This chapter anticipates briefly some of the comparisons these cognitive maps now allow us to make between the languages. Again, thinking about the kasih/kasiah (love, pity) cluster, we can talk about lexical elaboration. Ever since Franz Boas discussed the many words Inuit have for snow (1911:26), we have worried about the relation between an elaborated lexicon and cultural salience. It seems obvious that cultures should have more words available in those areas of greatest cultural concern, but in fact this is more often only a slight difference in quantity.

Taking the kasih/kasiah cluster as an example, the single major difference between Indonesian and Minangkabau is that Indonesian has asmara in the Love area, while Minangkabau lacks an equivalent (compare Figs. 3 and 5). This does not seem to be a very great difference. Indonesian has six words where Minangkabau has only five. But asmara is Sanskrit, and it seems to be marginal as an emotion term. My sense is that it is a bit more exotic and formal than the other members of its cluster.

At this point we can note some important differences between Minangkabau and Indonesian elsewhere in the cognitive maps. For example, marah (anger) and malu (shame) are certainly two of the most culturally salient emotions for Indonesians. Anger, especially, is noteworthy for the ways in which it is supressed, managed, controlled, diverted, and masked.