A resource base of publications using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. 1,100+ detailed notices, and counting!
Goddard, Cliff, & Wierzbicka, Anna (Eds.) (2004). Cultural scripts. Intercultural Pragmatics, 1(2) (Special issue).
Table of contents:
Each paper has its own entry, where additional information is provided.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Wierzbicka, Anna (2004). Jewish cultural scripts and the interpretation of the Bible. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(3), 575-599.
DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2003.09.002
Abstract:
When we read texts belonging to other epochs, lands, peoples and traditions, we must approach them in their proper cultural context and with some knowledge of this culture’s ready-made speech forms; in other words, we must try to understand the underlying cultural scripts that shaped the ways of thinking and the ways of speaking reflected in those texts. If these cultural scripts are to be made intelligible to us, they must be explained in terms that the culture alien to us shares with our own. The set of simple and universal human concepts that has been discovered in recent decades through empirical linguistic investigations can play a useful role in this regard; it can serve as a kind of a universal conceptual lingua franca to help minimize miscommunication and build cross-cultural bridges between readers and writers.
Mainstream Anglo culture, with its cherished traditions of rationality and empiricism, and with its emphasis on science and scientific discourse, values consistency, accuracy, logical formulations, absence of contradictions (on any level), absence of exaggeration, dispassionate reasoning, and so on. These are not the values of the culture of Hosea, or the culture of Jesus, just as they are not the values of the culture reflected in the stories of Sholom Aleichem or Isaac Bashevis Singer. For the modern Anglo reader of the Bible, a cross-cultural commentary is not an optional extra, but a necessity. The cultural script model can be an effective tool for the purposes of cross-cultural understanding — in personal interaction, social life, business, politics, literature, and also in religion. In particular, it can be an effective tool for the interpretation of the Bible, as literature and (for believers) as the Word of God.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Wierzbicka, Anna (2004). ‘Happiness’ in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. Daedalus, 133(2), 34-43. DOI: 10.1162/001152604323049370
Also published as:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2007). “Happiness” in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. Slovo a Smysl – Word and Sense, 8. HTML (open access)
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 5 (pp. 102-126) of:
Goddard, Cliff, & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199668434.001.0001
Progress in cross-cultural investigations of happiness and subjective well-being requires a greater linguistic and cross-cultural sophistication than that evident in much of the existing literature on the subject. To compare meanings across languages, we need a well-founded semantic metalanguage; and to be able to interpret self-reports across cultures, we need a methodology for exploring cultural norms that may guide the interviewees in their responses. It is the author’s firm belief that the Natural Semantic Metalanguage can solve the first problem and that the methodology of cultural scripts can solve the second. Together, they bring significant advances to the intriguing and controversial field of happiness studies.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Peeters, Bert (2004). Tall poppies and egalitarianism in Australian discourse: From key word to cultural value. English world wide, 25, 1-25.
Wong, Jock (2004). The particles of Singapore English: A semantic and cultural interpretation. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(9), 739-793. DOI: 10.1016/S0378-2166(03)00070-5
A more recent publication building on parts of this one is chapter 7 (pp. 230-259) of:
Wong, Jock O. (2014). The culture of Singapore English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139519519
Particles constitute one of the most distinctive features of the cultural dialect known as Singapore English. They are highly interactive and play a major role in the integrity and cohesiveness of the Singapore English speech community, offering invaluable insights into Singapore culture. Their semantic study could therefore pave the way for a better understanding of this culture.
The present study investigates the meanings of several particles in Singapore English: three particles la which come in different lexical tones (but are otherwise homophones), the particle wut (commonly spelt as what), and the particle meh. The meaning of each of these particles is stated in the form of a reductive paraphrase couched in simple and universal human concepts so that it can be readily understood by both insiders and cultural outsiders.
