Browsing results for Afroasiatic
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Hill, Deborah (1987). A cross-linguistic study of value-judgement terms. MA thesis, Australian National University.
The purpose of this thesis is to try to establish the extent to which the words good, bad, true and right can be considered lexical universals. These words have been chosen because they are value-judgment terms that, individually, have been discussed at length by philosophers. It seems to be assumed by philosophers and semanticists that these words reflect concepts shared by speakers of all languages. By testing whether these words are candidates for lexical universals we can then see the extent to which this assumption is true.
On the basis of information from native speakers from 15 diverse languages, we can say that good and bad reflect language independent concepts (GOOD and BAD). However, in many languages, including English, the range of meaning of bad is narrower than the range of meaning of good. By looking at five of these fifteen languages we can see that the words right and true reflect concepts that are not language
independent. Thus, by taking a cross-linguistic approach, we can shed some light on the work done by language philosophers in the area of value-judgment terms.
The following languages are examined in this thesis: Arabic, Arrernte, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Ewe, Fijian, Finnish, Indonesian, Kannada, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Myhill, John (1996). Is BAD a semantic primitive? Evidence from Biblical Hebrew. Lexicology, 2(2). 99-126.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2018.
Myhill, John (1997). What is universal and what is language-specific in emotion words: Evidence from Biblical Hebrew. Pragmatics and Cognition, 5(1), 79-129. DOI: 10.1075/pc.5.1.07myh
This paper proposes a model for the analysis of emotions in which each emotion word in each language is made up of a universal component and a language-specific component; the universal component is drawn from a set of universal human emotions which underlie all emotion words in all languages, and the language-specific component involves a language-particular thought pattern which is expressed as part of the meanings of a variety of different words in the language. The meanings of a variety of emotion words of Biblical Hebrew are discussed and compared with the meanings of English words with the same general meaning; it is shown that a number of the Biblical Hebrew words (though by no means all) directly represent the biblical conception of God and the role of God combined with one or another of the proposed universal emotions.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) 'af, (E) 'aval, (E) 'evra, (E) 'eyma, (E) anger, (E) fear, (E) hara 腹, (E) hema, (E) hit'abel, (E) joy, (E) ka'as, (E) niHat, (E) nivhal, (E) paHad, (E) qacaf, (E) sadness, (E) safad, (E) sus, (E) yagon, (E) yare', (E) yir'ah, (E) za'am
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Durst, Uwe (1999). BAD as a semantic primitive: Evidence from Biblical Hebrew. Pragmatics & Cognition, 7(2), 375-403. DOI: 10.1075/pc.7.2.08dur
In an article entitled “Is BAD a semantic primitive?” (1996), John Myhill suggested that the concept ‘bad’ should be removed from the list of semantic primitives put forward by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard. Myhill argued (1) that ‘bad’ is semantically decomposable, (2) that there is no word in Biblical Hebrew that corresponds to the English word bad and, thus, no linguistic form that represents the primitive BAD in this language, and (3) that ‘bad’ is dispensable in the semantic analysis and can be replaced with other components without any loss or change of meaning. Discussing and illustrating some fundamental questions in the search for universal semantic primitives, the present author reconsiders these findings and finds a different answer to John Myhill’s question.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) becene, (E) leb rac, (E) rac cayin
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on January 26, 2020.
Amberber, Mengistu (2001). Testing emotional universals in Amharic. In Jean Harkins & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 39-72). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880168.35
In her 1999 book Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals, Wierzbicka proposes the following set of working hypotheses:
a. All languages have a word for FEEL.
b. In all languages, feelings can be described as “good” or “bad”.
c. All languages have “emotive” interjections (i.e. interjections expressing cognitively-based feelings).
d. All languages have some “emotion terms” (i.e. terms for cognitively-based feelings).
e. All languages have words overlapping (though not identical) in meaning with the English words ‘angry’, ‘afraid’, and ‘ashamed’.
f. All languages have words comparable (though not necessarily identical) in meaning to ‘cry’ and ‘smile’.
g. In all languages, people can describe cognitively-based feelings via observable bodily symptoms.
h. In all languages, cognitively-based feelings can be described via bodily sensations.
i. In all languages, cognitively-based feelings can be described via figurative “bodily images”.
j. In all languages, there are alternative grammatical constructions for describing (and interpreting) cognitively-based feelings.
