GREEN IN TOK PISIN: A CORPUS STUDY

The aim of this paper is to investigate uses of the words for green in Tok Pisin (Neo-Melanesian), a language spoken in Papua New Guinea, classified as an extended pidgin and creole (or a pidgincreole), based on English. In this study, we investigate the uses of green, grin and grinpela, basing on the data extracted from a Tok Pisin corpus, containing texts published in Wantok (Wantok Niuspepa), a weekly magazine issued in Papua New Guinea. The size of the corpus is 3,653,073 words. The program we employ is AntConc, created by Lawrence Anthony. The corpus data provide evidence that green is found in proper names, grin is frequently used in borrowed expressions and grinpela is mainly employed as a colour term, functioning as a noun modifier. Moreover, grin shares figurative meanings with its counterparts in other languages. The figurative expressions, referring to vegetation and environmental issues, are undoubtedly borrowings from English. The words green and grin are found in proper names, including names of environmental organizations. The use of the Tok Pisin words for green in ecological contexts not only points to contemporary language and culture contact, but also indicates that globally discussed topics, including environmental issues, are important in media discourse in Papua New Guinea.