Browsing results for Indo-European
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). Precision in vagueness: The semantics of English ‘approximatives’. Journal of Pragmatics, 10(5), 597-614. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(86)90016-0
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 9 (pp. 341-389) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1991, 2003). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
In this paper, the author explicates a number of English ‘approximatives’ such as around, about, approximately, roughly, at least, at the most, almost and nearly. In each case, she offers a paraphrase substitutable for the particle itself. She argues against a ‘radically pragmatic’ approach to particles, advocated by Sadock and others, and advocates an alternative, ‘radically semantic’ account. She tries to show that even the vaguest ‘hedges’ and ‘approximatives’ can be given rigorous semantic explications, which correctly account for the particles’ use.
Tags: (E) about, (E) almost, (E) approximately, (E) around, (E) as many as, (E) at least, (E) at the most, (E) exactly, (E) just, (E) merely, (E) nearly, (E) no less, (E) no more, (E) only, (E) roughly
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). Metaphors linguists live by: Lakoff & Johnson contra Aristotle. Papers in Linguistics, 19(2), 287-313. DOI: 10.1080/08351818609389260
Review article of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors we live by.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) happy, (E) hate, (E) in love, (E) love, (E) unhappy
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). *The semantics of ‘internal dative’ in English. Quaderni di Semantica, 7(1), 121-135.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). *The semantics of the internal dative – A rejoinder. Quaderni di Semantica, 7(1), 155-165.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 27, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (1986). The natural semantics of too. Journal of Pragmatics, 10(5), 635-643. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(86)90018-4
This paper proposes semantic explications in natural language for some half-dozen constructions employing the English particle of ‘emphatic conjunction’ too. It argues that a range of quite subtle meaning differences can be modelled by applying minor variations of a single basic meaning (roughly, ‘one more … the same’) to different levels of illocutionary structure.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) too
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). Does language reflect culture? Evidence from Australian English. Language in Society, 15, 349-374.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500011805
Abstract:
This paper attempts to demonstrate direct links between Australian language and other aspects of Australian culture. The existence of such links – intuitively obvious and yet notoriously hard to prove – is often rejected in the name of scientific rigour. Nonetheless, the problem continues to exercise fascination over scholars, as it does over the general public. The author proposes ways in which the linguist’s methodological tools can be sharpened so that the apparently untractable and yet fundamental issues of language as a ‘guide to social reality’ can be studied in ways that are both linguistically precise and culturally revealing. Linguistic phenomena such as expressive derivation, illocutionary devices and speech act verbs are related to the literature on the Australian society, national character, history and culture.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Chapter 11 (pp. 373-394) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1992), Semantics, culture, and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. New York: Oxford University Press.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). Italian reduplication: Cross-cultural pragmatics and illocutionary semantics. Linguistics, 24(2), 287-315.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1986.24.2.287
Abstract:
This article (a study in ethnopragmatics avant la lettre) examines the use and function of syntactic reduplication in Italian. Syntactic reduplication belongs to a system of illocutionary devices that, jointly, reflect some characteristic features of the Italian style of social interaction. Subtle pragmatic meanings such as those conveyed in Italian reduplication can be identified and distinguished from other, related meanings if ad hoc impressionistic comments are replaced with rigorous semantic representations relying on a semantic metalanguage derived from natural language. Comparisons are made with some other intensification devices in Italian and in English, such as the absolute superlative.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 8 (pp. 270-299) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Into Russian:
Chapter 6 (pp. 224-259) of Вежбицкая, Анна (1999), Семантические универсалии и описание языков [Semantic universals and the description of languages]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки русской культуры [Languages of Russian Culture].
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 7 (pp. 255-284) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1991). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). *The semantics of quantitative particles in Polish and in English. In Andrzej Bogusławski, & Božena Bojar (Eds.), Od kodu do kodu (pp. 175-189). Warsaw: PanÚstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 9 (pp. 341-389) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1991, 2003). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). The meaning of a case: A study of the Polish dative. In Richard D. Brecht, & James S. Levine (Eds.), Case in Slavic (pp. 386-426). Columbus: Slavica.
