Browsing results for Arrernte

(1986) Arrernte – Particles/clitics (criticism and complaint)

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.

Wilkins, David P. (1986). Particles/clitics for criticism and complaint in Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda). Journal of Pragmatics, 10(5), 575-596. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(86)90015-9

This paper examines a set of five particle/clitics which are used for criticizing and complaining in Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda) – a Central Australian Aboriginal language. It describes how the illocutionary force of criticism and/or complaint achieved by each particle/clitic is a function of their meaning, culture-specific pragmatics, and both the linguistic and extra-linguistic contexts of use. The value of natural language definition is demonstrated through practical application. It is also argued that conversational implicatures may be conventional and, further, that such conventional implicatures can be semantically explicated. The meaning of the implicature is generated as part of an utterance by regular pragmatic rules.


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(1987) Various languages – Value-judgment terms

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

(1989) Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda)

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on October 14, 2018.

Wilkins, David P. (1989). Mparntwe Arrernte (Aranda): Studies in the structure and semantics of grammar. PhD thesis, Australian National University. PDF (open access)

This thesis is essentially a description of the grammar of Mparntwe Arrernte, the traditional language of Alice Springs, in Central Australia. The main aims of the thesis are two-fold: (i) to provide a comprehensive descriptive overview of the language and (ii) to give some indication of how the language conveys, reflects and responds to the socio-cultural concerns of its speakers. To fulfil these aims, chapters surveying broad areas of the grammar are interleaved with chapters that survey particular grammatical and semantic phenomena in detail. A major concern of the thesis is to describe the semantic, as well as the structural, details of the grammar. Where possible, natural language definitions are provided for grammatical elements and structures.

(1992) Arrernte, English, Italian – Interjections

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.

Wilkins, David P. (1992). Interjections as deictics. Journal of Pragmatics, 18(2/3), 119-158. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(92)90049-H

Reissued in an abridged format as:

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 paper examines some of the semantic and pragmatic consequences of a form being both a lexeme (i.e. a simple sign) and a conventional utterance. The approach presented here has far-reaching consequences for the manner in which interjections are identified, analyzed, and subclassified. In particular it it suggested that interjections have all the features attributed to utterances, including the facts that they convey complete propositions and have an illocutionary purpose. Given that interjections are context-bound, it is possible to observe that the referential arguments in the propositions conveyed by interjections are provided by context. As lexemes, interjections have ‘real’ semantic (i.e. propositional/conceptual) content, and within the decomposition of all interjections are basic deictic elements. These ‘primitive’ deictic elements are not tied referentially to any entities until they are placed in context. In this sense both a pragmatic and a semantic approach are required to account for interjections. Interjections are, therefore, shifters (indexicals) by virtue of being built semantically out of basic deictic elements and so should be considered a reasonable topic within the study of deixis.

Definitions, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to lexical decomposition, are proposed for a varied range of interjections from English, Mparntwe Arrernte (Central Australia), American Sign Language, and Italian.


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(1994) Arrernte – NSM primes

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on October 14, 2018.

Harkins, Jean & Wilkins, David P. (1994). Mparntwe Arrernte and the search for lexical universals. In Cliff Goddard & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 285-310). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.15har

The set of elements identified here are, at the very least, our best candidates for English-Arrernte lexical translation equivalents, and for elements that will appear in the basic set of propositional structures that comprise NSM definitions. Perhaps more investigation will reveal that they are truly the reflexes of universal properties of mind. Such a goal, however, seems a long way off, and need not detract from the
practical utility of establishing a descriptive metalanguage to facilitate better cross-linguistic semantic comparison.


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(1995) Arrernte, English, Italian – Interjections

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.


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(2000) Arrernte – Classifiers

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on October 14, 2018.

Wilkins, David P. (2000). Ants, ancestors and medicine: A semantic and pragmatic account of classifier constructions in Arrernte (Central Australia). In Gunter Senft (Ed.), Systems of nominal classification (pp. 147-216). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This study employs a descriptive method “in the mould of Natural Semantic Metalanguage as advocated by Wierzbicka and her colleagues” (p. 163).

