ufg.br/sig/article/view/9158

Nowadays it is acknowledged that culture and grammar, or more extensively,language and culture cannot be seen apart of each other. The field ofEthnosyntax, brought to light by the beginning of the 1990´s decade, provideus with the tools to comprehend how human beings categorize, think and usetheir languages in unique ways in their daily lives. This paper presents thegreetings system used daily by the Tapirapé, an indigenous people of the state ofMato Grosso. Although the language is at risk in face of the increasing contactwith Portuguese, that system has a significant vitality and importance amongthem. The data analysis under the theoretical framework of Anthropologyand Anthropological Linguistics (Boas, Sapir and Whorf, and more recently,Hymes) and of the so called Ethnosyntax (Enfield, Wierzbicka and Pawley)shows us that the greetings, by reflecting the traits of politeness, courtesy andkindness are deeply rooted in the way of being a – tekateka – a Tapirapé.