The vocabularies 471
The kasar and alos vocabularies are far more extensive than is tengnga'an,
which Stevens (1966) estimates consists of about 30 words; this is reflected in
the gaps in the table. Tengnga'an lexical items tend to be deictic words indicat-
ing temporal and physical relations, e.g, sanonto ‘now’ and neko ‘this’, but
includes some nouns and verbs as well. The alos and kasar vocabularies include
many more nouns and verbs than tengnga'an. Each lexical item in the alos cate-
gory has a kasar counterpart. The semantic fields represented by alos words
include first and second person and deictic pronouns, some body parts, some
clothing, some familial relations, some personal items, some actions, temporal
expressions, perception predicates, and other terms. Lexical items which do not
show this kind of variation and are to be used regardless of the speech situation
are referred to in the literature (e.g., Stevens 1966) as biyasa ‘usual’.^3 Choice of
lexical items depends on the respective social status of speaker and addressee
and the context of the speech event. These notions are set out more precisely in
(^3) Most Madurese speakers consider the kasar and biyasa vocabularies as comprising a
single, kasar level. Useful or not, the distinction between kasar and biyasa will be rec-
ognized when necessary in what follows.
the section that follows.
In addition to these vocabularies is a system of honorific vocabulary used
primarily in reference to third persons. Focusing on the person to be honored,
this system includes two sets of lexical items–alos tenggi ‘high refined’ and
alos mandhap ‘low refined’. A sample is given in (3), which also includes the
corresponding biyasa word.
(3) Some alos tenggi and alos mandhap words
biyasa/ alos tenggi alos mandhap
kasar
‘say’ oca' dhabu ator
‘give’ berri' pareng atoragi
‘go’ entar meyos cabis
‘eat’ kakan dha'ar
‘drink’ enom dha'ar
‘go home’ mole bubar, gubar paleman
‘house’ bengko, roma dalem
‘stomach’ tabu' padha'aran
‘mouth’ colo' padha'aran
As is clear from the chart, the set of alos tenggi words is much more extensive
that the alos mandhap set. The reason for the disparity reflects the function of
the vocabulary. The alos tenggi vocabulary includes lexical items that identify
the possessions, body parts, and relatives of an honored person (including, when