Abstract:
The basic assumption of this study is that cases have meaning and that this meaning can be stated in a precise and illuminating way. This is of course also the position advocated and brilliantly implemented by Roman Jakobson. Further assumptions are: (1) that a case has one core meaning, on the basis of which it can be identified cross-linguistically (as, say, ‘dative’ or ‘instrumental’), and a language-specific set of other, related meanings, which have to be specified in the grammatical description of a given language; and (2) that all the meanings of a case — like all other meanings — can be stated in intuitively understandable and intuitively verifiable paraphrases in a semantic metalanguage based on natural language.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 7 (pp. 391-433) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). The semantics of grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on March 14, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). Two Russian speech act verbs: Lexicography as a key to conceptual and cultural analysis. Folia Slavica, 8(1), 134-159.
Abstract:
This article studies in some detail two characteristic Russian speech act verbs: donosit’ доносить and rugat’ ругать, comparing them with a number of related English verbs. The Russian verbs that were chosen are at once extremely interesting and extremely challenging, from a semantic as well as from a pragmatic point of view. The analysis reveals the precise semantic structure of both verbs and, at the same time, demonstrates the value of the semantic metalanguage on which it relies as a tool for a cross-cultural comparison of speech acts and speech genres.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ask, (E) condemn, (E) curse, (E) denounce, (E) dob in, (E) donosit' доносить, (E) inform on, (E) order, (E) rebuke, (E) report, (E) reprimand, (E) rugat' ругать, (E) scold, (E) tell tales on, (E) threat, (E) warn, (E) yell at
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 13, 2023.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1987). English speech act verbs: A semantic dictionary. Sydney: Academic Press.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) absolve, (E) abuse, (E) accept, (E) accuse, (E) acknowledge, (E) acquit, (E) add, (E) admit, (E) admonish, (E) advise, (E) advocate, (E) affirm, (E) agree, (E) allow, (E) announce, (E) answer, (E) apologize, (E) appeal, (E) apply, (E) appoint, (E) approve, (E) argue, (E) ask, (E) assert, (E) assure, (E) attack, (E) authorize, (E) baptize, (E) bargain, (E) beg, (E) bemoan, (E) beseech, (E) bet, (E) bewail, (E) blackmail, (E) blame, (E) blaspheme, (E) bless, (E) boast, (E) book, (E) calculate, (E) call, (E) call for, (E) call on, (E) cancel, (E) challenge, (E) charge, (E) chat, (E) christen, (E) claim, (E) command, (E) comment, (E) compare, (E) complain, (E) compliment, (E) concede, (E) conclude, (E) condemn, (E) confess, (E) confide, (E) confirm, (E) congratulate, (E) conjecture, (E) consent, (E) consult, (E) content, (E) contradict, (E) converse, (E) convict, (E) convince, (E) counsel, (E) count, (E) counter, (E) credit, (E) criticize, (E) curse, (E) dare, (E) debate, (E) decide, (E) declare, (E) decline, (E) decree, (E) deduce, (E) defend, (E) defy, (E) demand, (E) denounce, (E) deny, (E) deplore, (E) describe, (E) direct, (E) disagree, (E) disapprove, (E) discuss, (E) dismiss, (E) dispute, (E) dissuade, (E) emphasize, (E) enquire, (E) enthuse, (E) estimate, (E) exclaim, (E) excommunicate, (E) excuse, (E) explain, (E) exult, (E) farewell, (E) forbid, (E) forecast, (E) forgive, (E) gather, (E) give, (E) gossip, (E) grant, (E) greet, (E) guarantee, (E) guess, (E) hint, (E) implore, (E) imply, (E) infer, (E) inform, (E) inform on, (E) inquire, (E) insinuate, (E) insist, (E) instruct, (E) insult, (E) intercede, (E) interrogate, (E) introduce, (E) invite, (E) joke, (E) justify, (E) lament, (E) lecture, (E) maintain, (E) moan, (E) mock, (E) nag, (E) name, (E) narrate, (E) negotiate, (E) note, (E) notify, (E) object, (E) observe, (E) offer, (E) order, (E) pardon, (E) permit, (E) persuade, (E) plead, (E) pledge, (E) point out, (E) praise, (E) predict, (E) prescribe, (E) presume, (E) proclaim, (E) profess, (E) prohibit, (E) promise, (E) pronounce, (E) prophesy, (E) propose, (E) protest, (E) prove, (E) quarrel, (E) query, (E) question, (E) reassure, (E) rebuff, (E) rebuke, (E) recant, (E) recapitulate, (E) reckon, (E) recommend, (E) recount, (E) refuse, (E) refute, (E) reject, (E) relate, (E) remark, (E) remind, (E) renounce, (E) repeat, (E) reply, (E) report, (E) reprimand, (E) reproach, (E) reprove, (E) request, (E) require, (E) reserve, (E) resign, (E) resolve, (E) retort, (E) reveal, (E) ridicule, (E) say goodbye, (E) scold, (E) sentence, (E) speculate, (E) state, (E) stress, (E) suggest, (E) sum up, (E) summarize, (E) summon, (E) suppose, (E) suspect, (E) swear, (E) talk, (E) tell, (E) testify, (E) thank, (E) threaten, (E) urge, (E) veto, (E) volunteer, (E) vote, (E) vouch for, (E) vow, (E) warn, (E) welcome, (E) wish, (E) wonder
