Browsing results for Broad topics
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 17, 2018.
Gladkova, Anna (2005). Sočuvstvie and sostradanie: A semantic study of two Russian emotions. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. Lidil, 32. 35-47. PDF (open access)
Semantic analysis of the word сочувствие sočuvstvie (usually translated into English as ‘sympathy’) shows that it is a complex feeling caused by the awareness of a negative emotional state of another person associated with some misfortunate event and resulting in the sharing of this negative emotional state. When experiencing сочувствие sočuvstvie, a person develops a positive attitude towards another person who is in trouble due to the desire to stop the negative emotional experience of that person and to do something good for that person. Cочувствие sočuvstvie is characterized by the desire to reveal this attitude to the suffering person.
Cострадание sostradanie (usually translated into English as ‘compassion’) has the same semantic structure as сочувствие sočuvstvie, but it is characterized by a stronger character of emotional experience of another person and a consequent stronger negative feeling of the one who feels cострадание sostradanie. The component of showing one’s attitude and feeling is absent in cострадание sostradanie.
Cочувствие sočuvstvie and cострадание sostradanie are important cultural words that support the idea of the significant role of emotional expressions in Russian language and culture. They also extend the value ascribed to communal actions and states to the importance of sharing the negative emotional experiences of others.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) sočuvstvie сочувствие, (E) sostradanie сострадание
Published on July 1, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2005). Reflections on the new Introduction of Anna Wierzbicka’s Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: The Semantics of Human Interaction (2nd edn, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter). RASK, 22, 111-122.
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 October 18, 2018.
Travis, Catherine E. (2005). Discourse markers in Colombian Spanish: A study in polysemy. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
This book, a revised version of the author’s PhD thesis (Latrobe University, Melbourne, 2001) presents a semantic analysis of a set of four functionally related discourse particles that are particularly frequent in conversational Colombian Spanish. A corpus of four hours of spontaneous conversation is used to study the markers bueno ‘well, OK’, pues ‘well, then’, o sea ‘I mean, that is to say’ and entonces ‘so, then’.
Through a detailed analysis of numerous examples drawn from the corpus, and employing both quantitative and qualitative techniques, it is demonstrated that, contrary to popular belief, discourse particles are not just functional particles with indeterminate or context-based semantics. Rather, they have inherent meanings that can be identified and exhaustively defined with an appropriate semantic methodology, such as is provided by the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. This study illustrates that this approach, which has been widely applied to the semantics of the lexicon and the grammar, can be extended to the semantics of discourse-based features, supporting the notion that meaning of all aspects of language forms one semantic system. The author proposes four different meanings for bueno, three related meanings for o sea, three core meanings for entonces, and two-way polysemy for pues.
The research reported here also has implications for the study of polysemy, in that it operationalizes the little understood, but classical definition of polysemy of items with “a shared element of meaning”, and it demonstrates that the polysemous relations of discourse markers are centered around an invariant core that can be identified on the basis of their use in discourse. As one of the first corpus-based studies to present a semantic account of the multifunctional nature of discourse markers this book makes an important contribution to research on the relationship between semantics and discourse-pragmatics, and polysemy in discourse.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bueno, (E) entonces, (E) o sea, (E) pues
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2005). There are no “color universals” but there are universals of visual semantics. Anthropological Linguistics, 47(2), 217-244. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25132327
The search for the “universals of colour” that was initiated by Berlin and Kay’s classic book is based on the assumption that there can be, and indeed that there are, some conceptual universals of colour. This article brings new evidence, new analyses, and new arguments against the Berlin and Kay paradigm, and offers a radically different alternative to it. The new data on which the argument is based come, in particular, from Australian languages, as well as from Polish and Russian. The article deconstructs the concept of “colour,” and shows how indigenous visual descriptors can be analysed without reference to colour, on the basis of identifiable visual prototypes and the universal concept of seeing. It also offers a model for analysing semantic change and variation from “the native’s point of view”.