(2001) Arrernte – Emotions

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on December 8, 2019.

Harkins, Jean (2001). Talking about anger in Central Australia. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 201-220). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.197

This exploration of a small group of emotion expressions in the Arrernte language of Central Australia takes the view that it is useful and illuminating, when investigating emotional or other meanings, to cultivate awareness of the cultural and intercultural dimensions of the enterprise, and to see both the processes and outcomes of the investigation in this light. It demonstrates the practicality of the NSM approach in facilitating intercultural discussion and understanding of people’s emotional life and behaviour in cultural context, and, furthermore, as a tool for stating meanings in the language of inquiry.

This small study has found confirmation for several of the hypotheses about emotional meanings put forward by Wierzbicka and other practitioners of the NSM approach to semantic analysis, and has raised some questions about other parts of the theory. There was surprising convergence between the Arrernte perceptions and the NSM picture of emotions as cognitively based feelings. Arrernte anger-like feelings all contain the impulse to act, proposed as a universal of anger-like feelings by Wierzbicka (1999). The Arrernte ayeye akweke did not have the full prototype structure for cognitively based feelings (“sometimes a person thinks…”, etc.) proposed by Wierzbicka (1999). An attempt to apply such a frame rendered the ayeye akweke unintelligible in Arrernte, and it is not entirely clear how this problem could be resolved, or whether it would be appropriate to do so. A simplified frame for practical definitional purposes may be the way to go, as it could very well be the case that the full prototype structure is a little too abstract for workable natural language definitions.


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(2013) Arrernte – Logical relations

Published on October 14, 2018. Last updated on October 14, 2018.

Broad, Neil (2013). A semantic structural analysis of logical relations in Eastern Arrernte. Alice Springs: Australian Society for Indigenous Languages. PDF (open access)

Facsimile edition of the author’s (Master’s?) thesis, University of New England (submitted around the year 2000).

This study is an analysis of the semantic structure of logical relations in Eastern Arrernte, focussing in particular on the level of inter-propositional relations and to a lesser degree on how logical relations are expressed at higher levels in the semantic hierarchy.

Chapter 1, as well as introducing the topic in general terms, provides an introduction to the salient features of Eastern Arrernte phonology and grammar. Chapter 2 introduces the Semantic Structural Analysis (SSA) theory upon which the initial task of analysing logical relations, as they are expressed in Arrernte, was based, and discusses the inherent problems with this approach. The solution to the difficulties raised here effectively anchors the typology associated with logical relations in lexicogrammatical universals, that is, in effect, semantic primes allied with Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory.

Chapter 3 begins by examining inter-propositional logical relations using SSA theory. The discussion turns to show how each of these types can be analysed and expressed as a reductive paraphrase, and how the seven differentiated types can be grouped into two core semantic structural categories, representing BECAUSE-types and IF-types. The discussion in Chapter 4 is an examination of the specific way in which the two core categories of logical relations are marked in Arrernte sentences. In so doing, recurrent patterns of marking logical relations and the key structural features are identified.

Chapter 5 introduces logical relations expressed at higher-than-sentence levels in the semantic hierarchy. Two specific texts, one a Dreaming narrative, the other a recount narrative, are examined, and some general observations made regarding the semantic structure of logical relations in Arrernte discourse. In addition, some preliminary observations are expressed regarding the type of reasoning process that can be identified in Arrernte discourse. Chapter 6 brings together the significant conclusions from this study.


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2014) Words and meanings [BOOK]

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 1, 2019.

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

Abstract:

This book presents a series of systematic, empirically based studies of word meanings. Each chapter investigates key expressions drawn from different domains of the lexicon – concrete, abstract, physical, sensory, emotional, and social. The examples chosen are complex and culturally important; the languages represented include English, Russian, Polish, French, Warlpiri, and Malay. The authors ground their discussions in real examples and draw on work ranging from Leibniz, Locke, and Bentham, to popular works such as autobiographies and memoirs, and the Dalai Lama’s writings on happiness.

