Browsing results for Ethnopsychology & personhood
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Soul and mind: Linguistic evidence for ethnopsychology and cultural history. American Anthropologist, 91(1), 41-58.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1989.91.1.02a00030
Abstract:
The Russian word duša ‘soul’ has a much wider scope of use than the English word soul and embodies a different folk psychology (fully congruent with what has been described as the Russian “national character”). The English word mind stands for an Anglo-Saxon folk category that has been reified as an objective category of thought. The decline and fall of the concept soul and the ascendancy of mind in English are linked with changes in the cultural history and in the prevailing Western ethnophilosophy.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 14 (pp. 522-544) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Chapter 1 (pp. 31-63) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1992), Semantics, culture, and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) duša душа, (E) mind, (E) soul
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
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.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Kornacki, Paweł (1995). Heart & face: Semantics of Chinese emotion concepts. PhD thesis, Australian National University.
Open access
Abstract:
This thesis uses NSM to explore the conceptual organization of a subset of the emotion vocabulary of Modern Standard Chinese. Chapter One (Introduction) provides background information on the analytic perspective adopted in the thesis, the sources of data, and a preliminary discussion of some of the issues in the early Chinese ethnotheory of “emotion”. Chapter Two explicates the key concept of 心 xin ‘heart/mind’, which is the cognitive, moral, and emotional ‘centre’ of a person. Chapter Three discusses two related notions, 面子 miànzi and 脸 liăn, usually glossed in English by means of the word face; both notions speak to the culturally perceived relevance to the self of other people’s judgements. Chapter Four develops this theme further, dealing with the ‘social feelings’ of Chinese, i.e. reactions to the things people say and think about us. Chapter Five focuses on the semantic field of Chinese ‘anger’-like expressions. Chapter Six analyses the lexical data pertinent to the conceptualization of different kinds of subjectively ‘bad’ feelings, whereas Chapter Seven discusses the emotional reactions to various types of good situations and events.
Wherever possible, the thesis seeks to probe into the culturally based aspects of the conceptual structure of emotion words by drawing on a variety of anthropological, psychological and sociological studies of the Chinese society. On the methodological level, the thesis attempts to demonstrate that the bias inherent in conducting the cultural analysis with complex, language-specific notions (e.g., ‘anger’, ‘shame’, ‘happiness’) can be subverted through a recourse to universally shared simple meanings.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) anger, (E) bù ān 不安, (E) bù hăoyìsi 不好意思, (E) cánkuì 惭愧, (E) chĭ 耻, (E) chóu 愁, (E) déyì 得意, (E) emotion, (E) face, (E) fèn 憤, (E) gāoxìng 高兴, (E) huáng 徨, (E) jì 寂, (E) jĭnzhāng 紧张, (E) kuàilè 快乐, (E) kŭmèn 苦闷, (E) liăn 脸, (E) miànzi 面子, (E) năo 恼, (E) năohuo 恼火, (E) nù 怒, (E) qíngxù 情绪, (E) shēngqì 生气, (E) tăoyàn 讨厌, (E) tòngkŭ 痛苦, (E) tòngkuài 痛快, (E) xīn 心, (E) xìngfú 幸福, (E) xiū 羞
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 22, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2001). Hati: A key word in the Malay vocabulary of emotion. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 167-195). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880168.167
Abstract:
The word hati is one of the key words of Malay culture: it functions as a conceptual focal point for an entire complex of characteristically Malay values, attitudes and expectations. By studying the meaning and uses of this one word we can learn a surprising amount about Malay culture – in particular, about the conceptualization of emotion in Malay culture.
The aims of this paper are threefold: first, to outline the range of use and collocational possibilities of hati, informally comparing and contrasting it with English heart; second, to advance and argue for an explicit semantic explication of hati in its core or central meaning (as in an expression like hati orang ‘a person’s hati‘); third, to explicate the semantics of five common fixed expressions involving hati, all of which designate what we might term feeling states or emotional reactions: susah hati ‘troubled, worried’, senang hati ‘relaxed, easy at heart’; sakit hati ‘annoyed, offended’, puas hati ‘satisfied (with someone)’, and kecil hati ‘feel hurt’.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) hati orang, (E) heart, (E) kecil hati, (E) puas hati, (E) sakit hati, (E) senang hati, (E) susah hati, (T) Malay
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 28, 2018.
