Browsing results for Cultural key words
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2008). Fado – podejście semantyczne: Próba interpretacji słów kluczy [Fado – a semantic approach: An attempt at interpreting key words]. Wroclaw: Oficyna Wydawnicza ATUT.
Written in Polish.
This book interprets a dozen Portuguese-based lexical units, mainly from the domain of emotion, selected through a frequency-based survey of Lisbon fado songs. It is the published version of the author’s PhD thesis, University of Wrocław (2007).
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 13, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2009). Exploring English phraseology with two tools: NSM semantic methodology and Google. Journal of English Linguistics, 37(2), 101-129. DOI: 10.1177/0075424209334338
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 10 (pp. 395-406) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). Experience, evidence, and sense: The hidden cultural legacy of English. New York: Oxford University Press.
The study of phraseology, which not long ago was often dismissed as a linguistic activity of only minor interest, has now come into its own and is an increasingly popular and diversified field, with many different approaches and foci of interest. Significantly, regardless of their particular focus and goals, more and more writers adopt corpus-based approaches to phraseological phenomena. This article arises from a larger study of various phraseological networks based on the English cultural key word sense (as in, e.g., a sense of humour, a sense of direction and a sense of relief), and it explores some types of sense-based collocations with two tools: the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) semantic methodology and Google. The article argues that the use of corpora and the Web combined with the use of NSM methodology opens new perspectives for the semantic and cultural study of English phraseology.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) mission, (E) sense, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 13, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). ‘Story’ – An English cultural keyword and a key interpretive tool of Anglo culture. Narrative Inquiry, 20(1), 153-181. DOI: 10.1075/ni.20.1.08wie
This paper draws attention to the fact that the word story, a unique English cultural key word and a key interpretive tool of modern Anglo culture, has played a significant role in the “narrative turn” in the humanities and social sciences. It discusses some of the implications of this fact. Because the uniqueness and centrality of English story has until now gone unnoticed, many semantic components associated with it have been projected onto other languages, which has lead to the positing of spurious human universals and to claims such as “story is a basic principle of mind”.
The paper also shows that the English word story is linked with a family of concepts that have no semantic equivalents in other languages and that are unique conceptual artefacts of Anglo culture. It argues that if we can pinpoint these concepts, we can also pinpoint the shared values and assumptions reflected in them. This can be done with the help of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) methodology.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) history, (E) story, (E) story telling, (E) tale, (T) English
Published on March 26, 2018. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Stecconi, S. (2010). Per un’analisi di concetti chiave dell’ambito politico secondo il Natural Semantic Metalanguage: un confronto italiano-inglese. MSc thesis, Università Cattolica di Milano.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 13, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). Cross-cultural communication and miscommunication: The role of cultural keywords. Intercultural Pragmatics, 7(1), 1-23. DOI: 10.1515/IPRG.2010.001
The experience of immigrants and other people who live transcultural lives confirms that different societies and lingua-cultures have different tacit norms for interpersonal communication and that such differences matter a great deal in many people’s lives. Every lingua-culture inherits and transmits historically and culturally shaped ways of thinking. This applies to English-speaking societies no less than to any other. Given the massive scale of past and ongoing immigration to English-speaking countries as well as the growing domination of English in the global world, it is particularly important to recognize that English, too, is saturated with historically transmitted cultural assumptions. But it is above all “Anglo English” – the common core of the ‘‘Englishes of the inner circle’’ – that tends to be mistaken for a culture-neutral medium of communication. As a result, “Anglo English”, which greatly facilitates cross-cultural communication in today’s world, is also a major source of miscommunication and cross-cultural failure.