Tags: (E) blue, (E) colour, (E) goluboj, (E) gungaltja, (E) gungarlcha, (E) gungundja, (E) gungunyja, (E) maru-maru, (E) niebieski, (E) shiny, (E) sinij, (E) yukuri-yukuri
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 17, 2018.
Wong, Jock Onn (2006). Social hierarchy in the “speech culture” of Singapore. In: Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context (pp. 99-125). Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110911114.99
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 3 (pp. 57-93) of:
Wong, Jock O. (2014). The Culture of Singapore English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139519519
The linguistic evidence of forms of address in Anglo English suggests that one of the prominent values of Anglo culture is that of egalitarianism. People from Anglo culture are inclined to view fellow interlocutors as social equals, rather than placing them at various levels on a social hierarchy. Many parents who consider themselves progressive encourage and accept being addressed by their children by means of their first names. This may be part of the general trend towards the suppression of asymmetric (non-reciprocal) relations which can be observed throughout the Western world.
The linguistic evidence in Singapore English, on the other hand, points to something quite different. The use of certain cultural key words suggests that in Singapore culture a person’s generational status in relation to oneself is culturally significant and determines the kind of interaction that would take place between two speakers. This means that when two Singapore English speakers of different generations interact, subject to other sociolinguistic factors such as social status, the younger interlocutor would be expected to exhibit deference for age through the use of appropriate forms of address and other linguistic devices. These two interlocutors would normally not interact on an equal footing.
This study examines three Singapore English cultural key words that reflect this emphasis on generational status with respect to self. They are the social honorific Aunty, the Singapore English-specific speech act verb call, and the child-oriented adjective guāi, roughly ‘well behaved’. The meaning of each of these words is stated in the form of a reductive paraphrase using Natural Semantic Metalanguage. On the basis of meaning, the cultural values reflected by the use of these words are discussed.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Aunty (vocative), (E) Aunty + personal name, (E) call, (E) guāi 乖, (S) interaction, (S) relationships
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). On folk conceptions of mind, agency and morality. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 6(1/2), 165-179. DOI: 10.1163/156853706776931286
This paper is part of a special issue on folk conceptions of mind, agency and morality. It consists of four parts, in which the author comments on the topic at large, then singles out three of the papers in it for further comment. At the end of the first part, she makes the following main points, which apply, in one way or the other, to all papers in the special issue.
- To compare folk conceptions or folk concepts of any kind we need a tertium comparationis, that is, a culture-independent semantic metalanguage.
- English cannot serve as such a metalanguage, because like any other natural language, it is itself saturated with culture-specific folk conceptions.
- A culture-independent metalanguage in which unbiased comparisons can be carried out is available in “NSM”, that is, the Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
- Language is a key issue in all cross-cultural research and all research that has as its subject human cognition. No matter how broad the empirical basis of a cross-cultural study, or the study into human cognition, is, if this study does not pay attention to the language in which its hypotheses and analyses are formulated, it is likely to impose on the data an ethnocentric perspective. Such ethnocentrism may have been unavoidable in the past, before it was known what the universal, culture-independent human concepts were. Now that this is known, however, it is no longer unavoidable. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage is available as a tested analytical tool for anyone who would wish to engage in a study of human speech practices, and human cognition, in an unbiased and maximally (if not entirely) culture-independent way. The effectiveness of this tool has been demonstrated in hundreds of analyses, carried out by many scholars across a broad spectrum of languages, cultures, and conceptual domains.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) personhood
Published on August 3, 2018. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Harris, Petrina A. (2006). Someone feels something good: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to defining Burmese positive emotions. Master’s thesis, Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, Dallas.
Held at the GIAL library, call number “495.80143 H315s 2006”.
Published on May 7, 2018. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
黄囗盈 [Wong, Suet Ying] (2006). 新加坡华语会话中的语气词’leh’之硏究 [The ‘leh’ Particle in Singapore Mandarin]. BA(Hons) thesis. Singapore: National University of Singapore.