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (2001). Emotions and the nature of persons in Mbula. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 73-118). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.69
The present paper seeks to precisely specify the meanings of a number of emotion expressions in the Mbula language of Papua New Guinea, focussing on those involving body part images. In doing so, use is made of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
Explications are proposed for a number of mata- phrases, many of which relate to seeing (mata = ‘eye’) and to emotions triggered by seeing (e.g. jealousy). Lele- phrases (lele = ‘insides’), kete- phrases (kete = ‘chest/liver’), ni- phrases (ni = ‘being’), kuli- phrases (kuli = ‘skin’), and kopo- phrases (kopo = ‘stomach’) are surveyed as well, each with their related emotions. Body parts less frequently used in body image
expressions are included towards the end of the paper
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ikam- phrases, (E) kete- phrases, (E) kopo- phrases, (E) kuli- phrases, (E) kwo- phrases, (E) lele- phrases, (E) mata- phrases, (E) ni- phrases, (E) ŋgure- phrases, (E) talŋa- phrases, (E) ur koi pa
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Hasada, Rie (2002). ‘Body part’ terms and emotion in Japanese. Pragmatics & Cognition, 10(1), 107-128.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.10.12.06has
Abstract:
This paper uses NSM to examine the use and meaning of the body-part terms or quasi-body-part terms associated with Japanese emotions. The terms analysed are 心 kokoro, 胸 mune, 腹 hara, 気 ki, and 虫 mushi. In Japanese, kokoro is regarded as the seat of emotions. 胸 mune (roughly, ‘chest’) is the place where Japanese believe 心 kokoro is located. 腹 hara (roughly, ‘belly’) can be used to refer to the seat of ‘thinking’, for example in the expression of anger-like feelings that entail a prior cognitive appraisal. The term 気 ki (roughly, ‘breath’) is also used for expressions dealing with emotions, temperament, and behaviour; among these, 気 ki is most frequently used for referring to mental activity. 虫 mushi – literally, a ‘worm’ that exists in the 腹 hara ‘belly’ – is also used for referring to specific emotion expressions.
The data used for analysis are from various sources: published literature both in Japanese and English, newspaper and magazine articles, film scripts, comic books, advertisements, dictionaries, and popular songs.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) hara 腹, (E) ki 気, (E) kokoro 心, (E) mune 胸, (E) mushi 虫
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Junker, Marie-Odile (2003). A Native American view of the “mind” as seen in the lexicon of cognition in East Cree. Cognitive Linguistics, 14(2-3), 167-194.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.2003.007
Abstract:
East Cree, an Algonquian language spoken in Northern Quebec, Canada, has a classifier eyi that indicates mental activity. This morpheme is found in a very large number of cognition words including all verbs for thinking, most for knowing, all for wanting, and several for feeling. A morphosyntactic analysis of over 500 words shows that metaphor plays a large role in Cree and that many common metaphors for thinking are found in the etymology of thinking words, as well as culture-specific ones. There are interesting correlations between thinking and feeling and between rational and supernatural processes. The data support the existence of semantic universals for mental predicates by providing evidence that East Cree has exponents for the semantic primes THINK, WANT, and KNOW. Interviews with elders confirm that the Cree ‘theory of mind’ has both universal and culture-specific aspects, like the ideas of wholeness, a connection with the greater ‘mind’ of creation (the Great Spirit), and respect for others, which is a central value of Cree culture.
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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) maamituneyihchikan, (E) mind, (E) mituneyihchikan
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 21, 2019.
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2004). Korean maum vs. English heart and mind: Contrastive semantics of cultural concepts. In Christo Moskovsky (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2003.html.
Open access
Abstract:
In this paper, an attempt is made to compare three highly distinct concepts, the Anglo concepts of ‘heart’ and ‘mind’, as well as the Korean concept of 몸 maum. An appropriate analysis of 몸 maum appears to be essential for understanding Korean folk psychology. The attempt is underpinned by the principles of the NSM approach so as to enable outsiders to see the cognitive structure of the analysed concepts through the same window as native speakers. Similarities and differences between the three concepts reflect different folk views on similar psychological entities. The overlap and discrepancies between the NSM explications explain why the Anglo terms can serve as translational equivalents in some contexts but not in others. The Anglo concepts reflect the Anglo culture-specific way of conceptualizing while the Korean concept 몸 maum reflects the Korean way.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2007). Contrastive semantics of Korean ‘maum’ vs. English ‘heart’ and ‘mind’. The Journal of Studies in Language, 22(3), 171-197.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) heart, (E) maum 몸, (E) mind
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2005). Empirical universals of language as a basis for the study of other human universals and as a tool for exploring cross-cultural differences. Ethos, 33(2), 256-291.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2005.33.2.256
Abstract:
Genuine universals of culture or cognition can only be formulated if we have at our disposal a universal language, and similarly, only a universal language can allow us to formulate generalizations about different cultures from a culture-independent point of view. In this article, it is argued that a universal, “culture-free” language suitable both for the study of human universals and the exploration of cultural differences, can be built on the basis of empirical universals of language. Furthermore, it is claimed that such a language has already been largely constructed, thus bringing the notion of a “universal language” from the realm of utopia to the realm of everyday reality. The article shows that this language (NSM) can be used to describe and explore both universal and culture-specific forms of human thinking, and in particular, to identify and compare personhood models across languages and cultures.