This paper takes as its starting point one of the most illuminating cross-cultural novels, Nabokov’s Pnin. The author surveys a number of ‘‘anomalies’’ in ‘‘Pninian English’’ that had an impact on Pnin’s life in America. Then the paper moves beyond Pnin, but stays with Nabokov, and explores one area of immigrant linguistic condition: the loss of cultural key words. The focus is in particular on the Russian key cultural concept of судьба sud’ba and on Nabokov’s continued reliance on this concept in his books created, through the English medium, by his post-Russian authorial self. The author’s overall purpose, however, is not to talk about Nabokov, but to illuminate the immigrant condition and the miscommunication inherent in cross-cultural communication. In her analysis, she relies on the ‘NSM’ methodology of semantic analysis, which allows us to analyse intercultural communication and miscommunication from a neutral, non-Anglocentric perspective.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) fate, (E) sud'ba судьба, (T) English, (T) Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on October 27, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). Experience, evidence, and sense: The hidden cultural legacy of English. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195368000.001.0001
This book is based on two ideas: first, that any language – English no less than any other – represents a universe of meaning, shaped by the history and experience of the men and women who have created it; and second, that in any language certain culture-specific words act as linchpins for whole networks of meanings, and that penetrating the meanings of those key words can therefore open our eyes to an entire cultural universe. This book demonstrates that three uniquely English words – evidence, experience, and sense – are exactly such linchpins. Using a rigorous plain language approach to meaning analysis, the book unpackages the dense cultural meanings of these key words, disentangles their multiple meanings, and traces their origins back to the tradition of British empiricism. In so doing the book reveals much about cultural attitudes embedded not only in British and American English, but other global varieties of English.
Table of contents:
1. Making the familiar look foreign
Part II Experience and evidence
2. Experience: An English keyword and a key cultural theme
3. Evidence: Words, ideas, and cultural practices
Part III Sense
4. The discourse of sense and the legacy of “British empiricism”
5. A sense of humour, a sense of self, and similar expressions
6. A strong sense, a deep sense, and similar expressions
7. Moral sense
8. Common sense
9. From having sense to making sense
Part IV Phraseology, semantics, and corpus linguistics
10. Investigating English phraseology with two tools: NSM and Google
Chapter 2 builds on: “Experience” in John Searle’s account of the mind: Brain, mind and Anglo culture (2006)
Chapter 7 builds on: Moral sense (2007)
Chapter 10 builds on: Exploring English phraseology with two tools: NSM semantic methodology and Google (2009)
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) evidence, (E) experience, (E) sense
Published on July 18, 2017. Last updated on September 13, 2018.
เมฆถาวรวัฒนา, ทัศนีย์ [Mekthawornwathana, Thasanee] (2010). การวิเคราะห์ความหมายแบบครอบคลุมของคำสำคัญทางวัฒนธรรม “ไม่เป็นไร” “เกรงใจ” และ “ขอโทษ” ในภาษาไทยตามแนวทฤษฎีอภิภาษาเชิงอรรถศาสตร์ธรรมชาติ [A Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to the study of the comprehensive meanings of the cultural key words maipenrai, krengchai, and khotot in Thai]. PhD thesis, Chulalongkorn University.
Written in Thai.
This study aims to investigate the denotative, pragmatic, and social meanings of three key words in Thai: ไม่เป็นไร maipenrai, เกรงใจ krengchai andขอโทษ khotot; to formulate these meanings in terms of cultural scripts, to compare and contrast the cultural scripts of the three key words, and to show the characteristics of Thai culture reflected in the cultural scripts.
The results reveal that ไม่เป็นไร maipenrai has three denotative meanings, viz. ‘not affected’, ‘acceptable’ and ‘do not worry’. It has four pragmatic meanings, ‘consoling’, ‘refusing’, ‘forgiving’ and ‘responding to thank you’. It has two social meanings, ‘varying according to the relationship between speakers and participants’ and ‘varying according to the formality of the situation’. The results show that speakers use ไม่เป็นไร maipenrai more when talking to participants who are close to them than when talking to participants whom they are not familiar with, and when talking in informal rather than formal situations.
