Browsing results for Ethnosyntax

(1979) Ethnosyntax

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on November 9, 2020.

Wierzbicka, Anna (1979). Ethno-syntax and the philosophy of grammar. Studies in Language, 3(3), 313-383.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.3.3.03wie

Abstract:

It is a commonplace to say that every language embodies in its very structure a certain world-view, a certain philosophy. To prove it in a rigorous and verifiable way, however, is quite a different matter. Scholars tend to treat the Humboldtian
(or Whorfian) thesis — despite its compelling intuitive appeal — with suspicion and embarrassment. One suspects that this is precisely because, while being “obviously true”, it is at the same time notoriously difficult to prove.

This paper seeks to explore one way in which insight and rigour might be achieved in this intriguing area. The essence of this approach is signaled by the first word of the title: ethno-syntax. Since the syntactic constructions of  a language embody and codify certain language-specific meanings and ways of thinking, the syntax of a language must determine to a considerable extent this language’s cognitive profile. It is true that lexical items also embody language-specific ways of thinking. But the semantic analysis of an entire lexicon is a gigantic and practically unfeasible task; and a cognitive description of a language that confines itself to selected lexical items is usually open to the charge of being arbitrary and therefore inconclusive. In the case of syntactic constructions, on the other hand, there is more hope of surveying the entire
relevant areas. Moreover, syntactic constructions have on the whole a higher frequency of occurrence in speech than most categories of lexical items; they are also more stable, more resistant to change, less dependent on extra-linguistic
factors. For all these reasons it appears that a rigorous syntactic analysis of language-specific syntactic categories should provide an especially valuable source of insight into the common ways of thinking characteristic of a given speech community.

Translated into Polish as chapter 10 of:

Wierzbicka, Anna (1999). Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

No abstract available.

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(2002) English – LET

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 6, 2018.

Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). English causative constructions in an ethnosyntactic perspective: Focusing on LET. In Nick Enfield (Ed.), Ethnosyntax (pp. 162-203). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266500.003.0008

A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 6 (pp. 171-203) of:

Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). English: Meaning and culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

This chapter focuses on one area of ‘cultural elaboration’ in grammar, namely, on the elaboration of causal relations in modern English. Topics discussed include causation and patterns of social interaction, Natural Semantic Metalanguage as a tool for studying ethnosyntax, the meaning of causatives in a cross-linguistic perspective, German lassen constructions, and English let constructions, and comparison of Russian and German.


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(2002) Ethnosyntax, ethnopragmatics

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 3, 2018.

Goddard, Cliff (2002). Ethnosyntax, ethnopragmatics, sign-functions, and culture. In N. J. Enfield (Ed.) Ethnosyntax: Explorations in grammar and culture (pp. 52-73). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266500.003.0003

This chapter articulates and discusses the concept of ethnosyntax from the standpoint of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory of Anna Wierzbicka and colleagues. It recognizes two senses of the term ‘ethnosyntax’: a narrow sense referring to culture-related semantic content encoded in morphosyntax, and a broad sense encompassing a much wider range of phenomena in which grammar and culture may be related. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 3.1 discusses ethnosyntax in the narrow sense, illustrating it with a slightly reinterpreted version of some of Wierzbicka’s classic work on ‘fatalism’ in Russian grammar. Section 3.2 discusses the relationship between ethnosyntax and ethnopragmatics, drawing on the NSM theory of cultural scripts. Section 3.3 argues for the importance of recognizing that language involves different kinds of sign-function — semantic (symbolic), iconic, indexical — and asks how we can deal with ethnosyntactic connections in the field of iconic-indexical meaning. Section 3.4 broadens the focus further in an effort to situate ethnosyntax in a large semiotic theory of culture, but argues that a semiotic concept of culture is not viable unless it adequately recognizes iconic and indexical, as well as semantic phenomena.

 

(2010) French – UN X PEUT EN CACHER UN AUTRE

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.

Peeters, Bert (2010). “Un X peut en cacher un autre”: étude ethnosyntaxique [“Un X peut en cacher un autre”: An ethnosyntactic investigation]. In F. Neveu, V. Muni Toke, T. Klingler, J. Durand, L. Mondada & S. Prévost (Eds.), CMLF 2010 – 2ème Congrès mondial de linguistique française (pp. 1753-1775). Paris: EDP Sciences. DOI: 10.1051/cmlf/2010056

(2013) Ethnosyntax

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 25, 2019.

Gladkova, Anna (2013). Grammar and the influence of society and culture. In Carol A. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics (pp. 2355-2362). Oxford: Blackwell.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0471

Abstract:

Language is highly sensitive to cultural and societal processes. Grammatically elaborated areas of a language commonly embed meanings or ideas that are particularly salient in the collective psyche of a people. Knowledge of these meanings or ideas can equip cultural outsiders with more effective and successful tools of communication with the representatives of the culture.

