title: Voicing the unspoken: Breaking through the barriers of mainstream institutionalized deafness to Pacific therapeutic practices

authors: ‘Ofa Makasiale, Cabrini

subjects: Maori

abstract: This paper explores the development of two significant crosscultural research projects in Pasifika psychology. Both projects were designed to speak into the “silent space” of unexplored Pasifika practices and needs in the field of mental health.

text: Voicing the unspoken: Breaking through the barriers of mainstream institutionalized deafness to Pacific therapeutic practices This paper explores the development of two significant crosscultural research projects in Pasifika psychology. Both projects were designed to speak into the “silent space” of unexplored Pasifika practices and needs in the field of mental health.

year: 2008

title: Clostridium fervidus sp. nov., a New Chemoorganotrophic Acetogenic Thermophile

authors: Patel, B.K.C.

subjects: biology

abstract: Clostridium fervidus sp. nov. was isolated from a hot spring in New Zealand. The cells were strictly anaerobic, gram negative, sporeforming, and sluggishly motile rods (0.65 to 0.75 µ wide and 2 to 3 µm long). The spherical spores were subterminal to terminal and did not distend the sporangium. Lysis of the culture occurred at the onset of stationary phase. The deoxyribonucleic acid guanine-plus-cytosine content was 39 mol%. The temperature optimum was 68°C (range, > 37 and < 80°C), and the pH optimum was 7.0 to 7.5 (range, > 5.5 and < 9.0). Growth occurred on Trypticase peptone (BBL Microbiology Systems) or yeast extract. However, with the exception of serine, which could be catabolized as the sole carbon source, either peptone or yeast extract was essential for the fermentation of carbohydrates including glucose, maltose, mannose, xylan, starch, and pyruvate. Acetate was always the major fermentation end product. CO₂, H₂, and minor quantitites of valerate, butyrate, ethanol, and lactate were also produced. C. fervidus (type strain Rt4-B1T) has been deposited with the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC 43204).

text: Clostridium fervidus sp. nov., a New Chemoorganotrophic Acetogenic Thermophile Clostridium fervidus sp. nov. was isolated from a hot spring in New Zealand. The cells were strictly anaerobic, gram negative, sporeforming, and sluggishly motile rods (0.65 to 0.75 µ wide and 2 to 3 µm long). The spherical spores were subterminal to terminal and did not distend the sporangium. Lysis of the culture occurred at the onset of stationary phase. The deoxyribonucleic acid guanine-plus-cytosine content was 39 mol%. The temperature optimum was 68°C (range, > 37 and < 80°C), and the pH optimum was 7.0 to 7.5 (range, > 5.5 and < 9.0). Growth occurred on Trypticase peptone (BBL Microbiology Systems) or yeast extract. However, with the exception of serine, which could be catabolized as the sole carbon source, either peptone or yeast extract was essential for the fermentation of carbohydrates including glucose, maltose, mannose, xylan, starch, and pyruvate. Acetate was always the major fermentation end product. CO₂, H₂, and minor quantitites of valerate, butyrate, ethanol, and lactate were also produced. C. fervidus (type strain Rt4-B1T) has been deposited with the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC 43204).

year: 1987

title: Lost in translation or lack of nuance? Perception of (near-)synonymy of common te reo Māori loanwords in New Zealand English

authors: Pohl, Alexander

abstract: Ongoing contact between languages and their speakers inevitably leads to a flow of words being borrowed from one language into another. Research in the field of language contact has established and documented the kinds of borrowed words that stick in their recipient language (Haspelmath 2009; Winford 2010). However, one question that has received comparatively less attention is how a newly adopted loanword relates to the structure of the existing lexicon it enters. In recent years, language contact research has thus seen a paradigm shift towards an onomasiological perspective (see Anderson et al. 2017; Crombez et al. 2022; Zenner et al. 2023). Within this approach, most studies looking at lexical variation between loanwords and their (near-)synonyms employ corpus linguistics methods (e.g. Onysko & Winter-Froemel 2011; Soares da Silva 2013). However, there is variation in how these corpus studies have investigated loanword meanings, and, to our knowledge, there has been almost no experimental research focussed specifically on the relationship between loanwords and their (near-)synonyms to date. This project presents a large-scale experimental approach from a case-study examining Māori loanwords borrowed into New Zealand English (NZE). NZE presents an unusual language contact situation because it involves a dominant language (NZE) receiving an exceptionally high amount of lexical material (words and phrases) from an Indigenous language: Māori. Further adding to the uniqueness of this contact situation is the fact that only a fraction of the population (<10%) speaks Māori fluently (Statistics New Zealand 2019). Nonetheless, Māori loanwords are ubiquitous, salient, and probably still increasing within the NZE lexicon (Macalister 2007; Trye et al. 2019). One important dimension of this set of borrowings are their semantic characteristics, which straddle three main classes of words: flora and fauna (mānuka ‘tea tree’), material culture (maunga ‘mountain’) and social culture (mana ‘power’).  Here, we report on a Qualtrics experiment devised to probe the perceived relationship between 60 Māori loanwords and their NZE equivalents, as ascertained from published sources. The synonymy judgements were elicited for pairs (e.g. whānau – family) using an analogue slider (ranging from 0 = non-synonymous to 100 = fully synonymous). Data was collected using a three-tiered questionnaire: 1) assessing synonymy of loanwords; 2) eliciting strategies for semantic assessments; and 3) collating background information about participants. Following cleaning and exclusions, the dataset showed a skew towards female participants, and for this reason, we focus our statistical analysis on the core sample containing (n = 170) young women (18-24 years). The results of the synonymy judgements analysis consist of qualitative inspections of box plots in relation to the semantic characteristics of Māori words in question, as well as sociodemographic variables of interest, specifically: years lived in Aotearoa NZ, and a composite score capturing exposure to and attitude towards Māori (TRMO). Preliminary findings suggest that many people think Māori loanwords are (highly) synonymous with NZE lexical alternatives. Our regression analyses exhibit evidence that years lived in Aotearoa NZ (p = 0.0054) and TRMO (p = 8.26e-10) can predict knowledge of Māori words. No statistically significant evidence was found for any predictors regarding the scores of the synonymy judgements; instead, we found that the random effects account for most of the variation. This is indicative of idiosyncratic loanword behaviour, in line with situations where variation is in-flux. These findings will be complemented by qualitative analyses of comments provided by participants in the open answer section (2). The talk will conclude with a summary of contributions to the general understanding of loanword meanings and contact-induced lexical change.