เกรงใจ krengchai has three denotative meanings, ‘respect’, ‘afraid that other people would feel unsatisfied’ and ‘afraid that what happened might bother others’. The word เกรงใจ krengchai has three pragmatic meanings, ‘accepting’, ‘refusing’ and ‘thanking’. It has two social meanings, ‘varying according to the relationship between speakers and participants’ and ‘varying according to the formality of the situation’. The results show that speakers use เกรงใจ krengchai more when talking to participants whom they are not familiar with than when talking to participants who are close to them, and when talking in formal rather than informal situations.
ขอโทษ khotot has two denotative meanings, ‘I’m sorry for what I have done’ and ‘excuse me’. It has four pragmatic meanings, ‘apologizing, ‘introductory device’, ‘attention-getter’, and ‘leave-taking device’. It has two social meanings, ‘varying according to the relationship between speakers and participants’ and ‘varying according to the formality of the situation’. The results show that speakers use ขอโทษ khotot when talking to participants whom they are not familiar with or who are close to them, and when talking in formal and informal situations, but with different variants.
Tags: (E) khotot ขอโทษ, (E) krengchai เกรงใจ, (E) maipenrai ไม่เป็นไร
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2011). Polskie słowa-wartości w perspektywie porównawczej. Część I. Dobroć. Etnolingwistyka, 23, 45-66.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2012). Polskie słowa-wartości w perspektywie porównawczej. Część II. Prawość i odwaga. Etnolingwistyka, 24, 19-46.
Written in Polish.
Part I deals with the Polish word dobroć in comparative perspective. An assumption is made that an especially precious source of insight into the values of a given society are the key words used in that society. One of such words in Polish society is dobroć. By analysing the word’s semantics, the author shows the differences between that word and its closest equivalents in a few European languages: the English goodness, the French bonté or the Russian dobrotá. In the Polish hierarchy of values, dobroć ranks high as a positive human feature, manifested in people’s feelings, will and actions. The English goodness (derived from the adjective good) differs from the Polish dobroć in that it does not imply good feelings towards other people. The French bonté, in turn, although used in reference to people who want to do and actually do good things for others, does not, in contrast to dobroć, imply emotional overtones. On the other hand, the Russian dobrotá differs from dobroć in that it is primarily used in reference to someone’s emotional attitude towards others (expressed in one’s facial appearance or the tone of voice) but not actions. The author hypothesizes that bonté does not contain the emotional component (present in dobroć), and that dobrotá does not contain the element of action (present in dobroć and bonté). Neither does dobrotá occupy a central position among Russian values: that place is reserved for žalost’, an axiological category without a Polish equivalent. Similarly, in contemporary English-speaking cultures, greater importance is attached to kindness than to goodness.
Having discussed the semantics of dobroć, the author inquires into the historical and cultural origin of the associated concept and attempts to explain its uniqueness. A hypothesis is put forward that in Polish culture the attitude of the heart and will, reflected in the concept of ‘goodness’, finds its prototype in the figure of the Virgin Mary.
In Part II, the author analyses the concepts prawość ‘righteousness’ and odwaga ‘courage’.
Prawość is a specifically Polish concept, very much present in the Polish linguistic and cultural contemporary sphere. It is connected with the history of the country and the qualities attributed to major historical figures. Being prawy means being sensitive to others and following high ethical standards, which perhaps derives from the knightly ethos. English pseudo-equivalents of the Polish prawy/prawość are the words upright, righteous/righteousness and integrity. However, the word upright is now perceived by native speakers of English as dated and inadequate in the contemporary world; righteous and righteousness have clear biblical connotations and have entered the English language through Puritan morality – hence their range is limited. The closest equivalent is integrity, although the word is more readily connected with one’s social activity than with morality.
Odwaga is also connected with moral choices (cf. odwaga cywilna ‘moral courage’) but is not the same as courage: if someone is odważny, the deed may have negative consequences for the doer, which courage does not presuppose. The same semantic field contains words like śmiałość, dzielność and męstwo ‘boldness, bravery, valour’, but these also differ in their semantics from the English courage. Bravery is only an approximate to śmiałość, as is the Russian mužestvo, which merely resembles męstwo.