The main purpose of the present study is to test the above set of hypotheses in Amharic. The description and analysis presented in the study shows that emotional universals are borne out by the Amharic data. Explications are proposed for words that roughly correspond to the English phrases be happy/be joyful, be sad/be disappointed, be angry at someone/rebuke/reprimand, be ashamed/be embarrassed/be shy, his face became ashen (with fright), I felt sorry.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) affərə, (E) ahe, (E) azzənə, (E) tədəssətə, (E) tək'ot't'a
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on January 26, 2020.
Amberber, Mengistu (2003). The grammatical encoding of “thinking” in Amharic. Cognitive Linguistics, 14(2/3), 195-219.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.2003.00
Abstract:
The lexical exponents of the conceptual primitives THINK and KNOW in Amharic are assəbə and awwək’ə respectively. The article investigates issues of polysemy involving the two mental predicates and explores their lexical elaboration and morphosyntactic realization. The article also briefly examines constructions based on verbs equivalent to the English term understand.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) understand
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Savage, Andrew (2006). What do Tuareg proverbs mean? In Cristina Mourón Figueroa, & Teresa Iciar Moralejo Gárate (Eds.), Studies in contrastive linguistics (pp. 907-916). Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Publicacións.
This article demonstrates the application of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) tool in the process of ascertaining the meaning of Tuareg proverbs. It shows how NSM is helpful in making meaning understandable to cultural outsiders.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on January 26, 2020.
Amberber, Mengistu (2008). Semantic primes in Amharic. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 83-119). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.102.09amb
Abstract:
This study explores the lexical exponents of the full set of NSM primes in Amharic. It is shown that the identification of the Amharic exponents of the semantic primes is straightforward and the syntactic properties of the primes do not present any particular difficulties. Nevertheless, there are some proposed exponents whose status requires further investigation. For instance, the prime MORE seems to have two lexical exponents, one of which is employed in nominal comparative contexts. There are also some exponents whose polysemous meanings must be clearly distinguished on formal grounds. Overall, the chapter attempts to provide a broad overview of the universal and language-specific combinatorial properties of semantic primes in Amharic.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (T) Amharic
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 20, 2018.
Elouazizi, Noureddine, & Trnavac, Radaslava (2008). Identification and syntax of semantic prime MOMENT in Tarifyt Berber. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 241-258). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.15elo
This study contributes to our understanding of the status of the newly proposed NSM semantic prime MOMENT using data from Tarifyt Berber. The syntax of the primary Tarifyt Berber exponent ġar is exclusively adverbial and requires a biclausal construction. We argue that this reflects the universal “conceptual syntax” of MOMENT, because the aspect-like modification provided by MOMENT requires the implicit presence of an “eventive” frame. The English sentence It happened in one moment, for example, is elliptical for a semantically equivalent,
but more explicit, expanded version: When it happened, it happened in one moment. English expressions such as at that moment and for a moment also lack direct equivalents in Tarifyt Berber.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Savage, André (2009). Que veulent dire les proverbes touareg? In Rainer Voßen, Dymitr Ibriszimow, & Harry Stroomer (Eds.), Études berbères IV – Essais lexicologiques et lexicographiques et autres articles (pp. 193-203). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on November 11, 2018.