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on March 14, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1987). Predict, prophesy, forecast: Semantics and lexicography. In Roberto Crespo, Bill Dotson Smith, & Henk Schultink (Eds.), Aspects of language. Studies in honour of Mario Alinei: Vol. 2. Theoretical and applied semantics (pp. 509-523). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Abstract:
It is easy enough to say, as has become trendy in linguistics, that the concepts embodied in the three closely related verbs studied in this paper are linked by ‘family resemblance’, and that the boundaries between them are fuzzy. But where do we proceed from there? How do these words differ from one another? Dictionary users have the right to expect guidance and assistance. Their needs will not be met if a general slogan of ‘fuzziness of human concepts’ is all that the dictionaries of the future can add to the dictionaries of the past.
The present paper is predicated on different assumptions. It assumes that Plato’s golden dream of capturing the invariant, necessary and sufficient components of a given concept was realistic, not utopian. It offers a methodology with the help of which the dream can be fulfilled. That it really can be fulfilled is demonstrated not by abstract discussion but by actually doing what it has been alleged is impossible to do, i.e. by defining the three verbs in such a way that both the similarities and the differences between their meanings are explicitly shown. The tool required to carry out the task is a language-independent semantic metalanguage based on natural language; it makes rigorous comparison possible and at the same time ensures the elimination of the vicious circles that have plagued traditional dictionaries in general, and dictionaries of synonyms and related words in particular.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ask, (E) forecast, (E) order, (E) predict, (E) prophesy
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1987). Boys will be boys: ‘Radical semantics’ vs. ‘radical pragmatics’. Language, 63(1), 95-114.
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 10 (pp. 391-452) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1991, 2003). Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Colloquial ‘tautologies’ such as War is war or A promise is a promise have often been adduced in support of a ‘Gricean’ account of language use. The present article shows, however, that ‘tautological constructions’ are partly conventional and language-specific, and that each such construction has a specific meaning which cannot be fully predicted in terms of any universal pragmatic maxims. It is argued that the attitudinal meanings conveyed by various tautological constructions and by similar linguistic devices should be stated in rigorous and yet self-explanatory semantic formulae. ‘Radical pragmatics’ is rejected as a blind alley, and an integrated approach to language structure and language use is proposed, based on a coherent semantic theory which is capable of representing ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ aspects of meaning in a unified framework.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Ameka, Felix (1987). A comparative analysis of linguistic routines in two languages: English and Ewe. Journal of Pragmatics, 11(3), 299-326. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(87)90135-4
It is widely acknowledged that linguistic routines are not only embodiments of the socio-cultural values of speech communities that use them, but their knowledge and appropriate use also form an essential part of a speaker’s communicative/pragmatic competence. Despite this, many studies concentrate more on describing the use of routines rather than explaining the socio-cultural aspects of their meaning and the way they affect their use. It is the contention of this paper that there is a need to go beyond descriptions to explanations and explications of the use and meaning of routines that are culturally and socially revealing. This view is illustrated by a comparative analysis of functionally equivalent formulaic expressions in English and Ewe. The similarities are noted and the differences explained in terms of the socio-cultural traditions associated with the respective languages. It is argued that insights gained from such studies are valuable for cross-cultural understanding and communication as well as for second language pedagogy.
Most of the routines selected for explication are used either to congratulate people when good things happen to them or to console, i.e. show empathy with people who experience something bad. One conversational routine in Ewe that is also included reflects an interesting social and cultural norm in Ewe society related to the use of the left hand instead of the right.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Congratulations!, (E) Ewe congratulations and consolations, (E) I'm sorry!, (E) sorry, (E) thank you, (E) Well done!
Published on October 13, 2018. Last updated on October 19, 2019.
Bramley, Nicolette Ruth (1987). The meaning of ‘love’ and ‘hate’ and other emotion words in Japanese and English. BA(Hons) thesis, Australian National University.