Translations:
Into French (with some cuts):
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). Les universaux empiriques du langage: tremplin pour l’étude d’autres universaux humains et outil dans l’exploration de différences transculturelles. Linx, 54, 151-179.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/linx.517 / Open access
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) duša душа, (E) human being, (E) kokoro 心, (E) maum 몸, (E) mind, (E) unfair, (T) English
Published on May 20, 2018. Last updated on June 22, 2019.
Ye, Zhengdao (2006). Ways of meaning, ways of life: A semantic approach to Chinese ethnopsychology. PhD thesis, Australian National University.
Open access
Abstract:
This thesis attempts to identify some key aspects of Chinese indigenous psychologies reflected in the Chinese language, and to investigate and articulate their meanings from a culture-internal perspective. An in-depth examination and analysis of key Chinese words and expressions reveal the conceptual basis of Chinese social organization and social interaction,
distinctive ways of emotion expression (both verbal and non-verbal) in relation to underlying cultural values and attitudes towards emotion, the relationship between sensory experience and the conceptual structure (especially with regard to the role of ‘taste’ in Chinese conceptual formation), as well as the folk model of learning in relation to ‘memorization’ and knowledge formation.
NSM is employed as a culture-independent conceptual tool for meaning analysis so that the ways of thinking, knowing, feeling and behaving that are fundamental to the Chinese way of life can be made easily accessible and intelligible to cultural outsiders. The cultural scripts theory, a spin-off of the NSM approach, is employed as a conceptual framework for cultural notations, aiming at a closer integration between language, culture and psychology. The study makes an empirical
and conceptual contribution not only to the growing field of the study of Chinese indigenous psychologies, but also to the study of the commonality and diversity of human experience and cognition in general. It has practical implications and applications for intercultural communication.
More information:
Chapter 2 builds on: Chinese categorization of interpersonal relationships and the cultural logic of Chinese social interaction: An indigenous perspective (2004)
Chapter 3 builds on: Why the “inscrutable” Chinese face? Emotionality and facial expression in Chinese (2006)
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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Evans, Nicholas (2007). Standing up your mind: Remembering in Dalabon. In Mengistu Amberber (Ed.), The language of memory in a crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 67-95). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.21.06eva
Abstract:
This paper explores the vocabulary of mental states, knowing, thinking and remembering in Dalabon, an Australian Aboriginal language. Though Dalabon has a rich vocabulary for the overall semantic domain of attention, thought, memory and forgetting, there are no expressions specifically dedicated to remembering. Rather, the ontology of cognitive states and processes is categorized into short-term versus long-term mental states and events. Aspectual choices are used to express transitions into mental states and events (‘remembering’ is ‘coming to have in mind’, and ‘forgetting’ is ‘coming to not have in mind’), without the entailments found in English, which distinguishes previously experienced mental states (remember, remind) or mental states experienced for the first time (get the idea that, realize).
The only section of the paper to include NSM-inspired explications is the appendix. One of the explications relates to two bound morphemes of Dalabon that refer to something akin to the English ‘mind’, viz. beng and kanûm. The latter also denotes the ear. Other NSM-inspired explications relate to the verbs bengdi ‘have in mind’ and bengkan ‘keep in mind’.
Rating:
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) beng, (E) bengdi, (E) bengkan, (E) kanûm
Published on July 30, 2018. Last updated on June 21, 2019.