The study shows that Singapore English particles are loaded with interactional or pragmatic meanings. It also suggests that the high frequency of use of some particles, including wut and the particles la, is motivated by a cultural norm of interaction.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Bardzokas, Chrisovalandis (2004). Contrastive semantics of English “anger” and Modern Greek “θymos”. LAUD Working Papers, Series A, General and Theoretical Papers, 582. PDF (open access)
The emotion concept of ‘anger’ appears to acquire such enormous proportions in human emotionality that it has sparked off heated debate in relation to its purported universality or its language- and culture-specificity. To portray possible differences between anger-related concepts across languages and cultures, a nuanced and illuminating method of contrasting concepts is needed. The use of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (henceforth NSM) is proposed to this end. The research also carries out the laborious task of testing the applicability of the NSM framework in the investigation of the language of emotions generally. Similar tests involving other emotions have already been conducted by several other scholars; for the purpose of this paper, the implementation of NSM will be attempted in the domain of anger in comparison and contrast to that of Modern Greek θυμός thymos. Both domains are conceptualized in terms of several emotion words. Explications are proposed for the predicative use of the English words angry, mad, furious, and irate, and for the Greek verbs θυμωνομαι thymonomai, νευριάζομαι nevriazomai, εκνευρίζομαι eknevrizomai, and οργιζομαι orgizomai.
This paper builds on Chapter 2 of the author’s MA thesis:
Bardzokas, Chrisovalandis (1999). The language of anger. MA thesis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Goddard, Cliff (2004). “Cultural scripts”: A new medium for ethnopragmatic instruction. In Michel Achard & Susanne Niemeier (Eds.), Cognitive Linguistics, second language acquisition, and foreign language teaching (pp. 143-163). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: 10.1515/9783110199857.143
Abstract:
The cultural scripts approach is a descriptive technique for capturing ethnopragmatic knowledge that has grown out of the cross-linguistic semantic work of Anna Wierzbicka and colleagues. This work has established a metalanguage of simple cross-translatable terms that can be used not only for lexical semantics, but also for describing communicative norms. The paper illustrates and explains the cultural scripts approach, and makes some suggestions about its pedagogical advantages and applications in the teaching of ethnopragmatics. These include greater precision and intelligibility, a reduced risk of ethnocentrism, and enhanced opportunity to demonstrate links between discourse practices and cultural values, as embodied in cultural key words, proverbs, etc.
Examples are drawn from studies of the cultural pragmatics of English and of Malay (Bahasa Melayu, the national language of Malaysia).
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Hughson, Jo-Anne (2004). The study of address pronouns in French and Spanish: A methodological review. Melbourne Papers in Linguistics & Applied Linguistics, 4(1), 23-33.
This article surveys various methodological approaches, both traditional and innovative, that have been employed in the field of address pronoun research, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each method. A new methodological approach is then presented, combining quantitative, qualitative and theoretical modes with the intention of eliminating limitations previously encountered in address pronoun research. A description of the theoretical approach, Wierzbicka’s cultural script theory, is then presented and the method applied to data collected in previous studies of address pronoun use in French
and Spanish.
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2004). Not just words: Korean social models and the use of honorifics. Intercultural Pragmatics, 1(2), 189-210.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/iprg.2004.1.2.189
Abstract:
This study demonstrates that it is possible to describe cultural values and their associated communicative norms in simple terms and from an insiders’ perspective, even in the case of languages such as Korean, which is widely known for its highly culture-specific and extremely elaborate system of honorifics. Adopting NSM principles, and in particular the cultural scripts approach, the study attempts to capture and articulate Korean cultural rules about social relationships and the associated communicative norms as reflected in the honorific system and present in numerous fixed expressions. Cultural scripts are presented in both the English and Korean versions of the metalanguage.
In addition, the paper tries to articulate the shared understanding behind the existence of honorifics as a social practice, namely, that differential usage of words can send specific social messages about how interactants regard each other. In the case of Korean, relevant components include a ‘vertical’ model of society in which people are commonly thought of as ‘above’ or ‘below’ oneself, a recognized category of revered senior people (Korean 노인 noin), and the importance of relative age differences in one-to-one interaction.
More information:
This paper is part of a special issue on cultural scripts.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2004). Korean maum vs. English heart and mind: Contrastive semantics of cultural concepts. In Christo Moskovsky (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2003.html.
