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From Utility to Perceptual Salience: Cultural, Lexical, and Conceptual Change in the Southern Kalahari Landscape
- Anthropological Linguistics
- University of Nebraska Press
- Volume 51, Numbers 3-4, Fall and Winter 2009
- pp. 303-327
- 10.1353/anl.2009.0006
- Article
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This article presents a model of the southern Kalahari landscape that in the past gave clues for orientation and usability to Taa-speaking hunter-gatherers. Lexical and conceptual changes are detected with respect to what was formerly the most important landform for survival: pans as water sources and sites suitable for camping and foraging. A part-to-whole-change in lexical semantics is paralleled by a conceptual change from a predominance of notions of utility to a predominance of perceptual salience. These changes reflect changes in land-use patterns and were discovered by comparing statements from people of different ages.