Browsing results for Malay
Published on June 28, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
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
Tags: (E) pujuk, (S) resistance to another person’s wishes if one is feeling something bad, (S) sensitivity to one’s interlocutor’s feelings and wants, (T) Malay
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2006). Verbal explication and the place of NSM semantics in Cognitive Linguistics. In June Luchjenbroers (Ed.), Cognitive Linguistics investigations: Across languages, fields and philosophical boundaries (pp. 189-218). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/hcp.15.14god
This paper argues that verbal explication has an indispensable role to play in semantic/conceptual representation. The diagrams used within Cognitive Linguistics are not semiotically self-contained and cannot be interpreted without overt or covert verbal support. Many also depend on culture-specific iconography. When verbal representation is employed in mainstream Cognitive Linguistics, as in work on prototypes, cultural models and conceptual metaphor, this is typically done in an under-theorized fashion without adequate attention to the complexity and culture-specificity of the representation. Abstract culture-laden vocabulary also demands a rich propositional style of representation, as shown with contrastive examples from Malay, Japanese and English. As the only stream of Cognitive Linguistics with a well-theorized and empirically grounded approach to verbal explication, the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) framework has much to offer cognitive linguistics at large.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) empathy, (E) ikhlas, (E) omoiyari 思いやり, (E) sincerely, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2007). A culture-neutral metalanguage for mental state concepts. In Andrea C. Schalley, & Drew Khlentzos (Eds.), Mental states: Vol. 2. Language and cognitive structure (pp. 11-35). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.93.04god
Abstract:
In contemporary cognitive science, mental state concepts from diverse cultures are typically described via English-specific words for emotions, cognitive processes, and the like. This is terminological ethnocentrism, which produces inaccurate representations of indigenous meanings. The problem can be overcome by employing a metalanguage of conceptual analysis based on simple meanings such as KNOW, THINK, WANT and FEEL. Cross-linguistic semantic research suggests that these and other semantic primes are shared across all languages and cultures. After summarizing this research, the chapter shows how complex mental state concepts from English, Malay, Swedish, and Korean can be revealingly analysed into terms that are simple, clear and transposable across languages.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) amazed, (E) believe, (E) hati, (E) maum 몸, (E) mind, (E) shocked, (E) surprised, (E) terkejut, (E) terperanjat, (E) tro, (E) tycka
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2008). Contrastive semantics and cultural psychology: English heart vs. Malay hati. In Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, & Susanne Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body, and language: Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 75-102). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199109.2.75
Abstract:
This is a contrastive NSM analysis of two ethnopsychological constructs (English heart, Malay hati). Rejecting the use of English-specific metaterminology, such as mind, cognition, affect, etc., as both ethnocentric and inaccurate, the study seeks to articulate the conceptual content of the words under investigation in terms of simple universal concepts such as FEEL, THINK, WANT, KNOW, PEOPLE, SOMEONE, PART, BODY, HAPPEN, GOOD and BAD.
For both words, the physical body-part meaning is first explicated, and then the ethnopsychological sense or senses (it is claimed that English heart has two distinct ethnopsychological senses). The chapter also reviews the phraseology associated with each word, and in the case of English heart, proposes explications for a number of prominent collocations: a broken heart, listening to your heart, losing heart and having your heart in it.
The concluding discussion makes some suggestions about experiential/semantic principles whereby body parts can come to be associated with cultural models of feeling, thinking, wanting and knowing. At a theoretical level, the study seeks to draw links between culturally informed cognitive semantics, on the one hand, and the field of cultural psychology, on the other.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) hati, (E) head, (E) heart, (E) mind, (T) Malay
Published on November 19, 2018. Last updated on November 19, 2018.
Годдард, Клифф [Goddard, Cliff] (2009). “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)]. Жанры речи [Zhanry rechi / Speech genres], 6, 184-207.
Russian translation of a paper presented at the Wenner-Gren Foundation Symposium on Ritual Communication, Portugal, 17-23 March 2007. Updated and published in English as chapter 8 of:
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
No English abstract available. The proverbs explicated (in Russian) 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’.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (T) Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (2009). “Like a crab teaching its young to walk straight”: Proverbiality, semantics, and indexicality in English and Malay. In Gunter Senft, & Ellen B. Basso (Eds.), Ritual communication (pp. 103-125). New York: Berg.