Abstract:
In this paper, an attempt is made to compare three highly distinct concepts, the Anglo concepts of ‘heart’ and ‘mind’, as well as the Korean concept of 몸 maum. An appropriate analysis of 몸 maum appears to be essential for understanding Korean folk psychology. The attempt is underpinned by the principles of the NSM approach so as to enable outsiders to see the cognitive structure of the analysed concepts through the same window as native speakers. Similarities and differences between the three concepts reflect different folk views on similar psychological entities. The overlap and discrepancies between the NSM explications explain why the Anglo terms can serve as translational equivalents in some contexts but not in others. The Anglo concepts reflect the Anglo culture-specific way of conceptualizing while the Korean concept 몸 maum reflects the Korean way.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2007). Contrastive semantics of Korean ‘maum’ vs. English ‘heart’ and ‘mind’. The Journal of Studies in Language, 22(3), 171-197.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Goddard, Cliff (2004). Speech-acts, values and cultural scripts: A study in Malay ethnopragmatics. In Robert Cribb (Ed.), Asia examined: Proceedings of the 15th biennial conference of the ASAA. PDF (open access)
The speech act lexicon of any language provides its speakers with a readymade “catalogue” of culture-specific categories of verbal interaction: a catalogue that makes sense within, and is attuned to, a particular portfolio of cultural values, assumptions, and attitudes. So it is that a microscopic examination of the semantics of speech act verbs can shed a great deal of light on broader cultural themes, but equally the significance of any particular speech act category can only be fully understood in broader cultural context.
This study illustrates these contentions with the Malay speech act verb pujuk, which can variously translated as ‘coax’, ‘flatter’, ‘persuade’, or ‘comfort’, but which really has no precise equivalent in English. Naturally occurring examples are given from Bahasa Melayu, the national language of Malaysia. The methods employed are the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach, and its companion, the theory of cultural scripts. I propose a single semantic explication for pujuk which accounts for its diverse range with much greater precision than any normal dictionary definition; but the explication must be read against the background of several Malay cultural scripts reflecting the important role of feelings and “feelings management” in the Malay tradition, as reflected in expressions like timbang rasa ‘lit. weigh feelings’, jaga hati orang ‘minding people’s feelings/hearts’, ambil hati ‘lit. get heart, be charming’, among others.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Durst, Uwe (2004). Book review of Anna Wierzbicka, What did Jesus mean? Theologische Literaturzeitung, 129(1), 47-48. HTML version (open access).
Written in German.
Chruszczewski, Piotr P. & Sip, Kamila (2005). Happy, happy people, czyli o gramatyce komunikacyjnej skryptów kulturowojęzykowych współczesnego Europejczyka [Happy, happy people, or the communicative grammar of contemporary European cultural and linguistic scripts]. In Anna Duszak & Nina Pawlak (Eds.), Anatomia szczęścia: Emocje pozytywne w językach i kulturach świata (pp. 207-216). Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
Goddard, Cliff (2005). The lexical semantics of culture. Language Sciences, 27(1), 51-73.
DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2004.05.001
Abstract:
Culture is one of the… cultural key words of the English language, in popular as well as scholarly discourse. It is flourishing in popular usage, with a proliferation of extended uses (police culture, Barbie culture, argument culture, culture of complaint, etc.), while being endlessly debated in intellectual circles. Though it is sometimes observed that the meaning of the English word culture is highly language-specific, its precise lexical semantics has received surprisingly little attention. The main task undertaken in this paper is to develop and justify semantic explications for the common ordinary meanings of this polysemous word. The analytical framework is the NSM approach, within which a set of semantic explications will be proposed that is framed in terms of empirically established universal semantic primes such as PEOPLE, THINK, DO, LIVE, NOT, LIKE, THE SAME, and OTHER.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Wong, Jock (2005). “Why you so Singlish one?” A semantic and cultural interpretation of the Singapore English particle one. Language in Society, 34, 239-275. DOI: 10.1017/S0047404505050104
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 6 (pp. 180-229) of:
Wong, Jock O. (2014). The culture of Singapore English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139519519
The particle one of Singapore English is widely used in Singapore culture, but it is little mentioned and its invariant meaning has not been described, so that not much is known about its meaning and the cultural norms it reflects. This article provides a detailed semantic analysis of this particle, articulates its meaning in the form of a reductive paraphrase using Natural Semantic Metalanguage, and argues that its use reflects Singapore English speakers’ tendency to speak definitively and exaggeratedly. The discussion of Singaporean speech norms reflected by this particle includes reference to relevant Anglo English speech norms for comparison and contrast.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2005). Empirical universals of language as a basis for the study of other human universals and as a tool for exploring cross-cultural differences. Ethos, 33(2), 256-291.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2005.33.2.256
Abstract:
Genuine universals of culture or cognition can only be formulated if we have at our disposal a universal language, and similarly, only a universal language can allow us to formulate generalizations about different cultures from a culture-independent point of view. In this article, it is argued that a universal, “culture-free” language suitable both for the study of human universals and the exploration of cultural differences, can be built on the basis of empirical universals of language. Furthermore, it is claimed that such a language has already been largely constructed, thus bringing the notion of a “universal language” from the realm of utopia to the realm of everyday reality. The article shows that this language (NSM) can be used to describe and explore both universal and culture-specific forms of human thinking, and in particular, to identify and compare personhood models across languages and cultures.
