Browsing results for Broad topics
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 25, 2019.
Gladkova, Anna, & Romero-Trillo, Jesús (2014). Ain’t it beautiful? The conceptualization of beauty from an ethnopragmatic perspective. Journal of Pragmatics, 60, 140-159.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.11.005
Abstract:
This study addresses the question of the ethnopragmatic conceptualization of ‘beautiful’ in three European languages – English, Russian and Spanish. Specifically, it investigates the polysemy and the spheres of application of English beautiful, Russian красивый krasivyj, and Spanish bonito/a. Through corpus analysis methodology, the authors investigate the most common collocations and the pragmatic and contextual uses of these terms. On the basis of the analysis, the study then adopts NSM to propose semantic explications of the three words in universal human concepts. In particular, it investigates the presence of the perception universals SEE, HEAR, and FEEL, which in the data are central to the analysis of the aesthetics vocabulary, along with the primes GOOD, SOMEONE, SOMETHING and THINK.
The data for the study comes from three online corpora: the Russian National Corpus (Russian), Cobuild’s Wordbanks Online (English) and the Corpus de referencia del español actual (Spanish).
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) beautiful, (E) bonito, (E) krasivyj красивый, (E) sympathy, (T) Russian, (T) Spanish
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on May 23, 2019.
Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2014). Linguistic manifestation of gender reinforcement through the use of the Japanese term kawaii. Gender and Language, 8(3), 341-359.
DOI: 10.1558/genl.v8i3.341
Abstract:
This paper examines the Japanese cultural key word kawaii. Japanese women frequently use kawaii to express positive feelings towards objects or people. Scholars suggest that Japanese women are making kawaii part of their gender identity. From a linguistic perspective, kawaii is not lexicalized in other languages. Although the kawaii phenomenon has been thoroughly examined, there has been no rigorous semantic analysis.
In this study, NSM is used to explicate the meaning of kawaii. The analysis indicates that the core meaning of kawaii is explained as ‘when people see this thing, they can’t not feel something very good, like people often can’t not feel something very good when they see a small child’. The kawaii syndrome reveals a Japanese cultural characteristic that puts emphasis on being ‘gender appropriate’ in society.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) kawaii かわいい, (T) Japanese
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 August 17, 2018. Last updated on May 1, 2019.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2014). Some remarks on “pain” in Latin American Spanish. International Journal of Language and Culture, 1(2), 239-252.
DOI: 10.1075/ijolc.1.2.06bul
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to examine the Spanish counterpart of pain, that is, the lexeme dolor. It seems that dolor, different from both English pain and French douleur, has two clearly distinguishable meanings, dolor1 referring to physical (and emotional) sensation of pain, and dolor2, a quite frequent emotion term belonging to the domain of “sadness”. To support the above hypothesis, this article examines different lexical occurrences of the word dolor, coming inter alia from tango lyrics.
More information:
Reissued as:
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2016). Some remarks on “pain” in Latin American Spanish. In Cliff Goddard & Zhengdao Ye (Eds.), “Happiness” and “pain” across languages and cultures (pp. 109-122). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/bct.84.06bul
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) dolor, (E) me duele
Published on July 27, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Waga, Andrew Ike B. (2014). A semantic differentiation of the name marker pairs Kuya/Ate and Manong/Manang using Natural Semantic Metalanguage. BA thesis, University of the Philippines Diliman. DOCX (open access)
This undergraduate thesis uses Natural Semantic Metalanguage to semantically differentiate the name markers Kuya/Ate and Manong/Manang. The semantic explications are then compared to their literal meanings provided by the UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino. This research also investigates how gender could be a factor in one’s linguistic choices, particularly how it affects one’s use of the two name marker pairs.
This research demonstrates the validity of the use of NSM as it is able to come up with thorough semantic explications of the name markers kuya/ate and manong/manang. This study also demonstrates how one’s gender influences one’s motivations in using language, specifically in the use of name markers to address people. Through Deborah Tannen’s Difference and Dominance Approaches, this study shows how each gender has sex-specific motivations in language use.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) ate, (E) kuya, (E) manang, (E) manong
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 15, 2022.