The cognitive scripts of the Polish value terms show clearly that speakers of Polish in each case operate with elements of awareness (“being aware of the moral obligation to act as one should”).
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bonté, (E) bravery, (E) courage, (E) człowiek prawy, (E) dobroć, (E) dobrotá, (E) dzielność, (E) integrity, (E) kindness, (E) męstwo, (E) mužestvo, (E) odwaga, (E) prawość, (E) righteousness, (E) śmiałość, (E) upright, (E) žalost’, (T) Polish
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 24, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2011). The lexical semantics of language (with special reference to words). Language Sciences, 33(1), 40-57.
DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2010.03.003
Abstract:
Language can be regarded as one of the cultural key words of English, as well as the foundational term of the discourse of linguistics. It is well to remember, however, that the concept of a language lacks precise semantic equivalents in many languages. This study presents a semantic-lexicographic analysis of several meanings of the word language in contemporary English, using the NSM method of semantic description. The study is similar in scope and approach to an earlier study of the word culture, which resembles language in several important respects. One distinctive aspect of the explications for language is their reliance on the proposed semantic prime WORDS, which is discussed at some length. Though primarily focused on English, the study makes reference to Yankunytjatjara, Chinese, and Russian, among other languages.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Bromhead, Helen (2011). The bush in Australian English. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 31(4), 445-471. DOI: 10.1080/07268602.2011.625600
Individual landscape terms in various languages do not always have exact equivalents in other languages, or even in different varieties of the same language. One example is the term the bush in Australian English. The bush denotes an Australian landscape zone, but the word has developed additional senses related to culture and human geography. This study delineates the semantics of the bush in Australian English in relation to Australian culture. These meanings of the bush are described using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to linguistic analysis.
The study finds that the bush is a key word in Australian culture. The author shows that in Australian English and other settler Englishes the meanings of national landscape terms can shed light on the relationship between settlers’ cultures, and their new environments and ways of life.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bush, (E) the bush
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Tien, Adrian (2012). Chinese intercultural communication in the global setting, as reflected through contemporary key words in the Chinese multimedia. In Birgit Breninger, & Thomas Kaltenbacher (Eds.), Creating cultural synergies: Multidisciplinary perspectives on interculturality and interreligiosity (pp. 169-184). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
The author casts a closer look on Chinese-speaking communities and cultural key words, which he claims play an important role in intercultural competence. Chinese cultural key words allow one to gain various cultural glimpses on different aspects of modern Chinese culture and society.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Levisen, Carsten (2012). Cultural semantics and social cognition: A case study on the Danish universe of meaning. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110294651
Abstract:
This book contributes to the emerging discipline of cultural semantics, and to the ongoing debates of linguistic diversity, metalanguage, and the use of linguistic evidence in studies of culture and social cognition. Presenting original, detailed studies of key words of Danish, it breaks new ground for the study of language and cultural values, offering new tools for comparative research into the diversity of semantic and cultural systems in contemporary Europe.
Based on evidence from the semantic categories of everyday language, such as the Danish concept of hygge (roughly ‘pleasant togetherness’), the book provides an integrative socio-cognitive framework for studying and understanding language-particular universes. The author uses NSM to account for the meanings of highly culture-specific and untranslatable linguistic concepts. It is argued that the worlds we live in are not linguistically and conceptually neutral, but rather that speakers who live by Danish concepts are likely to pay attention to their world in ways suggested by central Danish key words and lexical grids.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) co-cognition, (E) glad, (E) hygge, (E) hygger, (E) hygger sig, (E) janteloven, (E) lykkelig, (E) mener, (E) overskue, (E) security, (E) sind, (E) skråsikker, (E) stemning, (E) synes, (E) tilfreds, (E) tryg, (E) trygge rammer, (E) tryghed, (E) varm, (S) apprehension, (S) assertivity, (S) autonomous thinking, (S) categoricalness, (S) children, (S) cognitive relativism, (S) expectations, (S) humanism, (S) hygge, (S) imposing one's opinion, (S) living in the moment, (S) personal uniqueness, (S) self-worth, (S) strong group identity, (S) togetherness, (S) un-independence, (S) unreasonableness, (T) Danish
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 15, 2022.
