Bromhead, Helen (2017). The semantics of standing-water places in English, French, and Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara. In Zhengdao Ye (Ed.), The semantics of nouns (pp. 180-204). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198736721.003.0007
This chapter proposes semantic explications for selected words for standing-water places in English, French, and the Australian Aboriginal language Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara. It uses standing-water places as a case study to argue that languages and cultures categorize the geographic environment in diverse ways, influenced by both geography and a culture’s way of life. Furthermore, the chapter investigates the semantic nature of nouns for kinds of places, and shows how to approach the treatment of nouns for landscape within the NSM framework. The chapter finds that the meanings of landscape concepts, like those of other concepts based in the concrete world, are anchored in a human-centred perspective.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
