ABSTRACT
DIY. I. LANGUAGE AS TOOL, DOCUMENT AND CULTURAL REALITY
In the following study of Trobriand agricultural linguistics there are several points of view which have to be kept before the reader. First of all there is the special methodological interest in the frank and full presentation of all available linguistic evidence. For language is the ethnographer's most important tool. It is through his knowledge of the vernacular and through his practical handling of native grammar and vocabulary that the ethnographer can ask clear questions and receive relevant answers . These answers he then has to interpret and comment upon before he can give them in an intelligible form to his English reader; and it is a long way from the mouth of the native informant to the mind of the English reader.
