A resource base of publications using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. 1,100+ detailed notices, and counting!
Wierzbicka, Anna (2015). The meaning of color words in a cross-linguistic perspective. In Andrew J. Elliot, Mark D. Fairchild, & Anna Franklin (Eds.), The handbook of color psychology (pp. 295-316). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107337930.015
No abstract available.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Goddard, Cliff (2015). Words as carriers of cultural meaning. In John R. Taylor (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the word (pp. 380-398). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199641604.013.027
Though most approaches to lexical semantics have shown little interest in cultural aspects of meaning, the subject holds intense interest for adjacent disciplines such as anthropology, cultural history, literary studies, and translation studies, as well for the general public. This chapter reviews different ways in which word meanings can be ‘culturally laden’, starting with cultural key words, i.e. intense focal points of cultural meaning, typically untranslatable, by normal means, into other languages. Words can also be culturally important in less dramatic fashion. The chapter reviews examples from various abstract and concrete domains, stressing that cultural themes are often conveyed by a suite of related, mutually reinforcing words. The chief methodological challenges in this arena are how to capture subtleties of meaning with precision, while avoiding the danger of conceptual Anglocentrism creeping into the description. The chapter demonstrates how the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach deals with this challenge.
Levisen, Carsten (2016). Postcolonial lexicography: Defining creole emotion words with the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Cahiers de lexicologie, 109, 35-60.
DOI: 10.15122/isbn.978-2-406-06861-7.p.0035
Abstract:
The lexicographical study of postcolonial language varieties is severely undertheorized and underdeveloped. Postcolonial Lexicography is a new framework that seeks to go some way towards filling the gap. It aims at providing a new praxis of word definition for the study of creoles, world Englishes, and other languages spoken in postcolonial contexts. NSM is used as an interpretative technique for the definition of meaning. The NSM approach allows for a fine-grained lexical-semantic analysis, and at the same time helps circumvent ‘conceptual colonialism’ and the related vices of Anglocentrism and Eurocentrism, all of which hamper advances in lexicographical studies in a postcolonial context.
More specifically, drawing on advances in lexical semantics, linguistic ethnography and postcolonial language studies, the paper offers an original analysis of emotion words in Urban Bislama, a creole language spoken in Port Vila, Vanuatu. The author develops a sketch of the Bislama lexicon of emotion and provides new definitions of kros, roughly ‘angry’, les, roughly ‘annoyed’ and sem, roughly ‘ashamed’. A table of Bislama exponents of NSM primes is included, as well as some discussion on the exponents for FEEL, GOOD, and BAD.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Levisen, Carsten (2016). The ethnopragmatics of speech acts in postcolonial discourse: “Truth” and “trickery” in a transculturated South Pacific tale. In Christoph Schubert & Laurenz Volkmann (Eds.), Pragmatic perspectives on postcolonial discourse: Linguistics and literature (pp. 41-64). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Abstract:
Providing a high-resolution explication of the Bislama (Vanuatu, South Pacific) speech act word giaman, from colonial English gammon (“to humbug”), the paper develops an ethnopragmatic profile of the speech act category “truth/lies/deception” and discusses the interpretative potential for a giaman-based interpretation of one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most cherished fairy tales, The Emperor’s New Clothes, which has now also been translated into Bislama. Demonstrating how giaman differs from European-type speech acts, and in particular from English and Danish semi-counterparts of the word (respectively lie and bedrage), the paper launches into a postcolonial critique of Anglo-international pragmatics and its so-called universal maxims and speech acts, showing a new way and a new synthesis called postcolonial ethnopragmatics.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Leung, Helen Hue Lam (2016). The semantics of utterance particles in informal Hong Kong Cantonese (Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach). PhD thesis, Griffith University, Brisbane. PDF (open access)
This study identifies the semantic invariants of some commonly-used Cantonese utterance particles in Hong Kong Cantonese. The particles are a distinctive and ubiquitous feature of informal, everyday Cantonese, occurring every 1.5 seconds on average. The particles are necessary for expressing speakers’ transitory attitudes, assumptions, or feelings connected with an utterance. Although they are not grammatically obligatory, conversation sounds unnatural when they are omitted. There are approximately 30 ‘basic’ particles, which can combine with each other to form ‘clusters’, resulting in roughly 100 variations. This number easily surpasses that of comparable particles in Mandarin, and is matched by very few, if any, other languages. Semantic analysis of Cantonese utterance particles is challenging because their meanings are extremely elusive, even to native speakers. The range of use of each particle is so varied and wide-ranging that some Cantonese speakers and scholars have concluded that the particles have no stable semantic content. Prior research on the particles has produced contradictory, vague, obscure or inaccurate descriptions.
