Re: Inherently Reflexive Verbs (was: mental masturbation)

Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:
/snip/
>=20
> I don't have a word in Teonaht.  The dictionary I was copying (so long
> ago) into my little notebook didn't have it.  <G>  Suffice it to say
> I don't have a word either for "mental masturbation."
For "masturbate" I think there are probably a lot of
circumlocutions in Drasel=E9q, to use in the presence of
educated people. Not because masturbation itself is
uneducated, but maybe because the usual term for it among
men is a very explicit simile: _b=E9sgotsen_, middle voice
(semi-fossilized here) of _besg=FCn_ "(to grab and) pull".
Exquisite ladies who don't know this usage might, after
hearing it, innocently repeat it believing it refers to
something else, and offend someone. Calling someone a
masturbator, in Dr=E1selhadh culture, is more or less as
offensive as calling him a nail-biter or a nose-scratcher;
but a married man that masturbates as usual practice is
often made fun of, and it's a shame for his wife.

"Mental masturbation", literally translated, would probably
mean "thoughts about masturbation, self-stimulation in one's mind,
sexual fantasy". This is because _b=E9sgotsen_ describes and
is assumed to refer to the physical process, to which the=20
pleasure is a side effect only.

BTW I haven't discovered a word referring to women --
they live a secret life, I guess, and they're too shy for
my field researchers to get such intimate stuff out of them.
We'll see. :)


--Pablo Flores