The abundant usage of particles in conversation is one of the most distinctive features of Singapore linguistic culture. It is typical for the conversations of Singaporeans to be littered with particles, whether they are speaking in English or Mandarin. These particles are loaded with pragmatic meanings. Many studies have been carried out throughout the years to explicate the meanings and functions they carry. However, the usage of such particles in conversation often makes no sense to foreigners.
Moreover, most studies have investigated the usage of particles in the context of Singapore English (Singlish) conversation, but are oblivious to the fact that the phenomenon is equally significant in Singapore Mandarin conversation.
This study looks at the particle leh in Singapore Mandarin conversation. Its aim is to investigate the inherent meaning of leh within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework, as well as the functions that come with the different lexical tones of leh, using data from natural conversation. Lastly, the phonetic changes of leh in Singapore Mandarin are also examined.
Tags: (E) leh
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2006). Why are there two ‘joy-like’ ‘basic’ emotions in Chinese? Semantic theory and empirical findings. In Paolo Santangelo & Donatella Guida (Eds.), Love, hatred and other passions: Questions and themes on emotions in Chinese civilisation (pp. 59-80). Leiden: Brill.
Among different versions of ‘basic emotions’ based on English, it is uncommon for two emotions from the same cognitive domain of ‘something good happened’ to appear side by side on the same list. The two Chinese emotion terms xi and le, on the other hand, often appear together on lists of basic Chinese emotions. Thus, these ‘twin’ qingganzi have been chosen in the hope of answering a question that few have raised, that is, why are there two basic emotions belonging to this ‘joy-like’ category in Chinese? An in-depth analysis of the meaning of these so-called ‘basic’ emotions (within the Chinese language, and between Chinese and English) not only sheds light on the ‘basic’ Chinese emotional experience, but also has implications for the discussion of whether there are emotions ‘basic’ to people from all cultures, an issue that has been widely debated in studies of emotions.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) le 樂, (E) xi 喜
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 17, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). The semantics of colour: A new paradigm. In Carole P. Biggam, & Christian J. Kay (Eds.), Progress in colour studies: Vol. 1. Language and culture (pp. 1-24). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/z.pics1.05wie
Abstract:
To be able to establish the true universals of visual semantics we must first of all reject the ones that are false. Above all, we must reject the widespread view that there are some ‘colour universals’, whether absolute or implicational. There are no ‘colour universals’ because ‘colour’ itself is not a universal concept. What is universal is the concept of SEEing. SEEing, not colour, must be the starting point, and the cornerstone, of our investigations.
It appears that in all languages there are visual descriptors referring to some features of the natural environment. Apart from such universal or widespread environmental features, all languages appear to have visual descriptors referring to some features of the local environment, in particular to visually salient local minerals and other pigments, especially those that can be used for painting, decoration, or dyeing. It also appears that in all languages there are some visual descriptors linked to the human (and sometimes animal) body. In addition to such commonalities in the visual descriptors, there is also a wide variety of more restricted and even idiosyncratic types.
To understand the human conceptualization of the visual world in both its diversity and its commonalities, we need to recognize the role of environmental and bodily prototypes recurring in human experience (such as fire, sun, blood, sky and grass), and to base our analysis on the bedrock of universal human concepts; and it is only on this basis that we can hope to arrive at a tenable and enduring synthesis.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) gungaltja, (E) gungundja, (E) piros, (E) red, (E) vörös
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on November 11, 2018.