Levisen, Carsten & Waters, Sophia (2015). Lige, a Danish ‘magic word’? An ethnopragmatic analysis. International Journal of Language and Culture, 2(2), 244-268. DOI: 10.1075/ijolc.2.2.05lev
The Danish word lige [ˈliːə] is a highly culture-specific discourse particle. English translations sometimes render it as ‘please’, but this kind of functional translation is motivated solely by the expectation that, in English, one has to “say please”. In the Danish universe of meaning, there is in fact no direct equivalent of anything like English please, German bitte, or similar constructs in other European languages. Consequently, Danish speakers cannot “say please”, and Danish children cannot “say the magic word”.
However, lige is in its own way a magic word, performing a different kind of pragmatic magic that has almost been left unstudied because it does not correlate well with any of the major Anglo-international research questions such as “how to express politeness” or “how to make a request”. This paper analyses the semantics of lige to shed light on the peculiarities of Danish ethnopragmatics. It is demonstrated not only that Danish lige does a different semantic job than English please, but also that please-based and lige-based interactions are bound to different interpretations of social life and interpersonal relations, and reflect differing cultural values.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on August 5, 2018. Last updated on May 7, 2019.
Umiyati, Mirsa (2015). Verba emosi Bahasa Rote Dialek Dengka: Suatu Tinjauan MSA [Verbs of emotion in the Dengka dialect of the Rote language: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage analysis]. Jurnal Linguistik Terapan, 5(2), 47-55.
Open access
Abstract:
This paper applies the NSM approach to the Dengka dialect of the Rote language, a Central Malayo-Polynesian language spoken on Roti Island, off Timor, to explicate one positive and one negative emotion verb. The exponent for FEEL in this dialect is lasa, which will be used in the Dengka versions of the explications formulated here in Indonesian for the positive emotion verb umuho-o ‘be happy’ and the negative emotion verb nggahisa ‘be not-happy’.
More information:
Written in Indonesian.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) nggahisa, (E) umuho'o
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on July 25, 2020.
Habib, Sandy (2015). Can God and Allah promote intercultural communication? RASK (International Journal of Language and Communication), 42, 77-103.
Open access
Abstract:
This article deals with the concept of English God and its Arabic equivalent Allah. The two concepts are analysed based on how ordinary native English speakers and Muslim Arabs, respectively, use them in their native languages. Additionally, an explication is constructed for each concept. Comparing the explications shows that the two concepts are very similar to each other. The only differences found are as follows: (1) God appears to be perceived as being in the same place to which “good” people go after they die, while Allah is not; (2) God seems to be conceived of as an omnipresent spirit; as for Allah, no linguistic evidence was found to suggest this same idea, and (3) only God seems to have a visual representation, which is that of an old father. Being very similar to each other, these two concepts might prove useful in promoting intercultural communication between native English speakers and Muslim Arabs. In addition, the analysis of the two concepts can provide cultural outsiders with access to an insider perspective on each concept.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Allah الله, (E) God
Published on July 18, 2017. Last updated on May 23, 2019.
Neale, Miles (2015). A comparison of English and Japanese proverbs using Natural Semantic Metalanguage. New Voices in Japanese Studies, 7, 85-101.
DOI: 10.21159/nvjs.07.05 / Open access
Abstract:
This study examines the meaning of semantically similar English and Japanese proverbs. It uses textual data sourced from online corpora to highlight and compare the different cultural and conceptual elements embedded within these proverbs. The findings demonstrate that matching proverbs from different languages is a potentially problematic exercise, both in dictionaries and in the second-language classroom.
The proverbs that are being explicated in NSM are (English) Look before you leap and (Japanese) Nen ni wa nen o ireyo (lit., ‘put care into care’), followed by (English) The proof of the pudding is in the eating and Japanese Ron yori shoko (lit., ‘argument less than proof/demonstration’).
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 7, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2015). The complex, language-specific semantics of “surprise”. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 13(2), 291-313.
DOI: 10.1075/rcl.13.2.02god
Abstract:
This study has three main dimensions. It begins by turning the lens of NSM semantic analysis onto a set of words that are central to the “discourse of the unexpected” in English: surprised, amazed, astonished and shocked. By elucidating their precise meanings, we can gain an improved picture of the English folk model in this domain. A comparison with Malay (Bahasa Melayu) shows that the “surprise words” of English lack precise equivalents in other languages.
