"How does apache language use ideas of space, shape, movement, and/or life?"

Introduction

Some of the most radical concerns of linguistic anthropology been discussed with reference to seven different essays. The language of Western apache considered to be as the most convoluted language ever existed and commonly termed as the language of astounding complexity. The seven essays mentioned in the book revised for this anthology.

Basso, the most prominent name in the discipline of linguistic anthropology has played a vital part by examining the current existence of the Apache language in a village called “Cibecue”, the inhabitants of the village speaks a vernacular of Apache language that is not spoken anywhere else. He illustrates how intricacies of language such as place metaphor, names, uses of silence—facilitate community and individual describe their subsistence, so that, in the words of one Apache woman, "If we lose our language, we will lose our breath; then we will die and blow away like leaves." The essays in the book illustrate that, although Western Apache language, cultures, norms and values are evolving in response to rejuvenation, they are still complex, essential and exceptional (Keith, pp. 15-52). In the following section, we will be reviewing some key examples from the book related to “Western Apache Language and Culture” which will eventually lead us to explain "How do apache language use ideas of space, shape, movement, and/or life?

Discussion & Analysis

Ideology of Space, Shape, Movement, and/or Life in Apache Language

Example from Chapter 1

This is the gist of example mentioned in the book i.e. the use of space and movement ideologies in the Western Apche language. The example offers a semantic analysis of a set of Apache “classificatory” verb stems, so called because they encode information about observable properties of the object or objects whose movement the verb describes. In various combinations, this attributes, length of object, rigidity, portability etc. define a bounded system of abstract, conceptual categories which Apache speakers must learn if they are to use the stems correctly. Concomitantly, speakers constrained to attend to attributes of objects as “significant” while ignoring others (such as color) as “insignificant,” a revealing example of how grammatical structures may work to channel perception along highly detailed lines. As in Navajo, Western Apache classificatory verb stems distributed in neuter verbs, which denote members of the object category at rest, and active verbs, which pertain to (1) the movement or handling of members of the ...