text: Lost in translation or lack of nuance? Perception of (near-)synonymy of common te reo Māori loanwords in New Zealand English Ongoing contact between languages and their speakers inevitably leads to a flow of words being borrowed from one language into another. Research in the field of language contact has established and documented the kinds of borrowed words that stick in their recipient language (Haspelmath 2009; Winford 2010). However, one question that has received comparatively less attention is how a newly adopted loanword relates to the structure of the existing lexicon it enters. In recent years, language contact research has thus seen a paradigm shift towards an onomasiological perspective (see Anderson et al. 2017; Crombez et al. 2022; Zenner et al. 2023). Within this approach, most studies looking at lexical variation between loanwords and their (near-)synonyms employ corpus linguistics methods (e.g. Onysko & Winter-Froemel 2011; Soares da Silva 2013). However, there is variation in how these corpus studies have investigated loanword meanings, and, to our knowledge, there has been almost no experimental research focussed specifically on the relationship between loanwords and their (near-)synonyms to date. This project presents a large-scale experimental approach from a case-study examining Māori loanwords borrowed into New Zealand English (NZE). NZE presents an unusual language contact situation because it involves a dominant language (NZE) receiving an exceptionally high amount of lexical material (words and phrases) from an Indigenous language: Māori. Further adding to the uniqueness of this contact situation is the fact that only a fraction of the population (<10%) speaks Māori fluently (Statistics New Zealand 2019). Nonetheless, Māori loanwords are ubiquitous, salient, and probably still increasing within the NZE lexicon (Macalister 2007; Trye et al. 2019). One important dimension of this set of borrowings are their semantic characteristics, which straddle three main classes of words: flora and fauna (mānuka ‘tea tree’), material culture (maunga ‘mountain’) and social culture (mana ‘power’).  Here, we report on a Qualtrics experiment devised to probe the perceived relationship between 60 Māori loanwords and their NZE equivalents, as ascertained from published sources. The synonymy judgements were elicited for pairs (e.g. whānau – family) using an analogue slider (ranging from 0 = non-synonymous to 100 = fully synonymous). Data was collected using a three-tiered questionnaire: 1) assessing synonymy of loanwords; 2) eliciting strategies for semantic assessments; and 3) collating background information about participants. Following cleaning and exclusions, the dataset showed a skew towards female participants, and for this reason, we focus our statistical analysis on the core sample containing (n = 170) young women (18-24 years). The results of the synonymy judgements analysis consist of qualitative inspections of box plots in relation to the semantic characteristics of Māori words in question, as well as sociodemographic variables of interest, specifically: years lived in Aotearoa NZ, and a composite score capturing exposure to and attitude towards Māori (TRMO). Preliminary findings suggest that many people think Māori loanwords are (highly) synonymous with NZE lexical alternatives. Our regression analyses exhibit evidence that years lived in Aotearoa NZ (p = 0.0054) and TRMO (p = 8.26e-10) can predict knowledge of Māori words. No statistically significant evidence was found for any predictors regarding the scores of the synonymy judgements; instead, we found that the random effects account for most of the variation. This is indicative of idiosyncratic loanword behaviour, in line with situations where variation is in-flux. These findings will be complemented by qualitative analyses of comments provided by participants in the open answer section (2). The talk will conclude with a summary of contributions to the general understanding of loanword meanings and contact-induced lexical change.

year: 2024