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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 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 October 19, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (1988). Review of Zoltán Kövecses, Metaphors of anger, pride and love: A lexical approach to the structure of concepts. Lingua, 77(1), 90-98. DOI: 10.1016/0024-3841(89)90041-7
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) angry, (E) proud
Published on December 17, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Harkins, Jean (1988). English as a ‘two-way’ language in Alice Springs. MA thesis, Australian National University.
This thesis is a sociolinguistic study of the use of English by Aboriginal people in the Alice Springs town camps. It seeks to describe Aboriginal speakers’ English in its social and cultural context, with special reference to issues in the development of an English language programme at Yeperenye School. Chapter 1 gives a sociolinguistic sketch of the uses of English and other languages in the town camps, including language choice and codeswitching, and a review of literature. Chapter 2 examines variation in the noun phrase, including number marking, pronouns, possession, determiners and quantifiers, and prepositions, arguing that this variation can only be explained with reference to the speakers’ semantic system. Chapter 3 examines tense, aspect and mood, finding systematic differences in meaning which can explain differences from non-Aboriginal English, particularly in modal expressions. Chapter 4 examines the work of Bernstein, Halliday, Walker and others whose ideas have been influential in education, and demonstrates that there is no lack of logical connections in Aboriginal speakers’ English, through an examination of connectives, causal relations and ellipsis. Chapter 5 discusses the meanings of lexical items and grammatical constructions, pragmatic and illocutionary meanings, and argues that the processes of reanalysis and language change which have given rise to this variety of English are semantically based. Chapter 6 presents the conclusions of this study, including its theoretical implications and implications for education.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Prototypes in semantics and pragmatics: Explicating attitudinal meanings in terms of prototypes. Linguistics, 27(4), 731-769.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1989.27.4.731
Abstract:
This paper shows how pragmatic meanings encoded in different forms of address (such as titles, ‘polite’ pronouns, and personal names, including their expressive derivates) can be portrayed in a rigorous and illuminating way in NSM, and that such explications allow us to make the similarities and the differences between different pragmatic categories clear and explicit – both within a language and across language and culture boundaries.
It is argued that abstract features such as ‘solidarity’, ‘familiarity’, ‘(in)formality’, ‘distance’, ‘intimacy’, and so on do not provide adequate tools for the description and comparison of pragmatic meanings, because they are not self-explanatory and because they do not have any constant, language-independent value. (For example, the ‘distance’ implied by the English title Mr. is different from that implied by the French title Monsieur; and the ‘familiarity’ implied by Russian forms such as Misa or Vanja is quite different from that implied by English forms such as Mike or John.)
It is shown that many pragmatic meanings have a prototypical semantic structure: they present emotions and attitudes in terms of certain prototypical human relationships, rather than in terms of fully specified mental states and social relations. In particular, social and existential categories, such as children, women, and men, or people one knows well and people one does not know, provide important signposts in the universe of human relations encoded in language. The exact role such prototypes play in different pragmatic categories can be shown in a precise and illuminating way in verbal explications constructed in the proposed metalanguage.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 2 (pp. 49-81) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
More information:
More recent publications building on this one are:
Chapters 7 and 8 (pp. 225-307, 309-325) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1992), Semantics, culture, and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (personal names), (E) Father, (E) given names, (E) madame, (E) mademoiselle, (E) miss, (E) monsieur, (E) Mr, (E) Mrs, (E) Ms, (E) nicknames, (E) Pan, (E) Pani, (E) Professor, (E) red, (E) salty, (E) Sir, (E) uncle, (E) vous, (E) vy, (E) woman, (E) wy
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Soul and mind: Linguistic evidence for ethnopsychology and cultural history. American Anthropologist, 91(1), 41-58.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1989.91.1.02a00030
Abstract:
The Russian word duša ‘soul’ has a much wider scope of use than the English word soul and embodies a different folk psychology (fully congruent with what has been described as the Russian “national character”). The English word mind stands for an Anglo-Saxon folk category that has been reified as an objective category of thought. The decline and fall of the concept soul and the ascendancy of mind in English are linked with changes in the cultural history and in the prevailing Western ethnophilosophy.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 14 (pp. 522-544) 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 1 (pp. 31-63) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1992), Semantics, culture, and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) duša душа, (E) mind, (E) soul
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Russian personal names: The semantics of expressive derivation. Folia Slavica, 9, 314-354.