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2007). Contrastive semantics of Korean ‘maum’ vs. English ‘heart’ and ‘mind’. The Journal of Studies in Language, 22(3), 171-197.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18627/jslg.22.3.200702.171 / Open access
Abstract:
This paper uses the semantic framework provided by the NSM approach to contrast three ethnopsychological constructs: 몸 maum in Korean, and heart and mind in English. The latter are the most common translational equivalents of the Korean term. There is no semantic equivalence: which of the two English words is used to translate 몸 maum in any particular context is contextually driven. All three play a significant role in expressing emotions and thoughts, but no contrastive semantic analysis of the terms is found in the literature. This study shows it is possible to compare culturally loaded and complex concepts in terms of semantic similarities and differences by using an appropriate tertium comparationis. At the same time it indicates that NSM can endow ethnopsychology with a practical and descriptive tool.
More information:
An earlier version of this paper was published as:
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2004). Korean maum vs. English heart and mind: Contrastive semantics of cultural concepts. In Christo Moskovsky (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2003.html.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) heart, (E) maum 몸, (E) mind
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on October 19, 2019.
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2007). Korean ethnopsychology reflected in the concept of ceng ‘affection’: Semantic and cultural interpretation. 담화와인지 [Discourse and Cognition], 14(3), 81-103.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15718/discog.2007.14.3.81 / Open access
Abstract:
This paper contributes to a better cross-linguistic and cross-cultural understanding of Korean ethnopsychology and Korean ways of thinking and feeling through a linguistic analysis of the culture-specific concept and emotion known as 정 ceng. It uses NSM to describe the meaning of 정 ceng as well as that of ceng tteleci- ‘be disgusted’, which is one of several fixed expressions containing the word 정 ceng.
It is widely agreed that 정 ceng reflects the essence of Korean psychology in both interpersonal relations and personality characteristics. Understanding the meaning of 정 ceng and of the fixed expressions containing 정 ceng in daily conversations is therefore critical for cultural outsiders of Korean culture, and in particular for language learners. The analysis is based on linguistic evidence collected from corpus and other resources as well as on previous research in Korean cultural psychology.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ceng tteleci-, (T) Korean, ceng 정
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2008). Contrastive semantics and cultural psychology: English heart vs. Malay hati. In Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, & Susanne Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body, and language: Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 75-102). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199109.2.75
Abstract:
This is a contrastive NSM analysis of two ethnopsychological constructs (English heart, Malay hati). Rejecting the use of English-specific metaterminology, such as mind, cognition, affect, etc., as both ethnocentric and inaccurate, the study seeks to articulate the conceptual content of the words under investigation in terms of simple universal concepts such as FEEL, THINK, WANT, KNOW, PEOPLE, SOMEONE, PART, BODY, HAPPEN, GOOD and BAD.
For both words, the physical body-part meaning is first explicated, and then the ethnopsychological sense or senses (it is claimed that English heart has two distinct ethnopsychological senses). The chapter also reviews the phraseology associated with each word, and in the case of English heart, proposes explications for a number of prominent collocations: a broken heart, listening to your heart, losing heart and having your heart in it.
The concluding discussion makes some suggestions about experiential/semantic principles whereby body parts can come to be associated with cultural models of feeling, thinking, wanting and knowing. At a theoretical level, the study seeks to draw links between culturally informed cognitive semantics, on the one hand, and the field of cultural psychology, on the other.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) hati, (E) head, (E) heart, (E) mind, (T) Malay
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 21, 2019.
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2008). The Korean conceptualization of heart: An indigenous perspective. In Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, & Susanne Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body, and language: Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 213-243). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199109.3.213
Abstract:
This chapter shows the possibility of understanding Korean ethnopsychology through culture-specific concepts, and at the same time provides evidence of cross-cultural and cross-linguistic variability in the conceptualization of human faculties and body parts.
It is widely agreed that the conceptualizations of body parts across languages and cultures may shed light on human cognition in general. This contribution attempts to establish the Korean cultural model of the heart. In Korean, there are three distinctive concepts corresponding to the English concept of heart: 심장 simcang, 가슴 kasum, and 몸 maum. These words are frequently used in daily conversation as well as in literature. Knowing their meanings is therefore crucial in understanding the Korean view on human faculties. These meanings are described here using NSM. The lexical semantic analysis of the three Korean concepts illustrates the Korean culture-specific way of conceptualizing human faculties related to the English concept of heart.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) kasum 가슴, (E) maum 몸, (E) simcang 심장, (T) Korean
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 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
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 22, 2019.
