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Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Monville-Burston, Monique (1993). Les verba dicendi dans la presse d’information [Verba dicendi in the information press]. Langue française, 98, 48-66. DOI: 10.3406/lfr.1993.5833. PDF (open access)
Written in French.
Following the example set by A. Wierzbicka’s English speech act verbs: A semantic dictionary (1988), the author explores on a more modest scale the area of French speech act verbs. Having identified, within a corpus of texts belonging to the newspaper press, the ten most frequent « verba dicendi », she sets out to provide a precise and rigorous definition for each, and she deals with the various constraints which rule their use by journalists.
Published on May 17, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Roberts, Catherine (1993). *Les paroles rapportées dans la presse. BA(Hons) thesis, University of Melbourne.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1994). Cognitive domains and the structure of the lexicon: The case of emotions. In Lawrence A. Hirschfeld, & Susan A. Gelman (Eds.), Mapping the mind: Domain specificity in cognition and culture (pp. 431-452). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
In trying to discover how knowledge (or at least basic, “foundational” knowledge) is stored and organized in the human mind we can rely, in a considerable measure, on language. There may be concepts that are not lexicalized in natural language, but these are probably less common, less basic, and less salient in a given speech community than those that have achieved lexicalization; they are also less accessible to study. Words provide evidence for the existence of concepts. Lexical sets, sharing a similar semantic structure, provide evidence for the existence of cohesive conceptual wholes (or fields). If it is hypothesized that knowledge is organized in the mind in the form of “cognitive domains,” then conceptual fields detectable through semantic analysis of the lexicon can be regarded as a guide to those domains. These general assumptions are illustrated in this paper by reference to a specific semantic domain: that of emotion terms. For reasons of space, the discussion must remain brief, sketchy, and selective.
Tags: (E) angry, (E) annoyed, (E) disappointed, (E) discontent, (E) displeased, (E) distress, (E) emotion, (E) guilty, (E) irritated, (E) joyful, (E) mad, (E) resent, (E) sad
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Wong, Jock (1994). A Wierzbickan approach to Singlish particles. MA thesis, National University of Singapore.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1994). Emotion, language, and cultural scripts. In Shinobu Kitayama, & Hazel Rose Markus (Eds.), Emotion and culture: Empirical studies of mutual influence (pp. 133-196). Washington: American Psychological Association.
Abstract:
This chapter explores the relationship between emotion and culture, and between emotion and cognition. It examines the concept of emotion, and argues that it is culture-specific and rooted in the semantics of the English language, as are also the names of specific emotions, such as sadness, joy, anger, or fear. It shows that both the concept of emotion and the language-specific names of particular emotions can be explicated and elucidated in universal semantic primes (NSM).
NSM provides a necessary counterbalance to the uncritical use of English words as conceptual tools in the psychology, philosophy, and sociology of emotions. It offers a suitable basis for description and comparison of not only emotions and emotion concepts but also of cultural attitudes to emotions. Different cultures do indeed encourage different attitudes toward emotions, and these different attitudes are reflected in both the lexicon and the grammar of the languages associated with these cultures.
The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the language-specific character of emotion concepts and grammatical categories; the need for lexical universals as conceptual and descriptive tools; the doctrine of basic emotions and the issue of the discreteness of emotions; and the relationships among emotions, sensations, and feelings. The second part, on cultural scripts (with special reference to the Anglo and Polish cultures), explores attitudes toward emotions characteristic of different cultures (in particular, the Anglo and Polish cultures) and shows how these attitudes can be expressed in the form of cultural scripts formulated by means of universal semantic primes.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 5 (pp. 163-189) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (endearments), (E) emotion, (E) enjoy, (E) Gefühl, (E) Gefühle, (E) sensation, (E) sentiment, (E) sentimento, (E) sentimiento, (S) bad things happen to people, (S) compliments, (S) consideration, (S) emotions, (S) feelings, (S) good things can happen to people, (S) I don't think this, (S) I say what I think, (S) I think this, (S) saying what one thinks, (S) self-analysis, (S) self-control, (S) spontaneity, (S) tact, (S) verbal and non-verbal communication, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 26, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1994). Semantics and epistemology: The meaning of ‘evidentials’ in a cross-linguistic perspective. Language Sciences, 16(1), 81-137. DOI: 10.1016/0388-0001(94)90018-3
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 15 (pp. 427-458) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics: Primes and universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meaning is encoded not only in words but also in grammatical categories. The meanings encoded in grammar (just like those encoded in the lexicon) are language-specific. Attempts to identify the meanings encoded in different languages by means of arbitrarily invented labels only conceals and obfuscates the language-specific character of the categories they are attached to. To be able to compare grammatical categories across language boundaries, we need constant points of reference, which slippery labels with shifting meanings cannot possibly provide. Universal (or near-universal) semantic primitives (or near-primitives) can provide such constant and language-independent points of reference. They offer a secure basis for a semantic typology of both lexicons and grammars. At the same time, they offer us convenient and reliable tools for investigating the universal and the language-specific aspects of human cognition and human conceptualization of the world.
In this paper, the author illustrates and documents these claims by analysing one area of grammar in a number of different languages of the world: the area that is usually associated with the term evidentiality. As the goal of the paper is theoretical, not empirical, the data are drawn exclusively from one source: a volume entitled Evidentiality, edited by Chafe and Nichols (1986). The author reexamines the data presented in this volume by experts on a number of languages, and tries to show how these data can be reanalysed in terms of universal semantic primitives, and how in this way they can be made both more verifiable (that is, predictive) and more comparable across language boundaries.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ?el, (E) 'dug, (E) 'yuu, (E) a, (E) bes, (E) beti, (E) biw, (E) bos, (E) boti, (E) chi, (E) dó, (E) in, (E) ishi, (E) ja, (E) jilli, (E) ke‧, (E) mâ, (E) mela, (E) mi, (E) miyă, (E) mte, (E) mtʰer, (E) mu?a, (E) mute, (E) mutʰer, (E) nnă, (E) nok, (E) ntʰEr, (E) pacha, (E) pi, (E) psa, (E) psilli, (E) qă, (E) qilli, (E) re, (E) red, (E) shi, (E) sk''amna, (E) sk''apsa, (E) sun, (E) ŵă, (E) ŵela, (E) wi, (E) xa, (E) yă, (E) yin, (E) yod, (E) yowă
Published on July 30, 2018. Last updated on August 29, 2018.
Hasada, Rie (1994). The semantic aspects of onomatopoeia: Focusing on Japanese psychomimes. MA thesis, Australian National University. PDF (open access)
This thesis aims to examine the semantic aspects of Japanese onomatopoeia, which is among the least studied language phenomena in Japanese linguistics. The focus of the thesis is on explicating the meaning of psychomimes, the onomatopoeic words that refer to emotions. Among Japanese onomatopoeia, psychomimes are the hardest for non-native speakers to acquire. This is because their meanings are more abstract and more culturally embedded than other types of onomatopoeic words. The thesis also considers some cultural aspects that are
linked to Japanese onomatopoeic words, since their explication will facilitate a deeper understanding of the use and meaning of those words.
I demonstrate that the complex Japanese-specific meanings involved in selected psychomimes can be clearly shown and made comprehensible to outsiders when they are translated into the universal or near-universal Natural Semantic Metalanguage and represented in
the framework of a “prototype scenario”. I show that the complex and unique semantic concepts of Japanese psychomimes, which are usually described as ‘untranslatable’, are nonetheless translatable on the level of semantic explication with language-independent semantic
metalanguage. The similarities and dissimilarities in labelling and the conceptualization encoded in different psychomimes become apparent with the use of the universal Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) biku-biku, (E) doki-doki, (E) dokiq, (E) gyoq, (E) haq, (E) hara-hara, (E) hiya-hiya, (E) ira-ira, (E) iso-iso, (E) kaq, (E) mukaq, (E) muq, (E) musha-kusha, (E) odo-odo, (E) sowa-sowa, (E) uki-uki, (E) waku-waku
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wilkins, David P. (1995). Expanding the traditional category of deictic elements: Interjections as deictics. In Judith F. Duchan, Gail A. Bruder, & Lynne E. Hewitt (Eds.), Deixis in narrative: A cognitive science perspective (pp. 359-386). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
The bulk of this chapter is an abridged and re-edited version of an earlier paper (Wilkins, 1992). The primary purpose of that paper and, hence, this chapter is to argue that the traditional American linguistic view of deictic elements must be expanded to embrace interjections alongside the more standard members such as pronouns and demonstratives. To rescue interjections from the periphery of linguistic concerns requires a demonstration of two points: (a) that interjections share specific linguistic and communicative properties with more standard deictic elements, and (b) that it is possible to render a convincing account of the semantic structure and pragmatic usage of interjections. I attempt to expand this argument, and extend the demonstration of the two forementioned points by tying interjections in with the narrative and deictic center concerns that form the focus of the book in which the new version appears, but that were not explicitly covered in the original paper.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Cincin!, (E) me (interjection), (E) Ngke!, (E) Ow!, (E) To'!, (E) Wow!
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Kornacki, Paweł (1995). Heart & face: Semantics of Chinese emotion concepts. PhD thesis, Australian National University.
Open access
Abstract:
This thesis uses NSM to explore the conceptual organization of a subset of the emotion vocabulary of Modern Standard Chinese. Chapter One (Introduction) provides background information on the analytic perspective adopted in the thesis, the sources of data, and a preliminary discussion of some of the issues in the early Chinese ethnotheory of “emotion”. Chapter Two explicates the key concept of 心 xin ‘heart/mind’, which is the cognitive, moral, and emotional ‘centre’ of a person. Chapter Three discusses two related notions, 面子 miànzi and 脸 liăn, usually glossed in English by means of the word face; both notions speak to the culturally perceived relevance to the self of other people’s judgements. Chapter Four develops this theme further, dealing with the ‘social feelings’ of Chinese, i.e. reactions to the things people say and think about us. Chapter Five focuses on the semantic field of Chinese ‘anger’-like expressions. Chapter Six analyses the lexical data pertinent to the conceptualization of different kinds of subjectively ‘bad’ feelings, whereas Chapter Seven discusses the emotional reactions to various types of good situations and events.
Wherever possible, the thesis seeks to probe into the culturally based aspects of the conceptual structure of emotion words by drawing on a variety of anthropological, psychological and sociological studies of the Chinese society. On the methodological level, the thesis attempts to demonstrate that the bias inherent in conducting the cultural analysis with complex, language-specific notions (e.g., ‘anger’, ‘shame’, ‘happiness’) can be subverted through a recourse to universally shared simple meanings.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) anger, (E) bù ān 不安, (E) bù hăoyìsi 不好意思, (E) cánkuì 惭愧, (E) chĭ 耻, (E) chóu 愁, (E) déyì 得意, (E) emotion, (E) face, (E) fèn 憤, (E) gāoxìng 高兴, (E) huáng 徨, (E) jì 寂, (E) jĭnzhāng 紧张, (E) kuàilè 快乐, (E) kŭmèn 苦闷, (E) liăn 脸, (E) miànzi 面子, (E) năo 恼, (E) năohuo 恼火, (E) nù 怒, (E) qíngxù 情绪, (E) shēngqì 生气, (E) tăoyàn 讨厌, (E) tòngkŭ 痛苦, (E) tòngkuài 痛快, (E) xīn 心, (E) xìngfú 幸福, (E) xiū 羞
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff, & Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). Key words, culture and cognition. Philosophica, 55(1), 37-67.