Junker, Marie-Odile, & Blacksmith, Louise (2006). Are there emotional universals? Evidence from the Native American language East Cree. Culture & Psychology, 12(3), 275-303. DOI: 10.1177/1354067X06061590
In her study on emotions across languages and cultures, Wierzbicka proposed a set of eleven working hypotheses on emotional universals. We test each of these hypotheses against data newly collected from the Native American language East Cree. Eight of these eleven hypotheses are confirmed, thus giving support to their universality. We offer cross-cultural comparison of anger-like, fear-like and shame-like concepts, and discuss the Cree expression of good and bad feelings, cry and smile, and Cree emotive interjections. Our findings indicate that not all languages commonly use figurative bodily images (‘my heart sank’) or bodily sensations (‘when I heard this, my throat went dry’) to describe cognitively based feelings. The Cree data also cast some doubt on a straightforward universal syntax for combining the primes, as proposed in the current Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework. However, we conclude that, for researchers interested in avoiding ethnocentric bias, the NSM approach is on the right track as a tool for cross-cultural, cross-linguistic research on emotions.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) âhwesâ, (E) chekw mei, (E) eheh, (E) ekwesâ, (E) entâpwe, (E) heh, (E) m, (E) mâ, (E) machimanitû, (E) mâtû, (E) michisch, (E) pâhpû, (E) sâ, (E) seh, (T) East Cree
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on November 17, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). Anglo scripts against “putting pressure” on other people and their linguistic manifestations. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context (31-63). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110911114.31
Translated into Russian as:
Анна Вежбицкая (2007). Англоязычные сценарии против «давления» на других людей и их лингвистические манифестации. Жанры речи [Speech genres], 5.
No abstract available.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 27, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). “Experience” in John Searle’s account of the mind: Brain, mind and Anglo culture. Intercultural Pragmatics, 3(3), 241-255. DOI: 10.1515/IP.2006.016
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 2 (pp. 25-93) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). Experience, evidence, and sense: The hidden cultural legacy of English. New York: Oxford University Press.
This paper is part of a larger study that focuses on the word experience and its semantic history. Its main point is that this word plays now, and has played for a long time, an extremely important role in the thought world associated with the English language, and that the changes in its use and meanings reflect, and provide evidence for, important cultural developments. The study argues that, to understand Anglo culture and see it in a historical and comparative perspective, we need to understand the meanings and the history of the word experience. It also argues that, given the role of English in present-day science and the importance of experience in present-day English, we need to understand the cultural underpinnings of this English key word.
The word experience plays a vital role in the ways of thinking of speakers of English; it provides a prism through which they tend to interpret the world. Its range of use is very wide and includes a number of distinct senses. However, through several of these senses (the more recent ones) runs a common theme, which reflects a characteristically ‘‘Anglo’’ perspective on the world and on human life. This is why the word experience is often untranslatable into other languages, even European, without being semantically distorted.
What, then, does the English key word experience mean and how exactly does it differ from its closest counterparts in other languages or in earlier varieties of English?
To answer such questions, one needs to engage in some rigorous semantic analysis, both synchronic and diachronic. This requires a suitable methodology such as that provided by the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 1, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). The concept of ‘dialogue’ in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. Discourse Studies, 8(5), 675-703.
DOI: 10.1177/1461445606067334
Abstract:
‘Dialogue’ is an important concept in the contemporary world. It plays a very significant role in English public discourse, and through English, or mainly through English, it has spread throughout the world. For example, the dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi calls for ‘reconciliation and dialogue’ in Burma (or so she is reported to have done in English language news reports), the Russian pro-democracy groups ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to ‘begin a dialogue’ with them, Popes Paul VI and John Paul II are praised for opening the Catholic Church to a ‘dialogue’ with other Christian churches and other faiths (or criticized for not going far enough in this direction), and so on.
But what exactly does the word dialogue mean? NSM is used in this paper in an attempt to answer that question.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) dialogue, (E) threaten, (E) warn
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 27, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). English: Meaning and culture. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174748.001.0001
It is widely accepted that English is the first truly global language and lingua franca. Its dominance has even led to its use and adaptation by local communities for their own purposes and needs. One might see English in this context as being simply a neutral, universal vehicle for the expression of local thoughts and ideas. In fact, English words and phrases have embedded in them a wealth of cultural baggage that is invisible to most native speakers.