Mackenzie, Colin Peter (2014). Vernacular psychologies in Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
Open access
Abstract:
This thesis examines the vernacular psychology presented in Old Norse-Icelandic texts. It focuses on the concept ‘hugr’, generally rendered in English as ‘mind, soul, spirit’, and explores the conceptual relationships between emotion, cognition and the body. It argues that despite broad similarities, Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English vernacular psychology differ more than has previously been acknowledged. Furthermore, it shows that the psychology of Old Norse-Icelandic has less in common with its circumpolar neighbours than proposed by advocates of Old Norse-Icelandic shamanism.
The thesis offers a fresh interpretation of Old Norse-Icelandic psychology that does not rely on cross-cultural evidence from other Germanic or circumpolar traditions. It argues that emotion and cognition were not conceived of ‘hydraulically’ as was the case in Old English, and that ‘hugr’ was not thought to leave the body either in animal form or as a person’s breath. Old Norse-Icelandic psychology differs from the Old English tradition; it is argued that the Old English psychological model is a specific elaboration of the shared psychological inheritance of Germanic whose origins require further study. These differences between the two languages have implications for the study of psychological concepts in Proto-Germanic: there are fewer semantic components that can be reliably reconstructed for the common ancestor of the North and West Germanic languages.
As a whole, the thesis applies insights from cross-cultural linguistics and psychology to show how Old Norse-Icelandic psychological concepts differ not only from contemporary Germanic and circumpolar traditions but also from the present-day English concepts used to describe them.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) amae 甘え, (E) angry, (E) Ärger, (E) hati, (E) heart, (E) hugr, (E) maum 몸, (E) mind, (E) mōd, (E) sich ärgern, (E) sind, (E) think
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Levisen, Carsten & Jogie, Melissa Reshma (2015). The Trinidadian ‘theory of mind’: Personhood and postcolonial semantics. International Journal of Language and Culture, 2(2), 169-193.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.2.2.02lev
Abstract:
Taking a postcolonial approach to the semantics of personhood, this paper critically engages with Anglo-international discourses of the mind, exposing the conceptual stranglehold of the colonial language (i.e., English) and its distorting semantic grip on global discourse. It is argued that creole categories of values and personhood provide a new venue for critical mind studies as well as for new studies in creole semantics and cultural diversity.
The paper investigates the cultural semantics of a personhood construct in one particular creole. It analyses the lexical semantics of the word mind/mine in Trini (the English-based creole of Trinidad) and explores the wider cultural meanings of the concept in contrastive comparison with the Anglo concept. The analysis demonstrates that the Anglo concept is a cognitively oriented construct with a semantic configuration based on ‘thinking’ and ‘knowing’, whereas the Trinidadian mind is a moral concept configured around perceptions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. The paper explores the Trinidadian moral discourse of bad mind and good mind, and goes on to articulate a cultural script for the cultural values linked with personhood in the Trinidadian context.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) mind, (E) mine, (S) forgiveness, (S) judgment of others, (S) tolerance, (T) Trinidadian Creole
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2016). Two levels of verbal communication, universal and culture-specific. In Andrea Rocci, & Louis de Saussure (Eds.), Verbal communication (pp. 447-482). Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110255478-024
Abstract:
Models of the human person embedded in everyday language differ a great deal across languages, cultures and epochs, and often lead us to the heart of the shared cultural values of the speech communities where they are found. Even within European languages, there is considerable diversity. Remarkably, though, all human cultures appear to agree that human beings have a body, which is visible, and ‘something else’, which is not. Models of the human person differ with respect to the construal of that ‘something else’. For speakers of modern English, it is usually interpreted as the ‘mind’; and in the era of global English, the model of a human being as composed of a body and a mind is often taken for granted by Anglophone humanities and social sciences (and even by cognitive and evolutionary science).
Yet the ‘mind’ is a conceptual artefact of modern English – an ethno-construct no more grounded in reality than the French esprit, the Danish sind, the Russian душа duša, the Latin anima, or the Yolngu birrimbirr. The reification of the English ‘mind’ and its elevation to the status of a ‘scientific’ prism through which all other languages, cultures, indigenous psychologies, and even stages in the evolution of primates can be legitimately interpreted is a striking illustration of the blind spot in contemporary social science that results from the ‘invisibility’ of English as a more and more globalized way of speaking and thinking.
This paper demonstrates that the meanings hidden in such language-specific cultural constructs can be revealed and compared, in a precise and illuminating way, through the use of NSM. It also shows how the understanding of such culturally central concepts can lead to better communication across languages and cultures.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) anima, (E) birrimbirr, (E) khilyot-ay, (E) lib-i, (E) mind, (E) nepesh נֶ֫פֶשׁ, (E) psykhe Ψυχη
