Wierzbicka, Anna (1967). On the semantics of the verbal aspect in Polish. In Robert Abernathy et al. (Eds.), To honor Roman Jakobson: Essays on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. Vol. 3 (pp. 2231-2249). The Hague: Mouton.
(1979) Japanese – Grammatical categories
Wierzbicka, Anna (1979). Are grammatical categories vague or polysemous? (The Japanese ‘adversative’ passive in a typological context). Papers in Linguistics, 12(1/2), 111-162.
DOI: 10.1080/08351817909370466
Abstract:
The number of meanings that the syntax of a language codifies is usually fairly large. The number of available morphological devices is usually much smaller. It is therefore not surprising that languages make the same morphological devices perform a variety of tasks. Seen against this background, the Japanese passive has to be recognized as multiply ambiguous – or, in other words, multifunctional. How do hearers determine which particular meaning a speaker had in mind in any given utterance?
While real ambiguity does occur, in the vast majority of cases utterances contain a sufficient number of clues to guide hearers towards the correct (i.e. intended) interpretation of any given instance of the Japanese passive. Clues that help disambiguate Japanese passive constructions are listed, and it is argued that grammatical categories in general (i.e. including the Japanese passive) are polysemous rather than vague.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 4 (pp. 257-292) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). The semantics of grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
(1986) Australian Aboriginal languages – Grammatical categories and constructions
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). Semantics and the interpretation of cultures: The meaning of ‘alternate generations’ devices in Australian languages. Man, 21, 34-49.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2802645
Abstract:
This article aims to reveal the real meaning of some devices that play a crucial role in the linguistic communication of Australian Aborigines. The elements in question include alternative sets of pronouns, determined by the principle of ‘generation harmony’. It is argued that technical labels such as ‘harmonic’ and ‘disharmonic’ reflect the anthropologist’s rather than the native speaker’s point of view. As an alternative to the use of arcane, and psychologically arbitrary, semantic metalanguage widely used in anthropological and linguistic literature, a semantic metalanguage is proposed, based on a postulated system of universal semantic prim(itiv)es. The interpretation of cultures requires more than translation of native categories into an arcane technical language of the scientist; an analytical framework is proposed by which native categories of thought can be translated into a language that makes it possible (i) to capture native speakers’ meaning, and (2) to make that meaning accessible to people from other cultures.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Chapter 10 (pp. 355-370) 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
(1986) English (Australia) – Language and culture
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). Does language reflect culture? Evidence from Australian English. Language in Society, 15, 349-374.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500011805
Abstract:
This paper attempts to demonstrate direct links between Australian language and other aspects of Australian culture. The existence of such links – intuitively obvious and yet notoriously hard to prove – is often rejected in the name of scientific rigour. Nonetheless, the problem continues to exercise fascination over scholars, as it does over the general public. The author proposes ways in which the linguist’s methodological tools can be sharpened so that the apparently untractable and yet fundamental issues of language as a ‘guide to social reality’ can be studied in ways that are both linguistically precise and culturally revealing. Linguistic phenomena such as expressive derivation, illocutionary devices and speech act verbs are related to the literature on the Australian society, national character, history and culture.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Chapter 11 (pp. 373-394) 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
(1988) The semantics of grammar [BOOK]
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). The semantics of grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.18
Abstract:
This book presents a radically semantic approach to syntax and morphology. It offers a methodology that makes it possible to demonstrate, on an empirical basis, that syntax is neither autonomous nor arbitrary, but that it follows from semantics. It is shown that every grammatical construction encodes a certain semantic structure, which can be revealed and rigorously stated, so that the meanings encoded in grammar can be compared in a precise and illuminating way, within one language and across language boundaries. The author develops a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primes) and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language. She thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations.
Analysing data from a number of different languages, the author also explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She demonstrates that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.
Table of contents:
I. The semantics of syntax
1. The semantics of English complementation in a cross-linguistic perspective
2. Ethno-syntax and the philosophy of grammar
3. The semantics of causative constructions in a cross-linguistic perspective
4. The Japanese ‘adversative’ passive in a typological context (Are grammatical categories vague or multiply polysemous?)