This encyclopedia entry provides some examples of studies illustrating the cultural significance of grammar within the approach of ethnosyntax. These investigations are of particular importance to applied linguistics in general and language teaching in particular. The proposed explications (referred to as formulas) can be applied in language teaching to explain meanings and use of grammatical constructions. The use of universal human concepts makes it possible to translate these explications into any language without any change in meaning.

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(2015) English, Russian – Ethnosyntax

Published on April 28, 2018. Last updated on June 25, 2019.

Gladkova, Anna (2015). Grammatical structures in cross-cultural comparisons. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 19(4), 57-68.

Open access

Abstract:

This paper discusses how cultural information is embedded at the level of grammar. It treats grammar as inseparable from semantics and pragmatics. The study is done within the approach known as ethnosyntax. The article provides examples of cultural meaning embedded at the level of syntax relying on examples from Russian and English. In particular, it demonstrates variation in impersonal constructions in Russian (linked up with the cultural themes of ‘irrationality’ and ‘unpredictability’) and causative constructions in English (linked up with the cultural ideas of ‘personal autonomy’ and ‘non-imposition’). It then discusses variation in the use of grammatical structures due to the influence of cultural factors on the basis of ways of wording requests in English and Russian.

The linguistic examples in the discussion are sourced from the Russian National Corpus for Russian and Collins Wordbanks Online for English. The article argues for the importance of culture-sensitive linguistic studies in language teaching.

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(2015) Ethnosyntax

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 25, 2019.

Gladkova, Anna (2015). Ethnosyntax. In Farzad Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 33-50). New York: Routledge.

Abstract:

The author provides an account of research on ethnosyntax, the study of how syntax, including morphology, encodes culture. Maintaining that the theoretical foundations of ethnosyntax were laid by Sapir and Whorf, she makes a distinction between a narrow and a broad sense of ethnosyntax. Ethnosyntax in the narrow sense explores cultural meanings of particular grammatical structures, whereas ethnosyntax in the broad sense examines how pragmatic and cultural norms influence the choice of grammatical structures. Several examples are provided for each approach. As an example of morpho-syntax encoding cultural meaning, the author presents the case of Russian, where address forms often reveal attitudes of endearment and intimacy encoded by a diminutive. As an example of the second broader sense, she compares request speech acts in Russian and English, and examines how these languages employ different grammatical structures to perform the same speech act and how this usage is compatible with broader cultural norms.

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(2020) Swedish — List constructions

Published on January 10, 2022. Last updated on January 10, 2022.

Karlsson, Susanna. (2020). The Meanings of List Constructions: Explicating Interactional Polysemy. In Mullan, Kerry; Peeters, Bert; & Sadow, Lauren (Eds.). Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis. Singapore: Springer. pp. 223–240.

 

Abstract:

This chapter engages in the semantic explication of lists in Swedish. For this study, the author analyses lists found in a corpus of naturally occurring tele- phone conversations between friends. The study combines the framework of the natural semantic metalanguage approach with the analytical methods of interac- tional linguistics. The aim of the study is to contribute to the knowledge about how the manner of coordination contributes to our understanding of lists and how the respective list items are meant to be understood to relate to one another. In Swedish conversation, lists come in two syntactic formats: one where the conjunction is produced before the listed item and one where the conjunction comes after the item. There are also two prosodic formats: one that indicates a closed set and one that indicates an open set. The combination of the syntactic and prosodic formats results into three basic types. Explications using the natural semantic metalanguage reveal not only that the list formats display the relationship between the listed items differently but also that the speaker can draw upon the different formats to display an interpersonal stance towards what the other participants can be expected to know or understand about the list. The explications contribute to a heightened under- standing of the differences as well as the similarities of the three list types.

(2021) French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, English — Pain, headaches, syntax

Published on January 15, 2022. Last updated on January 17, 2022.

Sadow, Lauren, and Peeters, Bert. (2021). “J’ai mal à la tête” and analogous phrases in Romance languages and in English [« J’ai mal à la tête et expressions analogues dans les langues romanes et en anglais »], Cahiers de lexicologie, n° 119, 2021 – 2, Lexique et corps humain, p. 207-233

DOI : 10.48611/isbn.978-2-406-12812-0.p.0207

Written in English

Résumé

L’existence de constructions syntaxiques différentes pour des phrases ayant le un sens similaire n’est pas le fruit du hasard. Nous utiliserons la métalangue sémantique naturelle pour expliquer les différentes constructions des “expressions de céphalées” courantes en français, italien, espagnol, roumain et anglais. Les explications permettront de mieux comprendre comment les locuteurs conceptualisent leurs maux de tête au quotidien, et comment leur choix de syntaxe modifie le sens de l’expression.

Abstract

The existence of different syntactic configurations for phrases with similar meanings is not by chance. In this paper, we will use the natural semantic metalanguage to offer explications for the different syntactic constructions of common “headache phrases” in French, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, English. The explications will allow us to better understand how the speakers of each language conceptualize their day-to-day headaches, and how their choice of syntax changes the expression’s meaning.

 


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