Al Jallad, Nader (2010). The concept of “shame” in Arabic: Bilingual dictionaries and the challenge of defining culture-based emotions. Language Design, 12, 31-57. PDF (open access)
This paper aims at providing a theoretical framework for analysing, understanding, and describing the very complex emotion of ‘shame’ in Arabic. The complexity of this emotion is highlighted by problems of translatability, as shown by a survey of how Arabic ‘shame’ words are defined in four English-Arabic and Arabic-English bilingual dictionaries. The comparison of the various definitions highlights the need to define not only the emotion of ‘shame’, but also all other emotions and culture-loaded words in general, by means of universal language- and culture-free formulas. To test the proposed theoretical framework, a Natural Semantic Metalanguage-based system is used to define the ‘shame’ words addressed in this paper.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) 'ār عار, (E) 'ayb عيب, (E) faḍīḥa فضيحة, (E) ḥayā حياء, (E) ḥishmah حشمة, (E) khajal خجل
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Savage, André (2010). Un proverbe touareg, plusieurs variantes, un seul sens. In Harry Stroomer, Maarten Kossmann, Dymitr Ibriszimow, & Rainer Voßen (Eds.), Études berbères V – Essais sur des variations dialectales et autres articles (pp. 165-176). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 15, 2018.
Rieschild, Verna (2011). Arabic yaᶜni: Issues of semantic, pragmatic, and indexical translation equivalence. Intercultural Pragmatics, 8(3), 315-346. DOI 10.1515/IPRG.2011.016
This paper explores the idea that some discourse particles are so culturally embedded that they defy translation. Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Conversation Analysis are used to examine the meanings and functions of (a) the polysemous Arabic discourse particle yaᶜni (derived from yaᶜni ‘it means’), translatable as ‘well’, ‘I mean’, ‘that is’, ‘you see’, ‘like’, and ‘so’, and (b) sorta and I mean, the main English translation candidates for yaᶜni. The findings show that yaᶜni’s focus on marking relevance is useful in elaborating, correcting, creating narrative suspense, holding a turn, or, as sole constituent of a turn, hedging a response. Similar English functions are achieved using discourse particles that focus approximation. The analysis also shows that semantic or pragmatic similarity in discourse particles from different languages can predict translation potential. In the same way, similarity in the meaning of a discourse particle and of a speech act predicts translatability. However, despite semantic and pragmatic equivalence (of a sort), culture-specific indices may mean that a word is not a suitable translation candidate. The results augment our understanding of cultural semantics and ethnopragmatics, and have applications to the study of translation and intercultural communication.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) I mean, (E) ṣallaḥ, (E) sorta, (E) that means, (E) to correct, (E) yacni
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
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.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) anima, (E) birrimbirr, (E) khilyot-ay, (E) lib-i, (E) mind, (E) nepesh נֶ֫פֶשׁ, (E) psykhe Ψυχη
Published on April 2, 2018. Last updated on July 26, 2020.
Habib, Sandy (2017). Dying for a cause other than God: Exploring the non-religious meanings of martyr and shahīd. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 37(3), 314-327.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2017.1298395
Abstract:
This paper looks into the non-religious meanings of English martyr and its near Arabic equivalent شهيد shahīd. It compares and contrasts them and provides an explication of each, using NSM. Both concepts refer to a person who was killed. Both are hailed for sacrificing their lives. To be called a martyr, a person has to have been killed for adhering and fighting for a higher cause, such as peace, the environment or their country; this person can be from any country and of any ethnicity. To be called شهيد shahīd, on the other hand, a person must have been killed on political grounds only and has to have been an Arab living in an Arab country.
The two explications are built out of mostly simple and universal words. This means that they are easy to comprehend and translatable into any language. Their translatability grants cultural outsiders access to their exact meaning.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) martyr, (E) shahīd شهيد
Published on August 26, 2018. Last updated on September 12, 2018.
Dendenne, Boudjemaa (2017). A cross-cultural study of speech act realisations in Arabic and English: A cultural-scripts approach. Revue académique des études humaines et sociales, Series B: Littérature et Philosophie, 18, 3-15. PDF (Researchgate)
This paper reports on the findings of a cross-cultural pragmatic study into the realization of two speech acts that are common in Arabic and English, namely requests and apologies. Natural Semantic Metalanguage and cultural scripts have been employed for this purpose. The usefulness of the adopted approach lies in the fact that it describes norms, behaviours and cultural meanings in a particular language/culture in a way that is accessible to both insiders and outsiders. Cross-cultural education and intercultural communication both stand to benefit from such an approach.
