Wierzbicka, Anna (1993). A conceptual basis for cultural psychology. Ethos, 21(2), 205-231.
At the present stage of its development, cultural psychology is indeed still dependent on the English language – not just as a medium of expression but as a source of its conceptual tools. The hypothesis that I wish to put forward is this: In trying to identify conceptual universals and in trying to develop a language that can be used for comparing cultures without an ethnocentric bias, a crucial role can be given to the universals of language and, in particular, to lexical universals. Needless to say, in proposing a set of universal human concepts (arrived at on the basis of linguistic evidence) as a possible conceptual
basis for cultural psychology, I do not wish to engage in an act of linguistic imperialism. Obviously, there is room for many different approaches, many different models, and many different perspectives.
Nevertheless, linguistic evidence has quite unique value in trying to elucidate categories of thought. It is time for this evidence to be finally given the attention that it deserves.
