Browsing results for Indo-European
Published on December 17, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Gąsior, Weronika Zofia (2014). Intercultural pragmatics: An investigation of expressing opinions in Irish English amongst Irish and Polish students. PhD thesis, University of Limerick. PDF (open access)
Research in cross-cultural pragmatics has been limited to a handful of speech acts, and opinions remain rather poorly documented. The aim of this research was to explore the speech act of opinions from the dual perspective of pragmalinguistics-sociopragmatics, focusing additionally on the Irish variety of the English language and the Irish-Polish intercultural context. An empirical study of the expression of opinions among Polish and Irish students was conducted, using a mixed-method approach. The corpus of opinions was gathered through open role-plays among Irish and Polish university students, and it was complemented with focus group interviews which explored issues of sociopragmatic attitudes and awareness in expressing opinions.
The findings suggest that opinions should be treated as a speech act set, quite complex in its execution and an example of a rich environment for investigation of cooccurrence of many speech acts. Consequently, opinions are not achieved by simple ‘I think (that) x…’ sentences, but rather involve a negotiation of meaning represented in the use of concessive (dis)agreements, the most prominent being the use of ‘yes, but’ expressions. Additionally, opinions present not only face-saving strategies, such as those for polite disagreements, but they also promote face-enhancing moves and foster relationship-building communication.
The findings suggest further that in the Irish culture opinions are based on beliefs, while from the Polish participants’ perspective they are also based on facts and expected to be supported in conversation by good arguments. These different perspectives may have repercussions on how both cultures approach exchanges of opinions. While a direct cultural clash between them is not a direct conclusion to be drawn from the data, a possible misinterpretation of each other’s intentions should be pointed out. Consequently, some pedagogical and interculturally-oriented recommendations with reference to opinions are put forward.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 7, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2014). Interjections and emotion (with special reference to “surprise” and “disgust”). Emotion Review, 6(1), 53-63.
DOI: 10.1177/1754073913491843
Abstract:
All languages have ‘emotive interjections’ (i.e. interjections expressing cognitively based feelings), and yet emotion researchers have invested only a tiny research effort into interjections, as compared with the huge body of research into facial expressions and words for emotion categories. This article provides an overview of the functions, meanings and cross-linguistic variability of interjections, concentrating on non-word-based ones such as Wow!, Yuck!, and Ugh! The aims are to introduce an area that will be unfamiliar to most readers, to illustrate how the NSM approach deals with interjectional meaning, and to start a discussion about an interdisciplinary research agenda for the study of emotive interjections. Examples are drawn from English, Polish, and Cantonese.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ai1 jaa3! 呢樽, (E) Fu!, (E) Gee!, (E) Gosh!, (E) Tfu!, (E) Ugh!, (E) waa3! 哇, (E) Yikes!, (E) Yuck!
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on May 7, 2019.
Baider, Fabienne (2014). Bad feelings in context. In Fabienne Baider, & Georgeta Cislaru (Eds.), Linguistic approaches to emotions in context (pp. 189-212). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: 10.1075/pbns.241.11bai
Abstract:
This study revisits some earlier explications for anger-like words in English and Russian, then calls for the NSM approach to be combined with the socio-cognitive approach advocated by Rachel Giora and Istvan Kecskes. Oral and written data are used to define the salient features of the main hatred- and anger-like words in two languages: French (as spoken in France) and Greek (as spoken on Cyprus). The analysis reveals some differences regarding the referential dimension of the selected words, highlighting the fact that revenge occurs by default with hatred, but not (unlike previously suggested) with anger. Cypriot Greek μισός misos is equated with English anger, and θυμός thymos with French colère, and explications are proposed for each.
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In spite of some good insights and an interesting proposal to bring Giora’s concept of salience to bear on NSM data gathering practices, the paper does not live up to expectation. It remains an open question whether μισός misos can indeed be equated with English anger, and θυμός thymos with French colère. The author’s explications of these terms are problematical in more ways than one. |
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Rating:
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) anger, (E) colère, (E) misos μισός, (E) thymos θυμός
Published on August 4, 2018. