[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

37

On page 314, he further writes that “constructing a diasystem means placing discrete
varieties in a kind of continuum”, and concludes p. 317 that the combination of structural
and dialectological studies structural dialectology has a “set of questions stemming from
[an] interest in partial differences within a framework of partial similarity”. This is exactly
what the study of the diflusion of sections through the Western Desert is all about.

This diasystemic map is not solely an abstract concept, but reflects to some degree
ethnographic reality. Equivalence rules between sections, structural articulations of systems
and their geographical variations are, indeed, known and understood by Western Desert
people, at least in my experience among Ngaat_iatj arra-speaking people. This knowledge can be
translated into a diasystemic map of systemic relations located in space that may not cover all
of the Western Desert, but that encloses a variety of articulations and an impressive geographic
vastness. The extent of this diasystemic map is a rather recent development, expanding as
people have learned of systems employed by others in far-flung communities. Pragmatic
equivalence rules are not theoretical constructs, but are applied knowledge among Aboriginal
people. The variety of terminology and of structural arrangements of sections is culturally
acceptable. However, the logic underlying the relationship between those terminologies and
arrangements has to be lcnown and understood in order to be operational. To a certain degree
and to a certain geographic extent, therefore, the valeur of a section as defined earlier is not
solely a methodological tool, but also an ethnographic FACT.

The three analytical steps I mentioned earlier are ordered in accordance with increasing
complexity, complexity being defined here on the basis of the number of structural elements
and their interrelations that are taken into account. These steps are as follows:

1. Spatial distribution of individual terms: The aim is to draw in space the categories in
which section names have been grouped. Simple findings on the absence or presence
of a category in a specific geographical area will be presented, and approximate
routes of dilfusion of these categories will be suggested.

2. Spatial distribution of pairs of terms: In this second part, the combination of the
categories will be examined, with the aim of studying their distribution as pairs. This
part allows for formulating first hypotheses on mutual substitutions of categories.

3. Spatial distribution of logical system: In this part, the internal structure of the systems
is taken into account, that is, the structural position of categories in the systems used
by the difierent groups. This third step also develops some particular case studies.