Anna Wierzbicka, a distinguished linguist known for her theories of semantics, has written the first book that connects the English language with what she terms “Anglo” culture. Wierzbicka points out that language and culture are not just interconnected, but inseparable. This is evident to non-speakers trying to learn puzzling English expressions. She uses original research to investigate the “universe of meaning” within the English language (both grammar and vocabulary) and places it in historical and geographical perspective. For example, she looks at the history of the terms “right” and “wrong” and how with the influence of the Reformation “right” came to mean “correct.” She examines the ideas of “fairness” and “reasonableness” and shows that, far from being cultural universals, they are in fact unique creations of modern English.
Table of contents
PART I MEANING, HISTORY, AND CULTURE
1. English as a cultural universe
2. Anglo cultural scripts seen through Middle Eastern eyes
PART II ENGLISH WORDS
3. The story of RIGHT and WRONG and its cultural implications
4. Being REASONABLE: A key Anglo value and its cultural roots
5. Being FAIR: Another key Anglo value and its cultural underpinnings
PART III ANGLO CULTURE REFLECTED IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR
6. The English causatives: Causation and interpersonal relations
7. I THINK: The rise of epistemic phrases in Modern English
8. PROBABLY: English epistemic adverbs and their cultural significance
PART IV CONCLUSION
9. The “cultural baggage” of English and its significance in the world at large
Chapter 3 builds on: Right and wrong: From philosophy to everyday discourse” (2002)
Chapter 6 builds on: English causative constructions in an ethnosyntactic perspective: Focusing on LET (2002)
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.
Tags: (E) (bare imperative), (E) (tag question), (E) (whimperative), (E) allegedly, (E) apparently, (E) assume, (E) believe, (E) believe (+ clause), (E) believe that, (E) bet, (E) certainly, (E) clearly, (E) conceivably, (E) doubt, (E) evidently, (E) expect, (E) facts, (E) fair, (E) find, (E) force (someone to do somthing), (E) gather (+ clause), (E) get (someone to do something), (E) guess (+ clause), (E) have (someone do something), (E) imagine, (E) indeed, (E) justice, (E) lie, (E) likely, (E) make (someone do something), (E) not fair, (E) obviously, (E) of course, (E) possibly, (E) presumably, (E) presume, (E) presume (+ clause), (E) probable, (E) probably, (E) reasonable, (E) reportedly, (E) sense, (E) suppose (+ clause), (E) supposedly, (E) surely, (E) suspect, (E) take it, (E) think (+ clause), (E) understand, (E) undoubtedly, (E) unreasonable, (S) accuracy, (S) agreement, (S) bare imperatives, (S) critical thinking, (S) demands, (S) directives, (S) emotions, (S) exaggeration, (S) expectations, (S) factuality, (S) good vs. bad, (S) I think vs I know, (S) justification, (S) literal meaning, (S) non-exaggeration, (S) opinions, (S) personal autonomy, (S) pressure, (S) silence, (S) think first, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2006). “Lift your game Martina!”: Deadpan jocular irony and the ethnopragmatics of Australian English. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context (pp. 65-97). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110911114.65
Translated into Russian as:
Годдард, Клифф (2007). «Играй лучше, Мартина!» (ирония «с каменным лицом» и этнопрагматика австралийского варианта английского языка). Жанры речи [Speech genres], 5, 159-183.