Waters, Sophia (2012). “It’s rude to VP”: The cultural semantics of rudeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 44, 1051-1062. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2012.02.002
Over recent years, linguists have given an increasing amount of attention to impoliteness studies. Oddly, however, little attention has yet been paid to the semantics of the English word rude. Lacking precise translation equivalents in many languages, rude is a key word revealing much about socially accepted ways of behaving in Anglo society. In Australian English, as in English generally, it is the primary ethno-descriptor in the domain of “impoliteness”. This paper provides a detailed lexical semantic analysis of rude in the productive formula It’s rude to VP, and also in the fixed expression rude word. The semantic explications are framed in the simple universal primes of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). The argumentation is supported by data on Australian English collected from Google searches.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) rude, (E) rude word
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on May 23, 2019.
Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2012). Expression of kawaii (‘cute’): Gender reinforcement of young Japanese female school children. In Jan Wright (Ed.), Joint AARE APERA International Conference Proceedings. Sydney: Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE). http://www.aare.edu.au/publications-database.php.
Open access
Abstract:
This paper examines the Japanese cultural key word kawaii ‘cute’. Although the kawaii phenomenon has been discussed by many scholars, there has been no rigorous semantic analysis, particularly in its use by parents, students and teachers. Teachers frequently use kawaii to show positive feelings towards objects in the classroom. Girls, too, are primary users of the word, which suggests they are acquiring kawaii as an index of female gender identity. From a linguistic perspective, kawaii is not lexicalized in other languages. While English speakers may say cute for various social actions, scholars suggest that kawaii is tied to empathy and relationships.
NSM was used to explicate the exact meaning of kawaii for non-Japanese speakers. The analysis indicates that the core meaning of kawaii is linked to the notion of a ‘child’, and the emotion is explained as ‘when I see this, I can’t not feel something good’. The kawaii syndrome reveals a Japanese cultural characteristic that puts much emphasis on being ‘gender appropriate’ in society and schools. The analysis has implications for understanding gender construction and expression in non-Western cultures.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) kawaii かわいい
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on May 1, 2019.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2012). Saudade: A key Portuguese emotion. Emotion Review, 4(2). 203-211.
DOI: 10.1177/1754073911430727
Abstract:
This paper analyses the meaning of the Portuguese emotion word saudade, roughly translatable as ‘nostalgia’, in an attempt to show its cultural significance and contradict the view that nostalgia is a marginal feeling, deprived of any practical function. Saudade is not a marginal feeling in Portuguese culture, but an important and basic emotion term going hand in hand with amor ‘love’. Saudade may be viewed as a typically prototypical category, because it covers the whole scale of feelings, from sadness to happiness. The Portuguese claim it has no equivalents in any other language in the world and regard it as a fundamental and distinctive feature of their national identity. Its main characteristic lies in its ambivalence — saudade is both a memory and a feeling; it is both pleasure and pain.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) saudade
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Li, Jing; Ericsson, Christer; & Quennerstedt, Mikael (2013). The meaning of the Chinese cultural keyword xin. Journal of Languages and Culture, 4(5), 75-89.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5897/JLC12.054 / Open access
Abstract:
In China, the word 心 xīn (often translated as heart) is frequently used and its concept is central to Chinese culture. However, its meaning is not exactly the same as that of the English word heart. Using qigong as the context, this article aims to explore the meaning of 心 xīn as a cultural key word to gain an in-depth understanding of Chinese culture and knowledge within that cultural system. Qigong is a Chinese health maintenance system and healing tradition that integrates physical activity with training of the mind and self-cultivation. One of qigong’s basic components is 心 xīn adjustment. It is impossible to convey the full meaning of this concept without understanding the meaning of 心 xīn. In Chinese culture, 心 xīn is the root of physical and mental life. It is the seat of all emotions, and embodies the inherent goodness of human nature and wisdom. 心 xīn helps to guide the individual’s way of life and attitude, and can lead one to deep contentment.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) heart, (E) mind, (E) xīn 心
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2013). La langue de bois: un pèlerinage ethnolexicologique [La langue de bois: An ethnolexicological pilgrimage]. In Pierre Marillaud & Robert Gauthier (Eds.), La mauvaise parole: 33e Colloque d’Albi Langages et Signification (pp. 196-210). Albi/Toulouse: CALS/CPST.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2013). Râler, râleur, râlite: discours, langue et valeurs culturelles [Râler, râleur, râlite: Discourse, language and cultural values]. In C. Claudel, P. von Münchow, M. Pordeus, F. Pugnière-Saavedra & G. Tréguer-Felten (ed.), Cultures, discours, langues: nouveaux abordages (pp. 117-141). Limoges: Lambert-Lucas.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on May 23, 2019.
Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2013). Understanding Japanese culture through a semantic analysis of kawaii ‘cute’, itai ‘pitiful’ and ita-kawaii ‘pitifully trying to be cute’. In John Henderson, Marie-Ève Ritz, & Celeste Rodríguez Louro (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2012 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. https://sites.google.com/site/als2012uwa/proceedings.
Open access
Abstract:
This paper examines the three Japanese words kawaii ‘cute’, itai ‘pitiful’ and ita‐kawaii ‘pitifully trying to be cute’. Japanese women frequently say kawaii to show positive feelings towards objects or people. However, too much kawaii is considered undesirable. A compound word, ita‐kawaii, is used to describe women who dress or wear make‐up in an overly kawaii way. Especially when older women try to look kawaii, they are criticized as itai, or ita‐kawaii.
From a linguistic perspective, kawaii, itai, and ita‐kawaii are not lexicalized in other languages. Although the kawaii phenomenon has been thoroughly discussed by many scholars, there has been no rigorous semantic analysis of these three words. In this study, NSM is used to explicate the exact meaning of kawaii, itai, and ita‐kawaii. The analysis indicates that the meaning of itai and ita‐kawaii is related to the social norm that criticizes someone for being conceited. The kawaii and ita‐kawaii syndrome reveals a Japanese cultural characteristic enforcing people not to be out of place in society.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ita-kawaii いた かわいい, (E) itai 痛い, (E) kawaii かわいい, (T) Japanese
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Svetanant, Chavalin (2013). Exploring personhood constructs through language: Contrastive semantic of “heart” in Japanese and Thai. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Communication, 7(3), 23-32.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/2324-7320/cgp/v07i03/53576
Abstract:
This paper aims to explore personhood constructs of the Thai community and compare them to those of the Japanese community, with special reference to heart-related terms. It carries out a linguistic inquiry into the historical side of the lexicon and compares the conceptualization of ‘heart’ in Thai and Japanese to clarify the cognitive and conceptual similarities and differences in the underlying semantic structures. The framework for semantic analysis employed in this paper is the NSM approach.
A large number of heart/mind-related words in Thai and Japanese show features that are shared across the two communities, as well as subtle cognitive and conceptual differences; for example, ใจ chai (Thai) and 気 ki (Japanese) are relatively more dynamic and sensitive to mental/psychological changes when compared to 心 kokoro (Japanese). Linguistically speaking, they keep moving around, changing shape, size, colour, and temperature. However, while the entities of ใจ chai and 心 kokoro are cognitively more substantial as emotional containers of human beings, 気 ki is treated more like the intangible energy wrapping around 心 kokoro and contains no intellectual element.
The evidence from this study suggests that a semantic explication of personhood lexicalizations is a practical approach to clarify the obscure entities and contribute to the understanding of the conceptuality of personhood constructs across languages and cultures.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) chai ใจ, (E) ki 気, (E) kokoro 心