5. Why can you have a drink when you can’t *have an eat?
6. The semantics of ‘internal dative’ in English
II. The semantics of morphology
7. The meaning of a case: a study of the Polish dative
8. The semantics of case marking
9. What’s in a noun? (Or: How do nouns differ in meaning from adjectives?)
10. Oats and wheat: mass nouns, iconicity, and human categorization
More information:
Chapter 2 builds on: Ethno-syntax and the philosophy of grammar (1979)
Chapter 4 builds on: Are grammatical categories vague or polysemous? The Japanese ‘adversative’ passive in a typological context (1979)
Chapter 5 builds on: Why can you have a drink when you can’t *have an eat? (1982)
Chapter 6 builds on: The semantics of ‘internal dative’ in English (1986)
Chapter 7 builds on: The meaning of a case: A study of the Polish dative (1986)
Chapter 8 builds on: The semantics of case marking (1983)
Chapter 9 builds on: What’s in a noun? (Or: How do nouns differ in meaning from adjectives?) (1986)
Chapter 10 builds on: Oats and wheat: The fallacy of arbitrariness (1985)
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags listed below are in addition to those listed at the end of the entries for the earlier work on which this book builds.
(2000) Grammatical categories
Wierzbicka, Anna (2000). Lexical prototypes as a universal basis for cross-linguistic identification of “parts of speech”. In Petra M. Vogel, & Bernard Comrie (Eds.), Approaches to the typology of word classes (pp. 285-318). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110806120.285
Abstract:
According to the hypothesis outlined in this paper, so-called ‘parts of speech’ can be defined and compared across languages on the basis of certain universal exemplars. It is interesting to note, however, that the approach based on exemplars can be combined, to some extent, with considerations based on universal syntax — that is, on combinatorial and substitutional properties of classes based on lexical universals. On the basis of the present cursory examination of the traditional parts of speech, and of some of their modern extensions, it is hypothesized that word classes with a wider typological significance can always be expected to have some universal syntactic properties. The most important point, however, is that to be an effective tool in the description and comparison of languages, the metalanguage of linguistics must be based on empirically established linguistic universals; this applies to parts of speech as much as to any other aspect of linguistic typology and linguistic description.
Translations:
Into Russian:
Chapter 4 (pp. 134-170) of Вежбицкая, Анна (1999), Семантические универсалии и описание языков [Semantic universals and the description of languages]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки русской культуры [Languages of Russian Culture].
Chapter 7 (pp. 216-254) of Вежбицкая, Анна (2011), Семантические универсалии и базисные концепты [Semantic universals and basic concepts]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки славянских культуры [Languages of Slavic Culture].
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2003) English – Grammatical categories and constructions
Goddard, Cliff (2003). Yes or no? The complex semantics of a simple question. In Peter Collins, & Mengistu Amberber (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2002 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. Online.
Abstract:
This short paper investigates the semantics of yes/no questions, using the reductive paraphrase methodology of the NSM approach. It is shown that the apparent simplicity of yes/no questions is illusory, and that yes/no questions can be decomposed – both semantically and syntactically – into simpler structures.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2020) Danish – Grammatical categories & constructions
Levisen, Carsten (2020). Postcolonial prepositions: semantics and popular geopolitics in the Danosphere. In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 169-186). Singapore: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7_9
Abstract:
This study breaks new ground in the semantics of ‘popular geopolitics’. With a case study on two Danish prepositions, i and på, both of which are important for the Danish construal of Greenland, the study develops a new analysis of the popular geopolitics that guide Danish ways of thinking about Greenland. Empirically, the study relies on evidence from social media discourse, which is subjected to the NSM method of analysis. The aim is to provide semantic explications for the two prepositional phrases i Grønland ‘in Greenland’ and på Grønland ‘on Greenland’, and to articulate the cultural scripts that allow speakers to ascribe geopolitical meaning to these prepositions. Drawing on Goddard’s seminal work on spatial semantics, place constructs and ethnopragmatics, the paper develops a postcolonial semantic account of Danish ‘preposition talk’. It is shown that the two prepositions have come to stand for two different Danish attitudes towards Greenland, in short, the på-attitude, which emphasizes Greenland’s ‘Islandness’, and the i-attitude, which emphasizes Greenland as a country among other countries.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2020) Ewe, Longgu – Opening
Ameka, Felix K. and Deborah Hill. (2020). The comparative semantics of verbs of ‘opening’: West Africa vs Oceania. In Bromhead, Helen and Zhengdao Ye (eds.). Meaning, Life and Culture. Canberra: ANU Press pp 33-59
DOI: http://doi.org/10.22459/MLC.2020.02 (Open Access)
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2020) Swedish — List constructions
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) Minimal English – Language Revitalisation
Machin, Elita (2021). Minimal English and Revitalisation Education: Assisting Linguists to Explain Grammar in Simple, Everyday Words. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 83-107
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_4
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