The aim of this study is to describe, contextualize and interpret the Australian speech practice the author refers to as ‘deadpan jocular irony’, using cultural scripts and other techniques of ethnopragmatic analysis. One theoretical concern will be to distinguish different formats for cultural scripts of different types. In particular, a distinction will be made between two kinds: those which capture certain social attitudes and values and thus have implications for language use, and those of a more specialized nature which directly concern ways of speaking and word usage. In this latter category fall scripts for different species of sarcasm and irony, as well as for a range of other rhetorical phenomena such as hyperbole, euphemism, and many others.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wong, Jock (2006). Contextualizing aunty in Singaporean English. World Englishes, 25(3/4), 451-466. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-971X.2006.00481.x
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 4 (pp. 94-138) of:
Wong, Jock O. (2014). The culture of Singapore English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139519519
Presumably, in any culture, people who are perceived to be different from some ‘mainstream’ majority are categorized in some way and assigned a label. Such ‘cultural’ categories can be complimentary or, usually, pejorative and are therefore good indicators of cultural attitudes and values. We can learn a lot about a culture through the semantic study of its cultural categories. In Singapore English, the social honorifics aunty and uncle are used by extension as cultural categories to refer, somewhat unflatteringly, to a distinct kind of people. Yet, ironically, the use of these terms also reflects deference for age and thus indicates the speakers’ mixed feelings towards the objects of their reference. In this paper, the meaning of the word aunty is described in the form of a reductive paraphrase using Natural Semantic Metalanguage. On the basis of meaning, the contrastive cultural attitudes reflected by the use of the word are explored.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) aunty
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (2006). Ethnopragmatics: A new paradigm. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context (pp. 1-30). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110911114.1
In this introductory chapter, it is argued that, for many years, the dominant paradigm in linguistic pragmatics was strongly universalist: human communication was seen as largely governed by a rich and substantive inventory of universal principles. Fortunately, concern with culture-internal accounts of speech practices and with the profound “cultural shaping” of speech practices has refused to go away over the long period of universalist dominance. In recent years, there have been signs that the tide is turning, as the weaknesses of the universalist paradigm, especially its ethnocentrism, terminological slipperiness and descriptive inadequacy, have attracted mounting criticism. Nevertheless, the field of pragmatics as a whole still suffers from a remarkable degree of “culture blindness”.
In sharp contrast, the studies in this volume start from the premise that speech practices are best understood from a culture-internal perspective. Focusing on examples from many different cultural locations, the contributing authors ask not only: “What is distinctive about these particular ways of speaking?”, but also: “Why – from their own point of view – do the people concerned speak in these particular ways? What sense does it make to them?” In addition to this common objective, the contributors share a common methodology based on two decades work in cross-linguistic semantics, and a common concern for grounding in linguistic evidence. Together, this three-fold combination – objective, methodology, and evidence base – constitutes a venture which is distinctive enough to warrant a new term: “ethnopragmatics”.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on December 8, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (Ed.) (2006). Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110911114
The studies in this volume show how speech practices can be understood from a culture-internal perspective, in terms of values, norms and beliefs of the speech communities concerned. The ethnopragmatic approach stands in opposition to the culture-external universalist pragmatics represented by neo-Gricean pragmatics and politeness theory. Using cultural scripts and semantic explications, the authors examine a wide range of phenomena, demonstrating both the profound “cultural shaping” of speech practices and the power and subtlety of new methods and techniques of a semantically grounded ethnopragmatics. Focusing on examples from many different cultural locations, the contributors ask not only: ‘What is distinctive about these particular ways of speaking?’, but also: ‘Why – from their own point of view – do the people concerned speak in these particular ways? What sense does it make to them?’.
Table of contents:
- Ethnopragmatics: a new paradigm (Cliff Goddard)
- Anglo scripts against “putting pressure” on other people and their linguistic manifestations (Anna Wierzbicka)
- “Lift your game Martina!”: deadpan jocular irony and the ethnopragmatics of Australian English (Cliff Goddard)
- Social hierarchy in the “speech culture” of Singapore (Jock Onn Wong)
- Why the “inscrutable” Chinese face? Emotionality and facial expression in Chinese (Zhengdao Ye)
- Cultural scripts: glimpses into the Japanese emotion world (Rie Hasada)
- The communicative realisation of confianza and calor humano in Colombian Spanish (Catherine E. Travis)
- “When I die, don’t cry”: the ethnopragmatics of “gratitude” in West African languages (Felix K. Ameka)
Each chapter has its own entry, where additional information is provided.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