The book opens with a review of the neglected status of lexical semantics in linguistics and a discussion of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage methodology, which is used in all chapters. The discussion includes a wide range of methodological and analytical issues including lexical polysemy, semantic change, the relationship between lexical and grammatical semantics, and the concepts of semantic molecules and templates.

Table of contents:

  1. Words, meaning, and methodology
  2. Men, women, and children: The semantics of basic social categories
  3. Sweet, hot, hard, heavy, rough, sharp: Physical quality words in cross-linguistic perspective
  4. From “colour words” to visual semantics: English, Russian, Warlpiri
  5. Happiness and human values in cross-cultural and historical perspective
  6. Pain: Is it a human universal? The perspective from cross-linguistic semantics
  7. Suggesting, apologising, complimenting: English speech act verbs
  8. A stitch in time and the way of the rice plant: The semantics of proverbs in English and Malay
  9. The meaning of abstract nouns: Locke, Bentham and contemporary semantics
  10. Broader perspectives: Beyond lexical semantics

More information:

Chapter 3 builds on: NSM analyses of the semantics of physical qualities: sweet, hot, hard, heavy, rough, sharp in cross-linguistic perspective (2007)
Chapter 4 builds on: Why there are no “colour universals” in language and thought (2008)
Chapter 5 builds on: “Happiness” in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective (2004); The “history of emotions” and the future of emotion research (2010); What’s wrong with “happiness studies”? The cultural semantics of happiness, bonheur, Glück and sčas’te (2011)
Chapter 6 builds on: Is pain a human universal? A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective on pain (2012)
Chapter 8 builds on an unpublished English original translated in Russian as: Следуй путем рисового поля”: семантика пословиц в английском и малайском языках [“Sleduy putem risovogo polya”: semantika poslovits v angliyskom i malayskom yazykakh / “Follow the way of the rice plant”: The semantics of proverbs in English and Malay (Bahasa Melayu)] (2009)

The proverbs explicated in Chapter 8 include: (English) A stitch in time saves nine, Make hay while the sun shines, Out of the frying pan into the fire, Practice makes perfect, All that glitters is not gold, Too many cooks spoil the broth, You can’t teach an old dog new tricks; Where there’s smoke there’s fire; (Malay) Ikut resmi padi ‘Follow the way of the rice plant’, Seperti ketam mangajar anak berjalan betul ‘Like a crab teaching its young to walk straight’, Binasa badan kerana mulut ‘The body suffers because of the mouth’, ‘Ada gula, ada semut ‘Where there’s sugar, there’s ants’, Seperti katak di bawah tempurung ‘Like a frog under a coconut shell’, Keluar mulut harimau masuk mulut buaya ‘Out from the tiger’s mouth into the crocodile’s mouth’, Bila gajah dan gajah berlawan kancil juga yang mati tersepit ‘When elephant fights elephant it’s the mousedeer that’s squashed to death’.

Tags listed below are in addition to those listed at the end of the entries for the earlier work on which this book builds.

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(2015) Australian Aboriginal languages – ‘Dreamtime’, ‘the Dreaming’

Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 11, 2022.

Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2015). What does Jukurrpa (‘Dreamtime’, ‘the Dreaming’) mean? A semantic and conceptual journey of discovery. Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2015(1), 43-65.

This study proposes a detailed explication for the Australian Aboriginal Jukurrpa concept, phrased exclusively in simple cross-translatable words. The various components of the explication are justified. The authors do not claim to have necessarily arrived at a full, perfect or correct lexical-semantic analysis, although in principle this is the goal of semantic analysis. Rather, their purpose is to share a hermeneutic process and its results. The guiding framework for the process is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to meaning analysis.

Jukurrpa is the word used in Warlpiri for what is referred to in English as the Aboriginal ‘Dreamtime’, or ‘the Dreaming’. The same concept is referred to in Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara as tjukurpa, in Arrernte as altyerre, etc. After a short introduction, the paper is organized around successive stages in the evolution of the current explication, which is partitioned into multiple sections and depicts a highly ramified and multi-faceted concept, albeit one with great internal coherence. The authors present and discuss four semantic explications, each built on – and, hopefully, improving upon – its predecessor.


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