The comparative semantics of verbs of ‘opening’: West Africa vs Oceania

Separating things into parts or constituents using different means is an everyday activity that humans everywhere undertake. The way in which humans categorise such events and label them in verbs varies considerably across languages and cultures. In a cross-linguistic study of the categorisation of separation events, Majid et al. (2007: 147) note that separation events such as opening, taking apart and peeling, which involve minimal destruction of the affected object and are mostly reversible, were distinguished from those involving cutting and breaking, which involve significant material destruction accompanied by non-reversible change in the integrity of the object. ‘Opening’ events are