My objective is to give a balanced, contrastive treatment of the textual semantics, cultural-historical positioning, and interdiscursivity of proverbs in two widely different speech cultures. In what follows, I look first at contemporary English, addressing the way proverbs, as instances of a language-specific category, can be identified on linguistic evidence. I propose a template in the NSM metalanguage to articulate the semantic framing inherent in the proverb genre (essentially, the semantic content of “proverbiality”) and demonstrate the utility of the approach with a full analysis of several English metaphorical proverbs (“A stitch in time saves nine”) and maxims (“Practice makes perfect”). I discuss aspects of the interdiscursivity of proverbs in English, with particular reference to the ethos of modernity. In the remainder of the chapter, I apply a parallel analysis and discussion to proverbs (peribahasa) in contemporary Malay, including the metaphorical Malay proverb Seperti ketam mengajar anak berjalan betul ‘like a crab teaching its young to walk straight’.
Published on August 6, 2018. Last updated on September 15, 2018.
Mulyadi (2010). Verba emosi statif dalam Bahasa Melayu Asahan [Stative verbs of emotion in Asahan Malay]. Linguistika [Universitas Udayana], 17(33), 168-176. PDF (open access)
Written in Indonesian.
This research proposes a new perspective on the analysis of stative emotion verbs, moving from meaning to form. It relies on evidence from Asahan Malay. The data was collected by using questionnaire, observation, interview, and intuition methods. The analysis concerns the mapping of semantic components of stative emotion verbs, which is used to determine their subcategory. For the analysis, the semantic primes of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory are used.
The study shows that stative emotion verbs in Asahan Malay are characterized by the component ‘X felt something not because X wanted this’. In accordance with the types of events, stative emotion verbs are divided into four subcategories: (1) ‘something bad has happened’ (“sodih-like”), (2) ‘something bad can/will happen’ (“takut-like”), (3) ‘people can know something bad about me’ (“malu-like”), and (4) ‘I don’t think that things like this can/will happen’ (“heran-like”).
No attempt is made at explicating individual verbs.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (T) Indonesian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2011). Semantic analysis: A practical introduction. Second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Revised and expanded version of:
Goddard, Cliff (1998). Semantic analysis: A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The summary below reflects the contents of the second edition.
This lively textbook introduces students and scholars to practical and precise methods for articulating the meanings of words and sentences, and for revealing connections between language and culture. Topics range over emotions (Chapter 4), speech acts (Chapter 5), discourse particles and interjections (Chapter 6), words for animals and artefacts (Chapter 7), motion verbs (Chapter 8), physical activity verbs (Chapter 9), causatives (Chapter 10), and nonverbal communication. Alongside English, it features a wide range of other languages, including Malay, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Spanish, and Australian Aboriginal languages. Undergraduates, graduate students and professional linguists alike will benefit from Goddard’s wide-ranging summaries, clear explanations and analytical depth. Meaning is fundamental to language and linguistics. This book shows that the study of meaning can be rigorous, insightful and exciting.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
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Published on December 12, 2018. Last updated on December 12, 2018.
Mulyadi; Beratha, Ni Luh Sutjiati; Oktavianus; & Sudipa, I. Nengah (2012). Emotion verbs in Bahasa Indonesia and Asahan Malay language: Cross-language semantics analysis. e-Journal of Linguistics, 6(1). PDF (open access)
Published on December 12, 2018. Last updated on December 12, 2018.
Mulyadi (2013). Verba “mirip takut” dalam Bahasa Melayu Asahan [Fear-like verbs in Asahan Malay]. International Seminar “Language Maintenance and Shift III”. 331-335.
Published on December 12, 2018. Last updated on December 12, 2018.
Mulyadi (2014). Semantics of emotion verbs in Bahasa Indonesia and Asahan Malay language. Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on “Empowering Local Wisdom in Support of National Identity” (pp. 225-232).
Published on July 18, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Spangenberg, Sigrid (2014). The function of pantun in Malay speech. MA thesis, Leiden University. PDF (open access)
A pantun is a poem of four very short lines, consisting of four word clusters that have only two or three syllables. Most pantun have ABAB as their rhyme scheme. Research on pantun has traditionally focused on the structure and meaning of these poems. However, there has not been a lot of research on how the pantun is used in everyday language. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the function of pantun in Malay speech. For this study, I have used a pantun-database called ‘Melayu Online’ to collect pantun. From this database, I have selected two pantun for analysis. For the analysis the following methods were used:
– ethnopragmatics: based on the assumption that there are cultural key words, these are explained using Wierzbicka’s Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM); ethnopragmatics is focused on the cultural part
– meaning space theory: models of mental space by Turner and Brandt & Brandt are used in a cognitive-semiotic framework to reconstruct meaning from a phenomenological perspective; meaning space theory focuses on the utterance and what this means
This thesis is a first step to further research into the function of pantun in Malay speech and how the pantun is used in everyday language. On the basis of this pilot study, it can be assumed that Malay people express themselves with a pantun in a way that is respectful of their cultural values and avoids any kind of friction. This assumption can be confirmed by extensive research through fieldwork. That is why I recommend participant observation in Malaysia in order to properly analyse the function of the pantun.