Translations:
Into French (with some cuts):
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). Les universaux empiriques du langage: tremplin pour l’étude d’autres universaux humains et outil dans l’exploration de différences transculturelles. Linx, 54, 151-179.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/linx.517 / Open access
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tuovila, Seija (2005). Kun on tunteet: Suomen kielen tunnesanojen semantiikkaa [Such emotions: The semantics of emotion words in the Finnish language]. Oulu: Oulu University Press.
Abstract:
This study focuses on the semantics of Finnish emotion words (i.e. words comparable to English terms such as joy and anger). Male and female conceptual frameworks for emotions are compared, as well as those of different age groups. Both a qualitative and a quantitative analysis are carried out; the data consist of the written responses of a hundred Finns to a questionnaire item that asked them to name various emotions.
The cognitively most important emotion words for Finns are found to be: viha, ilo, rakkaus, suru, pelko, onnellisuus, kateus, ahdistus, väsymys, masennus, tuska, ihastus, tyytyväisyys, inho, jännitys, pettymys, kaipaus, rauhallisuus, ikävä, and toivo. According to the study, the emotions with the highest frequency of expression in the Finnish language are hatred, joy, love and sorrow. Women are found to have more words for emotions than men. The emotion vocabulary includes more negative words than positive ones. The findings suggest that the Finns think more often good of other people than bad, and more often bad of themselves than good.
The explications given for the 51 most commonly used emotion words are based on principles developed within the NSM approach. The main semantic categories for emotion words are as follows: “Something good happened or will happen”, “Something bad happened or will happen”, “I want”, “I don’t want”, “I think something about myself”, “I think something about others”, “I know / don’t know”. The precise semantic contents of emotion words is explained in terms of prototypical scenarios.
More information:
Written in Finnish.
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Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Koselak, Arkadiusz (2005). Quelle honte! Ale wstyd! Observations sémantiques sur quelques emplois de honte et de wstyd [Quelle honte! Ale wstyd! Semantic observations on a few uses of honte et wstyd]. Roczniki Humanistyczne, 53(5), 105-124.
Written in French.
This paper deals with the lexical expression of French honte and Polish wstyd (‘shame’), both through the two base words and through some of their derivatives. There are subtle differences between the two, in line with the cognitive and anthropological linguistics premise according to which language accounts for the construction of a worldview in a given culture. The author relies on a certain number of utterances in the two languages to compare honte and wstyd and identify what they share and what the differences are.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
이해윤 [Lee, Hae Yun] (2005). 기본 색채 형용사의 의미기술 [The meanings of colour adjectives]. 獨語敎育 (Koreanische Zeitschrift für deutschunterricht) [Korean Journal for German Language Teaching], 33, 141-160.
Written in Korean.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2005). Saudade, czyli portugalska tęsknota za czymś, co być mogło, a nie było [Saudade, or Portuguese longing for something that could be, and was not]. In Anna Duszak & Nina Pawlak (Eds.), Anatomia szczęścia: Emocje pozytywne w językach i kulturach świata (pp. 115-123). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
Abstract:
The article contains an analysis of the meaning of the Portuguese word saudade, usually translated as Polish tęsknota, melancholia, nostalgia, English longing or yearning, German Sehnsucht, Spanish añoranza. Saudade describes a typical state of mind for the Portuguese, which they claim is untranslatable in other languages. This feeling, although it tends to be included among feelings of sadness, is indispensable to happiness for the Portuguese. If someone feels saudade, it means that they have found something good in their life, something they miss and would like to experience some more of. The component ‘I feel something good’ is very important for this concept. Saudade is also one of the main themes of Portuguese songs. The article investigates the word in various contexts of use and formulates a semantic explication expressed in Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
More information:
Written in Polish.
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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 |