Browsing results for Broad topics

(2019) Spanish – Ethnopragmatics

Published on June 19, 2020. Last updated on August 16, 2021.

Aznárez-Mauleón, Mónica (2019). La fórmula de rechazo ¡Vete a … ! en español peninsular: una propuesta de análisis desde la Metalengua Semántica Natural (NSM). Sociocultural Pragmatics, 7, 421-444.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/soprag-2019-0008 – Open access

Abstract:

This paper analyses 19 routine formulae from Peninsular Spanish that share the same syntactic pattern (Vete a + noun phrase or Vete a + verb phrase) and are described by dictionaries as expressions of rejection towards the interlocutor. On the basis of previous classifications, these expressions could be considered subjective, affective and attitudinal expressive formulae, because they are used to show the speaker’s attitudes and emotions. However, on the one hand, complex concepts such as affective expression, attitudinal or expression of rejection are not very enlightening when describing this kind of expression to speakers of other languages or to speakers of a different variety of Spanish. On the other hand, given that at least 19 expressions of this kind exist in Peninsular Spanish, it is reasonable to think that there may be some differences of meaning between them. The present study aims to meet these two challenges by applying NSM methodology to the semantic-pragmatic analysis of these units. This paper offers a first approach to this kind of expression through the elaboration of semantic-pragmatic explications of the different groups of formulae that, on the basis of the examples found, have been established in the study.

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(2019) Spanish (Spain) – Address forms and social cognition; Ethnopragmatics

Published on August 3, 2020. Last updated on August 3, 2020.

Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2019). Los vocativos de cariño en español peninsular: un enfoque desde la Metalengua Semántica Natural. Sociocultural Pragmatics, 7(3), 445-467.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/soprag-2019-0013

Abstract:

This article adopts an ethnopragmatic approach to the interpretation of linguistic strategies through their relation with cultural aspects which underlie their usage. The focus is on the relation between Spanish cultural scripts and nominal forms of address (terms of endearment) used in Peninsular Spanish. Cultural scripts would appear to be the perfect tool for explicating the sociocultural premises behind the interpretations we make of the function that terms of endearment have in Spanish politeness. Of particular interest are typically
Spanish scripts of “expressiveness”, “complimenting others”, “treating others with affection” and “being friendly”, and terms of endearment such as alma, ‘soul’, vida, ‘life’, cielo, ‘heaven’ and cariño, ‘love’. The explication of the semantic content of the terms of endearment on the one hand and the underlying sociocultural values on the other, applies the method of semantic and pragmatic analysis known as NSM.

More information:

Written in Spanish.

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(2019) Thai – Ethnopsychology and personhood

Published on February 20, 2019. Last updated on January 26, 2020.

Svetanant, Chavalin (2019). Tracing the Thai ‘heart’: The semantics of a Thai ethnopsychological construct. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 82-115). New York: Routledge.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315180670-4

Abstract:

This chapter sheds light on the semantic journey of chai ใจ, a key cultural concept in Thai culture. Chai is a person’s innermost secret part, linked to the body, with a dynamic capacity to move around and change its shape, size, colour, and even temperature, depending on the circumstances.

The chapter surveys the lexical meaning and multiple ways in which chai is used in contemporary Thai, then takes a historical turn to examine the semantic development of the word from its earliest attested uses to the present day, relying on data from a wide range of classical and contemporary sources. The analysis reveals that the primary conceptuality of the personhood construct embedded in the word chai ใจ has remained relatively stable since its first appearance in the 13th century, when it was used to refer to a person’s disposition, representing a ‘locus’ where psychological activity occurs. The literary data in the later periods demonstrates massive growth in cognitive and cultural salience with its occurrence in a steadily increasing number of metaphorical expressions and idioms. The chapter concludes with the explication of the modern folk concept of chai ใจ, using English and Thai NSM to avoid cultural bias.

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(2019) What Christians believe [BOOK]

Published on February 28, 2019. Last updated on August 15, 2021.

Wierzbicka, Anna (2019). What Christians believe: The story of God and people in minimal English. New York: Oxford University Press.

Abstract:

Many people today, both Christians and non-Christians, are confused about or unaware of the essentials of Christian faith. In this book, Anna Wierzbicka takes a radically new approach to the task of communicating “what Christians believe” to the widest possible audience. “The Story of God and People”, the heart of the book, sets out the core tenets of Christian faith in narrative form using simple language that is accessible to anyone, even those with no familiarity with Christianity or Christian vocabulary. The Story is not only simple but also universal: though written in English, it is not phrased in full English — English as we know it today, shaped by history, culture, and tradition — but in “Minimal English”. Minimal English contains only those 400 or so English words that can be translated into any other language; essentially, it corresponds to the shared core of all languages.

In the introduction to the book, Wierzbicka explains Minimal English and minimal languages in general, and in “The Story of God and People” that follows, she demonstrates the effectiveness of Minimal English as a tool for global understanding. At the same time, the use of Minimal English allows her not only to retell the Christian story in a strikingly new way, but also to rethink its meaning, bringing into relief its internal cohesion, logic and beauty.

Table of contents:

I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

  1. Who are ‘Christians’?
  2. God and cross-cultural communication
  3. God and language
  4. Minimal English

II. THE STORY OF GOD AND PEOPLE

III. BRIEF COMMENTARIES ON THE CHAPTERS OF PART II

APPENDICES

  1. On the word “forgiveness”
  2. On the word “love”
  3. On the word hilastērion

Additional resources:

Anna Wierzbicka – Speech given at the launch of What Christians Believe, 16 May 2019

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(2020) – English (Singapore) – Foreign language teaching

Published on June 19, 2020. Last updated on January 15, 2022.

Wong, Jock. (2020). Semantic challenges in understanding Global English: Hypothesis, theory, and proof in Singapore English. In Lauren Sadow, Bert Peeters, & Kerry Mullan (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond) (pp. 191-212). Singapore: Springer.

Abstract

Since the 1980s, the Singapore government has relentlessly, and with some level of success, promoted the use of English among Singaporeans. Many younger people now use English at home and as their dominant language and have no problem pursuing a basic university degree, locally or overseas, using English. However, while there is evidence to suggest that the ‘well-educated’ variety of Singapore English is mutually intelligible with other varieties of Standard English, numerous studies have shown that many Singaporeans speak a variety of English that is distinct from Standard English. Singapore English (or ‘Singlish’) is shaped by Singapore culture and exhibits linguistic elements of that culture. Given that many Singaporeans speak Singapore English on an everyday basis, one wonders how proficient they truly are in Standard English. Indeed, some ‘educated’ Singaporeans, including university students, understand words often used in the academic context (like hypothesis, theory, and proof) differently from native Standard (Anglo) English users. This raises two questions. Are Singapore university students semantically challenged in Standard English? If so, what can be done to address this problem? One objective of this study is to examine Singapore university students’ understanding of several words that are important in Standard English. A further objective is to use Minimal English (ME) to explain the meaning of four Standard English words used in academic writing, hypothesis, theory, prove, and proof, and to show that ME can be used as a language pedagogic tool.

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(2020) Akan – Cultural key words

Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.

Thompson, Rachel (2020). Common Akan insults on GhanaWeb: a semantic analysis of kwasea, aboa and gyimii. In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 103-122). Singapore: Springer.

DOI:

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(2020) Australian English — Humour

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

Haugh, Michael, & Weinglass, Lara. (2020). “The Great Australian Pastime”: Pragmatic and Semantic Perspectives on Taking the Piss. In Kerry Mullan, Bert Peeters, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis (pp. 75-94). Singapore: Springer.

Abstract

The claim that Australians place considerable value on not taking oneself too seriously lies at the heart of discourses on Anglo-Australian identity. While laughter and playful talk are ubiquitous across languages and cultures, Australians are claimed to pride themselves on being able to joke and laugh at themselves (and others) in almost any context, no matter how dire or serious the circumstances appear to be. One of the key practices that has often been noted is that of ‘taking the piss’, where the pretensions of others are (gleefully) punctured through cutting, mocking remarks. Yet despite its apparent importance for Australians, there has been surprisingly little empirical study of actual instances of it. This lacuna is arguably a consequence of the complexity of studying a phenomenon that is simultaneously semantic and pragmatic in character. Ethnopragmatics is one of the few extant approaches that is specifically designed to directly tackle this problem. In this approach, ‘semantic explications’, which address what a word or phrase means, provide the basis for proposing ‘cultural scripts’, which address what members of a culture are held to (normatively) do in social interaction and the cultural value placed on doing things in that way. In this chapter, we analyse data drawn from spoken corpora to address the question of whether “taking the piss” might be best approached as a kind of ‘semantic explication’ or as a ‘cultural script’, and what the consequences of framing it as one or other might be for research on the role of ‘humour’ more generally in social interaction amongst Australian speakers of English.

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(2020) Cèmuhî – Cultural key words

Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.

Peeters, Bert; Lecompte-Van Poucke, Margo (2020). Bwénaado: an ethnolexicological study of a culturally salient word in Cèmuhî (New Caledonia). In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 123-148). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7_7

Abstract:

Ever since people have come together in communities, they have felt the need to regulate and control their relationships with members of other groups. One way of building and maintaining a stable society is by sharing wealth. New Caledonia has developed its own unique system of exchange, referred to as la coutume by its French-speaking inhabitants and by the Melanesian part of the population, which also uses indigenous terms that have relatively high cultural visibility and can thus be considered culturally salient. This paper focuses on one such word, bwénaado, and aims to demonstrate that it reflects an important cultural value in Cèmuhî, an Austronesian language spoken by approximately 3300 people dispersed along the north-east coast and in the valleys of New Caledonia’s rugged interior. To the best of our knowledge, no detailed treatment of bwénaado exists. Our semantic analysis therefore breaks new ground. Three different meanings of the word (roughly, ‘large-scale customary celebration’, ‘customary ceremony’ and ‘customary gift’) are distinguished. It will be argued that, even though the Kanak social exchange system (in which all three meanings are highly relevant) seems to be linked to a universal principle of reciprocity, it is highly culture-specific. To ensure utmost respect for this cultural specificity and to break out of the prison walls of the English language, NSM will be used to frame the description, and applied ethnolinguistics will form the backdrop against which the description is carried out.

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(2020) Chinese (Cantonese) – Discourse particles

Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.

Leung, Helen Hue Lam (2020). Combining NSM explications for clusters of Cantonese utterance particles: laa3-wo3 and zaa3-wo3. In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 187-206). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7_10

Abstract:

Utterance particles expressing speakers’ attitudes, assumptions or feelings are indispensable in informal Hong Kong Cantonese. Everyday conversation would sound very unusual if they were omitted. There are approximately 30 ‘basic’ (monosyllabic) particles, which can be either used on their own or combined with each other in ‘clusters’, i.e. polysyllabic combinations where two or more particles occur one after the other in immediate succession. Clusters of particles have consistently been claimed to have the combined meaning of the separate particles of
which they are made up; however, in the absence of rigorous semantic analyses of the individual particles involved, evidence for this has been scant at best. Indeed, the range of use of each of the particles is broad and varied, and it is extremely difficult, even for native speakers, to satisfactorily explain their meanings and functions. Most prior studies provide semantic descriptions that are vague, contradictory, and sometimes untrue. The current chapter builds on some of the evidence-based, translatable and testable NSM explications of individual particles put forward in the author’s earlier work, which demonstrated that the particles have stable and identifiable meanings. It shows how, using NSM, the semantic content of clusters of Cantonese utterance particles can effectively be derived from the meaning of individual particles.

Two clusters are examined, laa3-wo3 and zaa3-wo3, which are formed from three ‘basic’ particles: laa3, zaa3 and wo3. The short explications of the individual particles are combined to create ‘joint’ explications, with the resulting cluster definitions tested by substitution into real examples taken from the Hong Kong Cantonese Corpus. It is found that the combined NSM explications adequately portray the meanings of the particle clusters.

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(2020) Chinese (Cantonese), English – Ethnopragmatics

Published on February 10, 2020. Last updated on February 10, 2020.

Wakefield, John C.; Winnie Chor, Winnie; & Lai, Nikko (2020). Condolences in Cantonese and English: What people say and why. In Kerry Mullan, Bert Peeters, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis (pp. 35-58). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_3

Abstract:

This study uses the ethnopragmatics approach to examine the cultural-based knowledge that guides Cantonese and Anglo-English speakers when offering death-related condolences, or what we refer to here as ‘condolence routines’. The data come from discourse completion tasks, the existence of cultural key phrases, and the authors’ native-speaker intuitions. The authors examine condolences that are offered to a good friend who has recently lost someone close to him or her. They present cultural scripts that are proposed to account for the linguistic contrasts in Cantonese versus English condolence routines. The Cantonese script is entirely new while the English script is revised from a previous study.

Based on our analysis, we conclude that the primary contrast is that Anglo-English condolences typically focus on expressing that the condoler feels sad because of the bereaved’s loss, while Cantonese condolences typically focus on telling the bereaved not to be sad and to take care of his- or herself. Knowledge of this contrast in sociopragmatics is not only a meaningful contribution to the study of pragmatics; it is also of practical help to people in regular contact with Cantonese and/or Anglo-English speakers. It can help one understand how to avoid saying something during a condolence routine that may sound inappropriate, or even insensitive, to speakers of these two languages.

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(2020) Chinese (Cantonese), English – Intonational morphology [BOOK]

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

Wakefield, John C. (2020). Intonational morphology. Singapore, Springer, 2020.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2265-9

Abstract:

This book discusses the morphological properties of intonation, building on past research to support the long-recognized relationship between the functions and meanings of discourse particles and the functions and meanings of intonation. The morphological status of intonation has been debated for decades, and this book provides evidence from the literature combined with new and compelling empirical evidence to show that specific intonational forms correspond to specific segmental discourse particles. It also describes how intonation is represented in speakers’ minds, which has important implications for first and second language acquisition as well as for theories and approaches to artificial speech recognition and production.

Chapter 6 of the book presents evidence that strongly indicates that six Cantonese sentence-final particles (SFPs) have English intonational equivalents. These six SFPs divide into three pairs of related particles: the evidential particles 咯 lo1 and 吖吗 aa1maa3; the question particles 咩 me1 and 呀 aa4; and the “only” particles zaa3 and ze1. Each SFP’s meaning is described and an NSM explication of it is presented before showing and discussing the data related to its English equivalent. The data comprise Cantonese-to-English oral translations and their accompanying F0 contours. The translators were ambilingual speakers of L1 Cantonese and L1 English. Based on the fact that each SFP translated into English as the same form of intonation by more than one ambilingual translator in more than one context, it is assumed that the definition given to each SFP also applies to its English intonational equivalent. It is further proposed that these English forms of intonation are tonal morphemes that reside in native-English speakers’ lexicons.

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(2020) Chinese (Mandarin) – Colours and vision

Published on June 19, 2020. Last updated on January 15, 2022.

Tao, Jiashu & Wong, Jock. (2020). The confounding Mandarin colour term ‘qīng’: Green, blue, black or all of the above and more?. In Lauren Sadow, Bert Peeters, & Kerry Mullan (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond) (pp. 191-212). Singapore: Springer.

Abstract

The Mandarin word qīng (‘青’), which Google translates to ‘green’, ‘blue’ and even ‘black’, among other colour terms in English, is one of the oldest, most frequently used colour terms in Mandarin and probably the most confounding. The word is polysemous and its multiple meanings and combinations with other words have generated much confusion among generations of non-native speakers and learners of Mandarin, and perhaps even native speakers. To help Mandarin speakers and learners better understand the word, dictionaries mainly define qīng using English colour terms, such as ‘green’, ‘blue’ and ‘black’, which is to a certain extent helpful but which raises questions, such as if Mandarin speakers do not distinguish between the colours green and blue. There is thus a need to semantically analyse this word to help Mandarin learners acquire a deeper understanding of its multiple meanings and uses. The objective of this paper is to study the multiple meanings of the character qīng, one of which dates back to the late Shang Dynasty (1200–1050 BC), when the oracle bone script, the earliest known form of Chinese writing, was first used. This paper also compares its meanings with those of two related colour terms lǜ (‘绿’) and lán (‘蓝’), which are associated with the English ‘green’ and ‘blue’, respectively. To capture the meanings and their differences with maximal clarity and minimal ethnocentrism, the authors use Minimal English.

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(2020) Cultural key words

Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.

Peeters, Bert (2020). Culture is everywhere! In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 1-14). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7_1

Abstract:

This introductory chapter to the second of three volumes celebrating the career of Griffith University academic Cliff Goddard recaps the fundamentals of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach, which is explicitly adopted by all contributors to this volume (Sect. 1.2), then contextualizes and introduces the individual papers (Sects. 1.3 and 1.4).

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(2020) Danish – Grammatical categories & constructions

Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on August 18, 2023.

Levisen, Carsten (2020). Postcolonial prepositions: semantics and popular geopolitics in the Danosphere. In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 169-186). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7_9

Abstract:

This study breaks new ground in the semantics of ‘popular geopolitics’. With a case study on two Danish prepositions, i and på, both of which are important for the Danish construal of Greenland, the study develops a new analysis of the popular geopolitics that guide Danish ways of thinking about Greenland. Empirically, the study relies on evidence from social media discourse, which is subjected to the NSM method of analysis. The aim is to provide semantic explications for the two prepositional phrases i Grønland ‘in Greenland’ and på Grønland ‘on Greenland’, and to articulate the cultural scripts that allow speakers to ascribe geopolitical meaning to these prepositions. Drawing on Goddard’s seminal work on spatial semantics, place constructs and ethnopragmatics, the paper develops a postcolonial semantic account of Danish ‘preposition talk’. It is shown that the two prepositions have come to stand for two different Danish attitudes towards Greenland, in short, the på-attitude, which emphasizes Greenland’s ‘Islandness’, and the i-attitude, which emphasizes Greenland as a country among other countries.

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(2020) English – Cultural key words

Published on February 16, 2019. Last updated on February 9, 2020.

Goddard, Cliff (2020). ‘Country’, ‘land’, ‘nation’: Key Anglo English words for talking and thinking about people in places. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics, 1(2), 8-27.

Abstract:

This is a corpus-assisted, lexical-semantic study of the English words ‘country’, ‘land’ and ‘nation’, using the NSM technique of paraphrase in terms of simple, cross-translatable words. The importance of these words and their derivatives in Anglophone public and political discourses is obvious. Indeed, it would be no exaggeration to say that without the support of words like these, discourses of nationalism, patriotism, immigration, international affairs, land rights, and post/anti-colonialism would be literally impossible.

The study builds on Anna Wierzbicka’s (1997) seminal study of “homeland” and related concepts in European languages, as well as more recent NSM work that has explored ways in which discursively powerful words encapsulate historically and culturally contingent assumptions about relationships between people and places. The primary focus is on conceptual analysis, lexical polysemy, phraseology and discursive formation in mainstream Anglo English, but the study also touches on one specifically Australian phenomenon, which is the use of country in a distinctive sense which originated in Aboriginal English, e.g. in expressions like my grandfather’s country and looking after country. This highlights how Anglo English words can be semantically “re-purposed” in postcolonial and anti-colonial discourses.

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(2020) English — Evaluational adjectives

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

Trnavac, Radoslava, & Taboada, Maite. (2020). Positive Appraisal in Online News Comments. In Kerry Mullan, Bert Peeters, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis (pp. 185–206). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_10

Abstract

This chapter investigates the linguistic expression of positive evaluation in English and describes a preliminary typology of linguistic devices used for positive evaluation. Using corpus-assisted analysis, we classify some of the resources that play a role in the expression of positive evaluation into phenomena in the lexicogrammar and phenomena that belong in discourse semantics and compare those resources to the ones deployed for negative evaluation (see the work on negative evaluation in Taboada et al. in Corpus Pragmat, 1:57–76, 2017). This general classification of evaluative devices overlaps with the planes of expression in systemic functional linguistics. Our data comes from a collection of opinion articles and the comments associated with them (Kolhatkar et al., in the SFU Opinion and Comments Corpus: A corpus for the analysis of online news comments, under review). We use a set of 1000 comments previously annotated for Appraisal (Martin and White in The language of evaluation. Palgrave, New York, 2005), including labels of Attitude (Affect, Judgement, Appreciation) and polarity (positive, negative, neutral). The central component of the chapter is the analysis of the resources used by commenters to express positive evaluation. We explore whether they make use of rhetorical figures, following up on our work with Cliff Goddard on the use of rhetorical figures in the expression of negative evaluation (Taboada et al. in Corpus Pragmat, 1:57–76, 2017). We then analyse the semantics of evaluative adjectives using the natural semantic metalanguage approach and follow our previous work on templates that capture different types of adjectives and fall into five groups (Goddard et al., in Funct Lang 26, 2019). Although our corpus analysis is limited, and it includes only a specific type of data (online news comments), the phenomena that we discuss are present across different genres of texts. While our previous work has focused on how to express negative evaluation, this chapter seeks to honour Cliff Goddard and his positive influence by studying how positivity is realized in language.

 


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(2020) English (Australia) – Cultural key words

Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.

Rowen, Roslyn (2020). The “Aussie” bogan: an occasioned semantics analysis. In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 2. Meaning and culture (pp. 57-84). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9975-7_4

Abstract:

This chapter explores the meaning and social use of the word bogan in Australian English. Although bogan is arguably a term that is currently trending in use and has been parodied in television series such as Bogan Pride and Upper Middle Bogan, it has so far been examined predominantly by sociologists, media scholars and social commentators, with little to no semantic research to date into bogan as a personal descriptor in colloquial Australian English. This study contributes to filling this gap by providing a foundation based on which the
meaning(s) of the term and its current widespread use in social interactions can be understood. In the process, it demonstrates that bogan is more than a term that asserts middle class hegemony, a label it has been repeatedly branded with; rather, it has a strong semantic core to which its meaning across various Australian discourses can be traced back. The chapter draws on interactional pragmatics to analyse the interactional achievement of locally situated meanings of bogan in conversational data. I will then provide comment on the role of NSM in dealing with participants’ interactionally specific meaning(s) of bogan. Data on usage comes from a corpus of naturally occurring examples of use of bogan in social interaction.

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(2020) English (Australia) – Lexicography

Published on June 19, 2020. Last updated on August 15, 2021.

Sadow, Lauren (2020). Principles and prototypes of a cultural dictionary of Australian English for learners. In Lauren Sadow, Bert Peeters, & Kerry Mullan (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond) (pp. 165-190). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9979-5_9

Abstract:

This chapter discusses some of the issues that need to be considered when producing a user-friendly resource intended to familiarize ESL learners with the invisible culture of Australian English. It draws on specialized function lexicography and on the cultural scripts approach as proposed by Goddard. The resource takes the form of an encyclopedic dictionary focusing on Australian values, attitudes and interactional norms and aims to respond to an industry need for pedagogical materials that introduce migrants coming to Australia to the culture embodied in Australian English. Best practice for teaching cultural awareness and related skills is to use a method for teaching that encourages students to reflect on their experience and to analyse it from an insider or emic perspective. The cultural scripts approach, which deconstructs complex cultural elements into simpler and universally intelligible building blocks, provides an effective means to this end. The chapter contends that drawing connections between different cultural scripts and illustrating those connections in a way that promotes the acquisition of concepts for learners is one of the most important elements in cultural dictionary design.

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