The second dimension involves grammatical semantics: it seeks to identify the semantic relationships between agnate word-sets such as: surprised, surprising, to surprise; amazed, amazing, to amaze.
The third dimension is a theoretical one and is concerned with the development of a typology of “surprise-like” concepts. It is argued that adopting English-specific words, such as surprise or unexpected, as descriptive categories inevitably leads to conceptual Anglocentrism. The alternative, non-Anglocentric strategy relies on components phrased in terms of universal semantic primes, such as ‘something happened’ and ‘this someone didn’t know that it will happen’, and the like.
More information:
Reissued as:
Goddard, Cliff (2017). The complex, language-specific semantics of “surprise”. In Agnès Celle, & Laure Lansari (Eds.), Expressing and describing surprise (pp. 27-49). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/bct.92.02god
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) amazed, (E) astonished, (E) hairan, (E) shocked, (E) shocking, (E) surprise, (E) surprised, (E) surprising, (E) terkejut, (E) terperanjat
Published on July 29, 2018. Last updated on June 25, 2019.
Buyankina, A. S. (2015). Sympathy and empathy in English and Russian: A linguistic and cultural analysis. In С. А. Песоцкая [S. A. Pesotskaya] (Ed.), Коммуникативные аспекты языка и культуры: сборник материалов XV Международной научно-практической конференции студентов и молодых ученых [Communicative aspects of language and culture: A collection of materials of the XVth International Scientific and Practical Conference of Students and Young Scientists]: Vol. 3 (pp. 70-72). Томск [Tomsk]: Изд-во ТПУ [TPU Publishing House].
Open access
 |
This paper is a quasi verbatim reproduction of selected paragraphs of:
Gladkova, Anna (2010). Sympathy, compassion, and empathy in English and Russian: A linguistic and cultural analysis. Culture & Psychology, 16(2), 267-285. |
| The NSM explications are slightly different and may be imperfect translations from the Russian explications in chapter 6 of:Гладкова, А. Н. [Gladkova, Anna] (2010). Русская культурная семантика: эмоции ценности, жизненные установк [Russian cultural semantics: Emotions, values, attitudes]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки славянской культуры [Languages of Slavic Cultures]. |
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Tags: (E) empathy, (E) sočuvstvie сочувствие, (E) sopereživanie сопереживание, (E) sympathy
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.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) rabotaet'sja работаеться, (E) spit'sja спиться, (E) verit'sja вериться, (E) xočet'sja хочеться, (E) živet'sja живеться, (S) non-imposition
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 29, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff, with Zhengdao Ye (2015). Ethnopragmatics. In Farzad Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 66-83). London: Routledge.
Abstract:
Ethnopragmatics pursues emic (or culture-internal) perspectives on speech practices across languages and cultures. As such, it studies the links between language in use, on the one hand, and culture, on the other. The approach is based on the premise that there is an explanatory link between the cultural values/norms and the speech practices specific to a speech community. Ethnopragmatics relies on NSM to decompose cultural norms and notions in terms of simple meanings that are thought to be shared by all languages. Since it relies on linguistic evidence and ethnographic data from insiders to the culture, one of its central objectives is to explore ‘cultural key words’, or words that capture culturally constructed concepts that are pivotal to the ways of thinking, feeling, behaving, and speaking of a speech community.
To illustrate the approach, the chapter includes two ethnographic sketches from Anglo English and Chinese culture, respectively.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) freedom, (E) hé 和, (E) I think [epistemic reserve], (E) in my opinion, (E) It's rude to VP, (E) rĕn 忍, (E) That's not fair, (S) display of emotions, (S) distance and closeness, (S) epistemic reserve and openness, (S) freedom of expression, (S) personal autonomy, (S) restraint
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.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (diminutives), (E) rabotaet'sja работаеться, (E) spit'sja спиться, (E) verit'sja вериться, (E) xočet'sja хочеться, (S) emotions, (S) non-imposition
Published on April 4, 2018. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Eisold, Lisa (2015). Fernweh as a cultural key word: A cross-cultural linguistic analysis using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). Munich: GRIN.
Seminar paper in cross-cultural linguistics submitted at the University of Newcastle (AUS). Grade: High Distinction, 92%. Commercially available at https://www.grin.com/document/336516
Fernweh functions as a cultural key word for a whole generation of young Germans travelling the world. This short linguistic analysis examines the meanings and connotations of Fernweh, attempting to make the concept accessible to non-German speakers. Work and travel, au pair, semester abroad: more and more young Germans leave their home country to spend up to one year abroad. The more remote a destination, the more appealing the trip. This often leaves the older generations speechless. The young people’s urge to travel can be best described with the key word Fernweh, a feeling that lacks an adequate English translation. The English word wanderlust that can be found in dictionaries fails to account for the complete scope of the feeling of Fernweh as it emphasizes that the longing to travel is only a temporary one. Furthermore, the root lust suggests a strongly positive feeling. Fernweh, in contrast, not only can be triggered and answered in many different ways but also encompasses a high diversity of things someone might be longing for and a high range of feelings connected to this longing.
Tags: (E) Fernweh
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2015). A whole cloud of culture condensed into a drop of semantics: The meaning of the German word Herr as a term of address. International Journal of Language and Culture, 2(1), 1-37. DOI: 10.1075/ijolc.2.1.01wie
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 9, 2018.
Gąsior, Weronika (2015). Cultural scripts and the speech act of opinions in Irish English: A study amongst Irish and Polish university students. ELOPE (English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries), 12(1), 11-28. DOI: 10.4312/elope.12.1.11-28. PDF (open access)
Studies in pragmatics have been limited to a handful of illocutionary acts such as requests, apologies or compliments, and opinions remain underrepresented in the existing literature. In this paper I present the results of a study of opinions in Irish English, conducted in an intercultural environment of Irish-Polish interactions. Departing from a traditional approach of speech act realisation studies, I applied the theory of cultural scripts to analyse opinions. In contrasting the Irish and Polish formulas for expressing opinions, as well as sociopragmatic attitudes towards this speech act, a difference in the cultural scripts for opinions in each culture was observable. Apart from already documented Polish frankness in opinions, the study discovered also a rational approach to presenting good arguments to support one’s assertions among the participants. In relation to the Irish script for opinions, the findings are in line with previous classifications of opinions in Australian English, showing a certain level of variational uniformity amongst the English-speaking cultures in this regard.
Crude application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (S) opinions
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 15, 2022.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2015). New perspectives on kinship: Overcoming the Eurocentrism and scientism of kinship studies through lexical universals. In Nancy Bonvillain (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of linguistic anthropology (pp. 62-79). New York: Routledge.
Given a measure of mental discipline, effort and experience, unfamiliar concepts embodied in kinship terminologies can be explained to outsiders through ordinary language. To grasp them, one does not require a tutorial in kinship studies or in arcane formalisms of any kind. One does need, however, an explanation. If this explanation is free of any technical terminology, if it is couched in words that one can understand, and if one is prepared to make an effort to get out of one’s accustomed ways of thinking, then with the help of such an explanation, authentic understanding can be reached.
See also:
Kotorova, Elizaveta (2018). Analysis of kinship terms using Natural Semantic Metalanguage: Anna Wierzbicka’s approach. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 22(3), 701-710.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) beyko, (E) bornang, (E) Father, (E) mother, (E) wulaŋ, (E) yawko, (E) yawmey, (T) English
Published on July 27, 2017. Last updated on May 1, 2019.
Lorenzana, Angela E. (2015). A semantic analysis of “pakikisama”, a key Filipino cultural relationship concept: The NSM approach. Iamure International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion, 7(1), 15-31.
DOI: 10.7718/iamure.ijlpr.v7i1.874
Abstract:
The study of a language, especially of its vocabulary, can reveal one’s way of thinking, show the essential features of a particular culture and offer important clues for its distinction from others. This paper uses NSM to investigate the Filipino notion of pakikisama ‘getting along with others’. The semantic explication reveals the Filipinos’ unique way of looking at things by demonstrating their dominantly inherent ‘group’ cognitive structures. The paper recommends that the concept be compared with those from other ethnolinguistic groups in order to promote goodwill and understanding among people of diverse cultural backgrounds.
Rating:
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) pakikisama, (S) respect for others
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
