ABSTRACT
Bronislaw Malinowski’s views on language can be roughly divided into two related theories, one pertaining to what he called an ‘ethnographic theory of language’ in general, and the other to the language of magic in particular. Malinowski made no distinction between ‘langue’ and ‘parole’, language and speech. His analysis was specifically related to the speech context. Speech was a part of concerted activity, like gesture and motion, ‘an adjunct to bodily activities’. Words were a part of action and were equivalents to actions. Trobriand magical language is intelligible language, not mumbo-jumbo shot through with mystical ideas not amenable to rational examination. There are some readily comprehensible features in the spells constructed on simple principles. Such permutations with words allow for a great deal of repetitiveness which Malinowski referred to as the prosaic pedantry of Trobriand magic.