This study demonstrates that particles have meaning, by using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to identify the semantic invariants, or ‘core’ meanings, of a selection of commonly-used utterance particles, namely laa1, wo3, gaa3, laa3, and zaa3. NSM expresses the meanings of words and concepts in reductive paraphrases called explications, where the language used is limited to a set of semantic primes. Using this method, each particle’s meaning is identified and stated in versatile explications which are clear, accurate, translatable, and testable. The explications reliably explain each particle’s range of use in the Hong Kong Cantonese Corpus, which comprises 180 000 words of naturally-occurring Cantonese. One of the most significant findings is that explications for Cantonese utterance particles are typically short and simple. The results prove that the particles have stable and identifiable meanings.
In addition, the explications reveal the role of semantics in determining why particles can or cannot combine in particular ways. The particles selected for analysis occur in many common clusters, e.g. gaa3-laa1, gaa3-zaa3-wo3, while other clusters are unacceptable, e.g. *laa1-wo3. The meanings of particle clusters are widely claimed to be the combined meanings of the particles of which they are made up, but there have been no serious attempts to verify this. To do so would first require accurate definitions of the individual particles. The explications proposed in this study shed light on this neglected area. It is found that where particle clusters are acceptable in speech, the combined explications reveal the meanings of the clusters. A semantic critique of sub-morphemic analyses of monosyllabic particles is also presented.
This study also considers the complexities of using NSM for Hong Kong Cantonese. If basic NSM assumptions are correct, any explication should be able to be expressed in simple and natural Cantonese, giving the same meaning as in any other language. This thesis identifies and evaluates Cantonese exponents of all the 65 proposed semantic primes, and explores some Cantonese-specific issues. Each particle explication is presented in English and Cantonese.
Xue, Wendi (2016). The semantics of ‘uncle’-type kinship terms in Cantonese (Guangzhou) and Teochew (Jieyang). Master’s thesis, Australian National University.
Kinship stands as the foundation of all human societies, and kinship terms have been an important area of research in cultural anthropology and linguistics. Although scholars have accumulated much information on kinship terminology across many languages, there is still a gap to be bridged regarding the Sinitic languages, especially the non-Mandarin varieties of Chinese; moreover, many previous studies require semantic reanalysis so that the native speaker’s point of view can be revealed. This thesis examines the under-surveyed groups of kinship terms which are semantically related to the English category of ‘uncle’ (henceforth ‘uncle’-type) in Cantonese and Teochew, and uses the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) for their semantic analysis. It offers full NSM explications for the 32 ‘uncle-type’ terms in the two languages under three major categories: father’s side, mother’s side and in-laws; it also explains how these explications are arrived at and discusses the similarities and differences in the semantic patterns between these two non-Mandarin Chinese varieties. An innovative aspect of the thesis is that it proposes four culture-specific semantic molecules in explications. As well as shedding light on the under-explored area of ‘uncle’-type kinship terminology in Sinitic languages, this work highlights the diversity within Han Chinese culture, which has often been misunderstood as a homogeneous system based on the prevailing Mandarin-centric conventions.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Wakefield, John C. (2016). Emotional feelings as a form of evidence: A case study of visceral evidentiality in Mormon culture. In Alessandro Capone, & Jacob L. Mey (Eds.), Interdisciplinary studies in pragmatics, culture and society (pp. 899-923). Cham: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_35
Abstract:
This paper develops a set of cultural scripts articulating some of the sociopragmatic knowledge held by the speech community popularly known as the Mormons – officially members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). These scripts focus on the value that Mormons place on using feelings as the best and ultimate form of evidence for verifying the truth of anything related to their religious beliefs. They are proposed to account for the linguistic behaviour of Mormons in relation to their knowledge claims, in relation to their stated source of this knowledge, and in relation to their sense of duty to cause others to acquire this knowledge.
The scripts in this paper are supported by linguistic evidence, which comes primarily from the discourse of respected members of the LDS community. The online searches for evidence and the formulation of the scripts were guided by the author’s intuitive knowledge as an L1 speaker of “Mormonese”, born and raised within the Mormon community.
Basing beliefs on feelings is a value that most cultures and individuals possess to some degree, and the things that are “proven” by one’s feelings to be true will vary depending on the specific belief system of the culture or individual. This phenomenon is referred to as culturally-constructed visceral evidentiality (CVE). The LDS community overtly articulates the value of visceral evidentiality to an unusual degree, so this speech community provides an excellent opportunity for analysing the characteristics of a specific case of CVE.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Ye, Zhengdao (2016). Stranger and acquaintance in English: Meaning and cultural scripts. In Agnieszka Uberman, & Teodor Hrehovčík (Eds.), Text – sentence – word: Studies in English linguistics: Vol. 2 (pp. 119-130). Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego.
In English, stranger, acquaintance and friend are perhaps the most common and salient terms for describing social relations that are not place or kinship based. What makes these social categories so special and distinctive in English? The question becomes even more intriguing if we consider that in many languages and cultures, human relations in the social sphere revolve around different social categories.
It is the purpose of this paper to seek an answer to the above question. It aims to shed light on the role and function of the English social category words in question from the standpoint of meaning and culture. Given that Anna Wierzbicka has discussed the meaning of the English term friend at great length, this paper will focus on the less analysed stranger and acquaintance. It seeks to articulate the meanings of both, and spell out some of the assumptions underlying the associated interactional values and norms widely shared by Anglophone speakers.
The two social category words analysed in this paper can be considered as co-occurring concepts of politeness in English. This paper shows how the study of the semantics of words of this nature contributes to a better understanding of the “politeness phenomenon” characteristic of Anglophone society.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Goddard, Cliff & Cramer, Rahel (2016). “Laid back” and “irreverent”: An ethnopragmatic analysis of two cultural themes in Australian English communication. In Donal Carbaugh (Ed.), The handbook of communication in cross-cultural perspective (pp. 89-103). New York: Routledge.
Abstract:
What cultural logic is at play whereby Australians can be friendly and humorous, and yet at the same time derisive, disdainful, and scornful? One of the goals of this study is to explain this paradox by providing a detailed insider perspectives on certain canonical Anglo-Australian (“Aussie”) cultural values and orientations to communication, both at the interpersonal level and in the public sphere. Words and expressions are treated as entry points through which to access cultural meaning.
The focus is on two clusters of words. In the first cluster are the words laid back and easy going, which are high-frequency descriptors of the preferred Australian interactional style and an indisputable part of the national self-stereotype. The second cluster consists of the twin expressions not taking yourself/anything too seriously and the word irreverence. These expressions, it is argued, are Australian cultural key words and, consequently, deeply implicated in canonical Anglo-Australian conceptions of personhood, social interaction, and humour.
Though the paper includes occasional contrastive remarks about other cultural orientations, its focus is not on cross-cultural communication but on Australian cultural conceptualizations of communication and how these play out in communicational practices.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Goddard, Cliff, Wierzbicka, Anna, & Wong, Jock (2016). “Walking” and “running” in English and German: The conceptual semantics of verbs of human locomotion. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 14(2), 303–336. DOI: 10.1075/rcl.14.2.03god
Gladkova, Anna (2016). Propositional attitudes and cultural scripts. In Alessandro Capone, & Jacob L. Mey (Eds.), Interdisciplinary studies in pragmatics, culture and society (pp. 329-352). Berlin: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_12
Abstract:
In linguistic literature inspired by work in philosophy, the key concepts for the analysis of ‘propositional attitudes’ include mental states such as ‘belief’, ‘hope’, ‘doubt’ and ‘know’, among others. This literature, and the work on which it is based, ignores cultural and linguistic variation in the conceptualization of mental states that can be labelled as ‘propositional attitudes’. It also overlooks the fact that categorization of mental states, in general, and ‘propositional attitudes’, in particular, is aligned with cultural attitudes and understandings.
This chapter proposes a comparative analysis of selected words reflecting propositional attitudes in English and Russian. The focus is on to believe vs. считать sčitat’ and on belief vs. мнение mnenie, and the analysis is undertaken in terms of universal meanings, using NSM. It is demonstrated that the supremacy of logical concepts in current scientific thinking is not reflected in the architecture of the mental lexicon as it is revealed in universal human concepts. Instead, it is argued that NSM semantic universals can be regarded as more appropriate elements in the analysis of propositional attitudes.
The concepts central to the analysis are KNOW and THINK, which have been shown to have exact semantic equivalents in Russian and English as well as other languages. The chapter shows that the analysed concepts differ in meaning and can be related to culture-specific cognitive styles that can be formulated as cultural scripts.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Fernández, Susana S. (2016). Possible contributions of ethnopragmatics to second language learning and teaching. In Sten Vikner, Henrik Jørgensen & Elly van Gelderen (Eds.), Let us have articles betwixt us: Papers in historical and comparative linguistics in honour of Johanna L. Wood (pp. 185-206). Aarhus: Aarhus University.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible pedagogical application of the theory of Ethnopragmatics in the field of second and foreign language learning and teaching with the purpose of promoting intercultural communicative competence.
Ethnopragmatics can be seen as part of the broad paradigm of Cognitive Linguistics. Unlike other theories of pragmatics, its focus is on examining cultural aspects of language and communication from an insider’s perspective, without relying on universal concepts such as politeness, directness/indirectness, etc. that can be foreign to many cultures. Its main methodological tool is NSM, used in so-called explications but also in cultural scripts that reflect widely shared ways of thinking. The latter can be reformulated into pedagogical scripts that can be used in second language learning and teaching.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Fernández, Susana S. (2016). Etnopragmatik og interkulturel competence: Didaktiske nytænkninger i fremmedsprogsundervisningen [Ethnopragmatics and intercultural competence: Didactic innovations in foreign language teaching]. Ny forskning i grammatik, 23, 38-54.
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Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Fernández, Susana S. (2016). Etnopragmatik og interkulturel competence: Didaktiske nytænkninger i fremmedsprogsundervisningen [Ethnopragmatics and intercultural competence: Didactic innovations in foreign language teaching]. Ny forskning i grammatik, 23, 38-54.
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible pedagogical application of ethnopragmatics in the field of language learning and teaching with the purpose of promoting intercultural communicative competence. Ethnopragmatics examines cultural aspects of language and communication from an insider’s perspective. Its pedagogical potential lies in its consistent attempts to unravel the values, beliefs and norms that underpin the verbal behaviours of a cultural group and to do so without cultural bias.
More information:
Written in Danish. An earlier English version of this paper was published as:
Fernández, Susana S. (2016). Possible contributions of ethnopragmatics to second language learning and teaching. In Sten Vikner, Henrik Jørgensen, & Elly van Gelderen (Eds.), Let us have articles betwixt us: Papers in historical and comparative linguistics in honour of Johanna L. Wood (pp. 185-206). Aarhus: Aarhus University.
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Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
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.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Wierzbicka, Anna (2016). Making sense of terms of address in European languages through the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). Intercultural Pragmatics, 13(4), 499-527. DOI 10.1515/ip-2016-0022
Building on the author’s earlier work on address practices and focusing on the French words monsieur and madame, this paper seeks to
demonstrate that generic titles used daily across Europe have relatively stable meanings, different in different languages, and that their semantic analysis can provide keys to the speakers’ cultural assumptions and attitudes. But to use these keys effectively, we need some basic locksmith skills. The NSM approach, with its stock of primes and molecules and its mini-grammar for combining these into explications and cultural scripts, provides both the necessary tools and the necessary techniques. The unique feature of the NSM approach to both semantics and pragmatics is the reliance on a set of simple, cross-translatable words and phrases, in terms of which interactional meanings and norms can be articulated, compared, and explained to linguistic and cultural outsiders. Using this approach, this paper assigns intuitive, intelligible and cross-translatable meanings to several key terms of address in French and English, and it shows how these meanings can account for many aspects of these terms’ use. The paper offers a framework for studying the use of terms of address in Europe and elsewhere and has implications for language teaching, cross-cultural communication and education.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Wierzbicka, Anna (2016). Terms of address as keys to culture and society: German Herr vs. Polish Pan. Acta Philologica [Uniwersytet Warszawski], 49, 29-44.
This article takes up a theme addressed many years ago by Andrzej Bogusławski: a semantic and cultural comparison of the Polish and German terms of address Pan and Herr. Focussing on these two words, the paper seeks to demonstrate that despite their apparent insignificance, generic titles used daily across Europe can reveal complex and intricate webs of cultural assumptions and attitudes and provide keys to the inmost recesses of the speakers’ cultural and social world. At the same time, the paper argues that to use these keys effectively, we need some basic locksmith skills; and it tries to show that the NSM approach to semantics and pragmatics can help us develop such skills. The explications posited here possess, it is argued, predictive and explanatory power that is beyond the reach of traditional analyses operating with technical labels such as “formal”, ”polite”, “respectful”, “egalitarian” and so on. The paper has implications for language teaching and cross-cultural communication and education in Europe and beyond.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Mateo Mendaza, Raquel (2016). The Old English exponent for the semantic prime MOVE. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 36(4), 542-559. DOI: 10.1080/07268602.2016.1169976
This journal article engages in the search for the Old English exponent of the semantic prime MOVE as described within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) model. For the semantics of movement and motion, this study draws on the NSM model, which selects the term MOVE as the proper primitive to express the different meanings related both to translational and internal motion. With this background,
this study describes the semantic and syntactic properties of the main Old English verbs related to motion in order to select the best candidate for the exponent of MOVE. The analytical part comprises the application of four criteria of prime identification, including the textual, the morphological, the semantic and the syntactic criterion. The conclusion is reached that the verb (ge)styrian is the Old English exponent for the semantic prime MOVE.
Tokula, Lillian & Pütz, Martin (2016). Emotion concepts in Igala language (Nigeria): A view from NSM theory. In Gratien G. Atindogbé & Evelyn Fogwe Chibaka (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on African linguistics: Vol. 2 (pp. 948-976). Bamenda (Cameroon): Langaa.
Abstract:
This study highlights the various characteristics of emotion concepts in Igala and shows the areas of overlap among the members of different categories of emotion concepts. The absence of a lexical exponent for FEEL in Igala is shown not to have any relevance to the expression and comprehension of emotive language in Igala, as shown by the side by side explication done simultaneously in both languages for happiness-, love- and fear-like emotions. The authors submit that, contrary to the claims made by the leading developers of the theory, FEEL is not necessary to the semantic explication of emotion concepts universally. They therefore recommend a review of the status of FEEL. In the face of evidence to the contrary from languages such as Igala and Sidaama, its present status as a semantic prime points to (unintended and paradoxical) ethnocentric bias on the part of the developers of the theory – a phenomenon, among others, that motivated the development of the theory in the first place. A re-evaluation of the status of the concept FEEL as a semantic molecule necessary for the semantic explication of emotion concepts in English and some other languages but not as a semantic prime found in ALL languages of the world may be more fitting to the data.
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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Farese, Gian Marco (2016). The cultural semantics of the Japanese emotion terms ‘haji’ and ‘hazukashii’. New Voices in Japanese Studies, 8, 32-54.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21159/nvjs.08.02 / Open access
Abstract:
This paper presents a cultural semantic analysis of the Japanese emotion terms 恥 haji and 恥ずかしい hazukashii. The paper has three aims: (i) to pinpoint the conceptions of 恥 haji and 恥ずかしい hazukashii as emotion terms in Japanese language and culture; (ii) to highlight the differences in meaning with their typical English translations shame and embarrassing, and show that 恥 haji and 恥ずかしい hazukashii reflect two different, culture-specific emotion conceptions; (iii) to emphasize the suitability of NSM for cross-cultural comparisons of emotion terms in different languages and, in turn, for cross-cultural training.
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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Putri, Darni Enzimar (2016). Struktur semantis idiom yang bermakna emosi dalam Bahasa Jepang [Semantic structure of idioms referring to emotions in Japanese]. 言葉ジャーナル / Jurnal Kotoba (Andalas University, Indonesia), 3.
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The purpose of this study is to describe the literal meaning, using NSM, of a number of Japanese idioms that refer to emotions and include body part terms.
Explications (in Indonesian) are provided for the following phrases: 頭を冷やし atama o hiyasu (‘calm’, lit. ‘cool-headed’), 顔をほころばせた kao o hokorobaseru (‘happy’, lit. ‘with a flinch on one’s face’), 肩の荷 がおり kata no ni ga oriru (‘relieved’, lit. ‘a load off one’s shoulders’), 鼻が高い hana ga takai (‘proud’, lit. ‘long-nosed’), 舌を巻いた shita o maku (‘amazed’, lit. ‘tongue rolled up’), 顔 が 赤くなり kao ga akakunaru (‘ashamed’, lit. ‘red-faced’), 顔をくもらせた kao o kumoraseru (‘sad’, lit. ‘cloud-faced’), 親の顔が見たい oya no kao ga mitai (‘dumbfounded’, lit. ‘I want to see their parents’ face’), 耳が痛い mimi ga itai (‘offended’, lit. ‘my ear hurts’), 目のかたきにし me no kataki ni suru (‘hate’, lit. ‘make an eye-enemy of someone’), 鼻 に ついて hana ni tsuku (‘sick and tired’, lit. ‘hit in the nose’), 唇をかむ kuchibiru o kamu (‘disappointed’, lit. ‘biting one’s lip’), 首をひねった kubi o hineru (‘confused’, lit. ‘head leaning to one side’), 胸が潰れる mune ga tsubureru (‘totally shocked’, lit. ‘heart-no-longer-beating’), 腹が立つ hara ga tatsu (‘angry’, lit. ‘stomach standing up’), 頭にき atama ni kuru (‘get mad’, lit. ‘come to one’s head’), 腰が抜け koshi ga nukeru (‘go weak on the knees’, lit. ‘ have one’s hips fall out from under one’), 目を白黒させ me o shirokurosaseru (‘surprised’, lit. ‘eyes made black and white’), 尻に火が付い shiri ni hi ga tsuku (‘restless’, lit. ‘a fire lit on one’s butt’), 二の足を踏ん ni no ashi o fumu (‘hesitant’, lit. ‘stepping on one’s second foot’), 大きな顔をし ookiina kao o suru (‘arrogant’, lit. ‘making a big face’).
More information:
Written in Indonesian.
The explication provided for 目に沁みた me ni shimita (‘mesmerized’, lit. ‘my eyes smart’) is unreliable. There is no evidence that the phrase has the indicated metaphorical meaning.
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Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
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Crude application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner |
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Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner |
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Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner |
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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners |
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners |