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Tok Bokis, Tok Piksa: Translating parables in Papua New Guinea

  • Bambi B. Schieffelin
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Social Lives in Language – Sociolinguistics and multilingual speech communities
This chapter is in the book Social Lives in Language – Sociolinguistics and multilingual speech communities

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Bible translation practices, central to Christian missionization in Papua New Guinea, a site of intensive linguistic and cultural contact, and a productive context in which to examine the dynamics of multiple, competing and contradictory conceptualizations about language, language use, and language ideologies. Focusing on the genre "parable," it tracks how translation changes made by New Testament Bible translators working in Tok Pisin, from tok bokis to tok piksa, created ethnopragmatic challenges for Bosavi pastors who struggled in a rapidly shifting metalinguistic terrain to create local meanings across languages and texts. The essay argues that the importance of genre as an interpretive frame cannot be underestimated in terms of understanding changes in linguistic and cultural meanings over time, especially in language contact situations.

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Bible translation practices, central to Christian missionization in Papua New Guinea, a site of intensive linguistic and cultural contact, and a productive context in which to examine the dynamics of multiple, competing and contradictory conceptualizations about language, language use, and language ideologies. Focusing on the genre "parable," it tracks how translation changes made by New Testament Bible translators working in Tok Pisin, from tok bokis to tok piksa, created ethnopragmatic challenges for Bosavi pastors who struggled in a rapidly shifting metalinguistic terrain to create local meanings across languages and texts. The essay argues that the importance of genre as an interpretive frame cannot be underestimated in terms of understanding changes in linguistic and cultural meanings over time, especially in language contact situations.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Introduction: Social lives in language 1
  5. Photos of Gillian: Then and now 17
  6. Biographies of contributors and email addresses 19
  7. Part I. Language Ideology: From the speakers, what can we learn about the language?
  8. Language, mobility and (in)security: A journey through Francophone Canada 27
  9. Language repertoires and the middle class in urban Solomon Islands 43
  10. Land, language and identity: The socio-political origins of Gurindji Kriol 69
  11. "I've been speaking Tsotsitaal all my life without knowing it": Towards a unified account of tsotsitaals in South Africa. 95
  12. Tok Bokis, Tok Piksa: Translating parables in Papua New Guinea 111
  13. Part II. Bridging Macro- and Micro-sociolinguistics
  14. Chiac in context: Overview and evaluation of Acadie's Joual 137
  15. How to predict the evolution of a bilingual community 179
  16. How local is local French in Quebec? 195
  17. Part III. Quantitative sociolinguistics: From the languages, what can we learn about the speakers?
  18. Ne deletion in Picard and in regional French: Evidence for distinct grammars 223
  19. The dynamics of pronouns in the Québec languages in contact dynamics 249
  20. Subordinate clause marking in Montreal Anglophone French and English 273
  21. Mysteries of the substrate 315
  22. Empirical problems with domain-based notions of "simple" 327
  23. Index of names 357
  24. Index of subjects 361
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.24.10sch

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgements ix
  4. Introduction: Social lives in language 1
  5. Photos of Gillian: Then and now 17
  6. Biographies of contributors and email addresses 19
  7. Part I. Language Ideology: From the speakers, what can we learn about the language?
  8. Language, mobility and (in)security: A journey through Francophone Canada 27
  9. Language repertoires and the middle class in urban Solomon Islands 43
  10. Land, language and identity: The socio-political origins of Gurindji Kriol 69
  11. "I've been speaking Tsotsitaal all my life without knowing it": Towards a unified account of tsotsitaals in South Africa. 95
  12. Tok Bokis, Tok Piksa: Translating parables in Papua New Guinea 111
  13. Part II. Bridging Macro- and Micro-sociolinguistics
  14. Chiac in context: Overview and evaluation of Acadie's Joual 137
  15. How to predict the evolution of a bilingual community 179
  16. How local is local French in Quebec? 195
  17. Part III. Quantitative sociolinguistics: From the languages, what can we learn about the speakers?
  18. Ne deletion in Picard and in regional French: Evidence for distinct grammars 223
  19. The dynamics of pronouns in the Québec languages in contact dynamics 249
  20. Subordinate clause marking in Montreal Anglophone French and English 273
  21. Mysteries of the substrate 315
  22. Empirical problems with domain-based notions of "simple" 327
  23. Index of names 357
  24. Index of subjects 361
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