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:
- Words, meaning, and methodology
- Men, women, and children: The semantics of basic social categories
- Sweet, hot, hard, heavy, rough, sharp: Physical quality words in cross-linguistic perspective
- From “colour words” to visual semantics: English, Russian, Warlpiri
- Happiness and human values in cross-cultural and historical perspective
- Pain: Is it a human universal? The perspective from cross-linguistic semantics
- Suggesting, apologising, complimenting: English speech act verbs
- A stitch in time and the way of the rice plant: The semantics of proverbs in English and Malay
- The meaning of abstract nouns: Locke, Bentham and contemporary semantics
- 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.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) 'happiness' (Dalai Lama), (E) aching, (E) altruism, (E) apologize, (E) arnkelye, (E) ask, (E) babies, (E) blue, (E) ból, (E) boyish, (E) boys, (E) childish, (E) childlike, (E) children, (E) commit suicide, (E) complain, (E) compliment, (E) criticize, (E) death, (E) depressed, (E) depression, (E) devočki, (E) devuški, (E) disease, (E) douleur, (E) eu prattein, (E) female, (E) girls, (E) goluboj, (E) greet, (E) ill, (E) illness, (E) insult, (E) interpersonal warmth, (E) kill, (E) kill oneself, (E) life, (E) mal, (E) male, (E) mana, (E) marry, (E) men, (E) niebieski, (E) offer, (E) order, (E) parricide, (E) patricide, (E) praise, (E) problem, (E) promise, (E) proverb, (E) real, (E) recommend, (E) saying, (E) sinij, (E) size, (E) souffrir, (E) suffer, (E) suggest, (E) tell, (E) temperature, (E) thank, (E) threaten, (E) trauma, (E) typical, (E) violence, (E) vzaimopomoshch, (E) warn, (E) women, (S) expressiveness, (S) personal autonomy, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 7, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2015). The complex, language-specific semantics of “surprise”. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 13(2), 291-313.
DOI: 10.1075/rcl.13.2.02god
Abstract:
This study has three main dimensions. It begins by turning the lens of NSM semantic analysis onto a set of words that are central to the “discourse of the unexpected” in English: surprised, amazed, astonished and shocked. By elucidating their precise meanings, we can gain an improved picture of the English folk model in this domain. A comparison with Malay (Bahasa Melayu) shows that the “surprise words” of English lack precise equivalents in other languages.
The second dimension involves grammatical semantics: it seeks to identify the semantic relationships between agnate word-sets such as: surprised, surprising, to surprise; amazed, amazing, to amaze.
The third dimension is a theoretical one and is concerned with the development of a typology of “surprise-like” concepts. It is argued that adopting English-specific words, such as surprise or unexpected, as descriptive categories inevitably leads to conceptual Anglocentrism. The alternative, non-Anglocentric strategy relies on components phrased in terms of universal semantic primes, such as ‘something happened’ and ‘this someone didn’t know that it will happen’, and the like.
More information:
Reissued as:
Goddard, Cliff (2017). The complex, language-specific semantics of “surprise”. In Agnès Celle, & Laure Lansari (Eds.), Expressing and describing surprise (pp. 27-49). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/bct.92.02god
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) amazed, (E) astonished, (E) hairan, (E) shocked, (E) shocking, (E) surprise, (E) surprised, (E) surprising, (E) terkejut, (E) terperanjat
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Tien, Adrian (2015). Offensive language and sociocultural homogeneity in Singapore: An ethnolinguistic perspective. International Journal of Language and Culture, 2(2), 142-168. DOI: 10.1075/ijolc.2.2.01tie
Offensive language use in Singapore’s languacultures appears to be underpinned by cultural norms and values embraced by most if not all Singaporeans. Interviews with local informants and perusal of Singapore’s linguistic and cultural resources led to the identification of eight offensive words and phrases deemed representative of Singaporean coarseness. This set was narrowed down to a smaller set of common words and phrases, all Chinese Hokkien, all culturally laden. The finding that, although originally Hokkien, all of them are accessible not only to the Chinese-speaking population but also to speakers of Singapore Malay, Singapore Tamil, and Singapore English is compelling. The words and phrases studied in this paper are full-fledged members of the lexicon of these local non-Chinese languages, without loss or distortion of meaning. They are accepted as part of the local linguistic scene and of local cultural knowledge. At least in certain situations, people of different ethnic backgrounds who live and work together can rely on them as a testament of common identity which, in a curious way, gives voice to the sociocultural homogeneity this society unrelentingly pursues.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) cheebye, (E) Don’t kaopeh kaobu!, (E) lampah, (E) lanjiao, (S) tabooing the word cheebye, (S) tabooing the word lampah, (S) tabooing the word lanjiao, (S) unwarranted emotional outbursts, (T) English