The ultimate goal behind the use of NSM and cultural scripts is to reduce cultural misunderstandings and conflicts. The author strongly recommends adoption of these tools to re-describe and re-explicate findings that are regarded as empirically well founded in previous cross-cultural studies.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (S) apologies, (S) requests
Published on May 27, 2019. Last updated on July 25, 2020.
Habib, Sandy (2018). Heaven and hell: A cross-linguistic semantic template for supernatural places. RASK, 48, 1–34.
Open access
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to devise a cross-linguistic semantic template for supernatural place terms. To achieve this objective, six supernatural place concepts were analysed, and an explication for each concept was built. Comparing the explications yielded a seven-part semantic template. The usefulness of this semantic template is threefold. First, it eases the task of explicating supernatural place concepts because the parts of the template can serve as guidelines to be followed while constructing the explications. Second, it makes it easier to compare related supernatural place concepts from different languages. Third, it unveils the devices that are embodied in the structure of supernatural place concepts and that enable people to use these complex concepts without difficulty.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) aljanna, (E) gan eden, (E) geyhinom, (E) heaven, (E) hell, (E) jahannam
Published on July 28, 2020. Last updated on July 28, 2020.
Habib, Sandy (2019). Sin in English, Arabic, and Hebrew: a case of true translation equivalence. International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, 5(1), 20-44.
Open access
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to investigate English sin and its Arabic and Hebrew counterparts. It is demonstrated that each of these three words is polysemous, having three meanings. Two of these meanings are religious, i.e. related to the word God, while the third is non-religious. It is also demonstrated that the three target words are true translation equivalents, as they are used in the same way in all contexts. This paper is a contribution to the study of nouns, a field that has not been given adequate attention by semanticists. It is also a contribution to the field of theosemantics, the interface between religion and the scientific study of meaning.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ḫaṭīʾa خطيئة, (E) ḫet חטא, (E) sin
Published on February 16, 2019. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff, & Anna Wierzbicka (2019). Direct and indirect speech revisited: Semantic universals and semantic diversity. In Alessandro Capone, Manuel García-Carpintero, & Alessandra Falzone (Eds.), Indirect reports and pragmatics in the world languages (pp. 173-199). Cham: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78771-8_9
Abstract:
The new interpretations of ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ speech presented in this chapter are framed using simple and cross-translatable words and phrases, i.e. using a language that is transparent both to linguists and to the speakers whose ways of speaking the analyst is trying to understand.
In relation to ‘direct speech’, the authors present linguistic generalizations about two forms of quoted speech, which, they claim, are very likely to be found in all languages of the world. The semantics of logophoric constructions in West African languages are examined next, with particular reference to Goemai, which has been claimed to have no direct speech. It is argued instead that logophoric constructions in Goemai are forms of direct speech on any reasonable, semantically-based definition and that, until proof of the contrary, direct speech is a language universal.
The final part of the paper is about ‘indirect speech’, focusing on the English say that… construction.
An overall theme of the paper is that specialized and hybrid forms of reported speech, including logophoric speech, reflect cultural concerns and practices.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) [direct speech], (E) dó, (E) ke
Published on January 26, 2020. Last updated on February 9, 2020.
Amberber, Mengistu (2020). The conceptual semantics of alienable possession in Amharic. In Kerry Mullan, Bert Peeters, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis (pp. 207-222). Singapore: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_11
Abstract:
This study investigates the semantics of alienable possession in Amharic, with particular reference to a recent proposal in the NSM framework according to which ‘true possession’ or ‘ownership’ is more adequately expressed by the semantic prime (BE) MINE than by the (now abandoned) prime HAVE. The author argues that this claim is borne out by data from Amharic. It is shown that the verb allə ‘have’ cannot reliably distinguish between true possession and other types of possessive relations, whereas the sequence jəne nəw ‘it is mine’ is consistently associated with ownership. The study also briefly examines the semantics of two sets of verbs in which the semantic prime for alienable possession plays a key role.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) awasə, (E) awərrəsə, (T) Amharic
