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Cross-Cultural Psycholinguistic Field Research

Verbs of Ownership and Possession

Queen's University

A central task of cross-cultural psychology is to compare conceptualizations underlying social institutions. This study introduces new methodology for the comparison of aboriginal and Western conceptions of ownership and property. Matched samples of Cree and English-Canadian adults reported on the meanings of 25 verbs of ownership and possession. The psycholinguistic methods of semantic similarity judgment were free recall, card sort, unidimensional scaling, and hypothetical explanation to a child. Results showed Cree to have a vocabulary of ownership comparable to that of English speakers. The meaning of own was substantially similar in the two languages, but the Cree concept emphasized wanting, needing, and deserving, and the English speakers emphasized demonstrating the right of possession. Ten methodological lessons were drawn for future cross-cultural field research, foremost being the benefits of multiple measures and the use of conservative nonparametric analyses.

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