Open access
Abstract:
How much does language influence how we think? How far are the categories of our language contingent and culture-specific? Few questions are of greater significance to the social sciences. This paper is an attempt to demonstrate that linguistic semantics can address these questions with rigour and precision. It analyses some examples of cultural key words in several languages. Two complementary positions are presented, and both are endorsed. On the one hand, it is argued there are enormous differences in the semantic structuring of different languages and these linguistic differences greatly influence how people think. On the other, it is argued all languages share a small set of universal concepts that can provide a solid basis for cross-cultural understanding and for the culture-independent formulation of philosophical problems.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) duša душа, (E) freedom, (E) libertas, (E) mind, (E) svoboda свобода
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on March 13, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). Dictionaries vs. encyclopaedias: How to draw the line. In Philip W. Davis (Ed.), Alternative linguistics: Descriptive and theoretical modes (pp. 289-315). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: 10.1075/cilt.102.09wie
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 11 (pp. 335-350) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics: Primes and universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Abstract:
If by analysing language we find evidence suggesting that ‘linguistic knowledge’ differs somehow from ‘non-linguistic knowledge’, and that a distinction between the two can be drawn in a non-arbitrary way, this would support the view that the mind itself draws a distinction between a ‘mental dictionary’ and a ‘mental encyclopaedia’. This paper argues that this indeed is the case, and that by examining linguistic evidence we can indeed learn how to draw the line between ‘meaning’ and ‘knowledge’, or between ‘linguistic knowledge’ and ‘encyclopaedic knowledge’.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bottles, (E) ground, (E) guilty, (E) mice, (E) relief, (E) sun
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). The relevance of language to the study of emotions. Psychological Inquiry, 6(3), 248-252. DOI: 10.1207/s15327965pli0603_13
A commentary on R. S. Lazarus’s paper in the same issue. No abstract available.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Harkins, Jean (1995). Desire in language and thought: A study in cross-cultural semantics. PhD thesis, Australian National University. PDF (open access)
This thesis is a semantic-typological study of desiderative constructions in languages of the world. Focussing on both meaning and grammatical structures, it explores how the properties of desiderative expressions in languages of the world reflect universal elements and language-specific configurations of meaning.
Chapter One sets out the nature and scope of the work, explaining the purpose of examining desiderative constructions across languages, and outlining the theoretical context and orientation of the study. Chapter Two presents a typological overview of desiderative expressions in a selection of languages from diverse genetic groups throughout the world, noting cross-linguistic trends in lexical relations and syntactic patterns associated with desiderative constructions. Chapter Three focusses on grammatical properties of desiderative expressions across languages, exploring how the semantics and grammar of different construction types interact with the meanings of individual lexemes to encode a range of desiderative meanings. Chapter Four examines multifunctional grammatical morphemes with desiderative functions, using the principles of NSM analysis to investigate whether they have a single meaning or semantic core, or are truly polysemous. A set of procedures is proposed for specifying how many meanings a grammeme has, and how these relate to its various grammatical functions. Chapter Five compares constructions where a desiderative expression takes a complement clause (as in English I want to dance), and those where a desiderative grammeme occurs within the same clause that represents the wanted event (as in the Kayardild equivalent Ngada wirrka-ju), and explores the interpropositional nature of desiderative meaning. Chapter Six pursues the question of WANT as a semantic and lexical universal, in view of the diversity of desiderative constructions across languages. Specific criteria are proposed for the assessment of semantic equivalence across languages, and for distinguishing language-specific phenomena from potentially universal elements and configurations of meaning. This leads to a proposal for a ‘universal syntax’ of desiderative meaning. The influence of cultural values and attitudes on the expression of desire is explored with a view to explaining aspects of the interaction between social and linguistic structure and its impact on the range and types of desiderative constructions found in different languages, and how a theory of language universals might deal with processes of language change.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). Lexicon as a key to history, culture, and society: “Homeland” and “fatherland” in German, Polish and Russian. In René Dirven, & Johan Vanparys (Eds.), Current approaches to the lexicon (pp. 103-155). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Abstract:
Since many languages, especially European languages, have words denoting ‘native country’, the concepts embodied in these words may be assumed to transcend language boundaries. In fact, words that appear to match in this way are laden with historical and cultural significance, and often differ from one another in particularly telling ways, offering valuable insight into different national traditions and historical experiences. This general proposition is illustrated here through an analysis and comparison of three cultural key words of modern German and Polish: Heimat, Vaterland, and ojczyzna. A cursory discussion of the Russian word rodina is also included.
In addition to universals, the explications rely on the words country, born, and child. These words (referred to in later work as semantic molecules) can be defined in terms of the universals, but to do so within the explications of such complex cultural concepts as Heimat, Vaterland, ojczyzna, and rodina would be confusing and counterproductive.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 12 (pp. 450-489) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Chapter 4 (pp. 156-197) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1997), Understanding cultures through their key words: English, Russian, Polish, German, Japanese. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Heimat, (E) ojczyzna, (E) rodina, (E) Vaterland
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on March 13, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). Dictionaries and ideologies: Three examples from Eastern Europe. In Braj B. Kachru, & Henry Kahane (Eds.), Cultures, ideologies and the dictionary: Studies in honor of Ladislav Zgusta (pp. 181-195). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
This paper considers three lexicographic definitions from three Eastern European dictionaries, produced under communist rule. In each case, the word under discussion presents ideological difficulties for the dictionary’s editors — either because its meaning is politically incorrect, i.e. reflects an outlook incompatible with the official communist ideology, or because it is politically sensitive, and can be used as a potent ideological tool in both desirable and undesirable political contexts.
Each of the three definitions concerns a keyword, that is, a word especially important in the life of the society in question and reflecting this society’s experience and values. The three keywords discussed are the German word Vaterland (roughly, ‘fatherland’), the Russian word smirenie (roughly, ‘humility’, ‘resignation’) and the Polish word bezpieka (roughly, ‘state security’).
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bezpieka, (E) smirenie, (E) Vaterland
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on October 19, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (1995). ‘Cognitive mapping’ or ‘verbal explication’? Understanding love on the Malay Archipelago. Semiotica, 106(3/4), 323-354.
This is a review article of Karl G. Heider’s 1991 book Landscapes of emotion: Mapping three cultures of emotion in Indonesia. It is argued that a failure to grasp the nettle on the issue of translation, the exclusive reliance on a narrow range of artificial questionnaire-generated data and the lack of depth in the ethnographic commentary prevent Heider from making substantial progress toward his goal of understanding how culture influences emotion. For the purpose of modeling linguistic and cultural meanings, there is no escape from language, and the problem of translation must be faced fairly and squarely. Much progress has been made within linguistic semantics, especially within the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) approach led by Anna Wierzbicka, toward developing a systematic and non-ethnocentric approach to verbal explication. An attempt is made to show how this approach can be fruitfully and revealingly applied to the semantic analysis of some Malay emotion words.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) anger, (E) cinta, (E) fear, (E) frightened, (E) kasih, (E) kasihan, (E) sayang, (E) song
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). Emotion and facial expression: A semantic perspective. Culture and Psychology, 1, 227-258. DOI: 10.1177/1354067×9512005
This paper addresses some basic conceptual issues that must be clarified before the real controversies about the nature and universality of emotions and their expression can be clearly stated. To begin with, it argues that interpretative categories such as ‘anger’, ‘fear’, ‘disgust’, ‘sadness’ and ‘enjoyment’ are language-specific and culture-specific, and cannot identify any human universals in the area of emotions (even if such universals did exist). Furthermore, the paper shows how different emotions can be identified in terms of cognitive scenarios associated with them and how cognitive scenarios can be phrased in terms of universal human concepts. It also shows how clearly identifiable “facial components” or configurations of “facial components” (i.e. aspects of facial behaviour) can be linked with cognitive components (and with feelings identifiable through such components). Finally, it puts forward and illustrates a hypothesis about an iconic basis of the “semantics of the human face”.
Throughout the paper, the author tries to demonstrate that the use of conceptual primitives allows us to explore human emotions from a universal, language-independent perspective. Since every language imposes its own classification upon human emotional experience, English words such as anger or sadness are cultural artefacts of the English language, not culture-free analytical tools. On the other hand, conceptual primitives such as GOOD and BAD, or WANT, KNOW, SAY and THINK are not cultural artefacts of the English language but belong to the universal “alphabet of human thoughts” apparently lexicalized in all languages of the world. The author argues that basing our analysis on lexical universals we can free ourselves from the bias of our own language and reach a universal, culture-independent perspective on human cognition in general and on human emotions in particular.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) [facial expressions], (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). Everyday conceptions of emotion: A semantic perspective. In James A. Russell, José-Miguel Fernández-Dols, Antony S. R. Manstead, & J. C. Wellenkamp (Eds.), Everyday conceptions of emotion: An introduction to the psychology, anthropology and linguistics of emotion (pp. 17-47). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
The most important controversy in the study of emotions is that between “universalists” like Spiro and “culturalists” like Lutz. This paper argues that both sides in the debate are defending an important aspect of the truth; but that they both err in taking a partial truth for the whole truth, and that this is where their conflict arises. The important truth that Spiro (among many others) is defending is that of the “psychic unity of humankind”. The important truth that Lutz (among many others) is defending is that “universal human nature” must not be identified, unwittingly, with Anglo culture reflected in the English language.
The emotional intensity of the “Spiro-Lutz” controversy stems no doubt from the fact that both sides feel they are defending an important truth. And so they are. But Spiro errs when he thinks that to defend the “universal human nature” he must defend the universality of concepts such as ‘anger’ or ‘sadness’ (or, for that matter, ’emotion’), and Lutz errs when she thinks that to combat ethnocentrism she must question the validity of concepts such as FEEL or THINK as basic conceptual tools in describing and comparing cultures; and also, when she implies that psychology is doomed to remaining, for ever, an “ethnopsychology” since there are no universals in which a genuinely culture-independent psychology could find a foothold.
Any meaningful comparison presupposes the existence of a tertium comparationis. Different cultures reflect and promote different conceptions of ’emotion’ (that is, of those aspects of human life that are defined with reference to the concept FEEL); but all these different conceptions can all be meaningfully compared in terms of human universals encoded in all human languages.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on November 11, 2018.
Harkins, Jean (1996). Linguistic and cultural differences in concepts of shame. In David Parker, Rosamund Dalziell, & Iain Richard Wright (Eds.), Shame and the modern self (pp. 84-96). Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Shame is one of a set of ‘social emotions’ that have a strong influence upon the behaviour of individuals in relation to the society in which they live. Emotions of this kind, and related norms of behaviour, are socially constructed within a particular linguistic and cultural context. Serious cross-cultural misunderstanding can result from assuming that emotions, or the behaviour associated with them, will be the same for different cultural groups. For example, shame-like emotions in some contexts can strongly motivate people to conform, but in others they can increase a person’s alienation from and hostility to society. This essay examines shame-like concepts in some languages of Aboriginal Australia and the Pacific, showing how the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) method of analysing emotion words and cultural rules can pinpoint the cognitive and emotive elements contained within culture-specific emotion concepts, and can make some predictions about ‘scripts’ for behaviour associated with these emotions.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ashamed, (E) shame, (E) whakamaa, (S) reintegrative shaming
Published on June 28, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (1996). The “social emotions” of Malay (Bahasa Melayu). Ethos, 24(3), 426-464. DOI: 10.1525/eth.1996.24.3.02a00020
Studies of cultural variation in emotional meanings have played an important part in the development of the interdisciplinary field of cultural psychology. It is now widely accepted that the language of emotion can be an invaluable window into culture-specific conceptualizations of social life and human nature. Such studies inevitably involve explorations in cross-linguistic semantics. Despite their undoubted value, however, from the point of view of linguistic semantics these inquiries have been informal in the sense that they have not utilized any rigorous framework for semantic analysis. It is the premise of this article that a suitably rigorous method of cross-cultural semantic analysis is the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) approach developed primarily by Anna Wierzbicka. The present study applies the NSM approach to a subset of the emotion vocabulary of Malay (Bahasa Melayu), the national language of Malaysia. The underlying theoretical question is the extent to which emotion concepts are culturally constituted. The related methodological problem is how to analyse and describe emotion terms in a way that does not take Western/English language emotion concepts as neutral or natural scientific categories.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bangga, (E) benci, (E) cemburu, (E) cinta, (E) dendam, (E) geram, (E) hampa, (E) kasih, (E) kasihan, (E) kecewa, (E) malu, (E) marah, (E) rindu, (E) sayang, (E) segan, (T) Malay
