Wierzbicka, Anna (2012). The semantics of “sex” in a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. In Jurij Apresjan, Igor Boguslavsky, Marie-Claude L’Homme, Leonid Iomdin, Jasmina Milicevic, Alain Polguère, & Leo Wanner (Eds.), Meaning, text, and other exciting things: A festschrift to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Professor Igor Alexandrovič Mel’čuk (pp. 641-649). Moscow: Jazyki slavjanskoj kultury. PDF (open access)
This paper explores the meanings of the English word sex in a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective, and argues that – unlike the universal and indefinable concept ‘die’ – the concept encoded in the present-day English word sex is culture-bound and is, in fact, a relatively recent conceptual artefact of Anglo culture. The paper seeks to show that the meanings of this word can be elucidated through the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) based on simple and universal concepts.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
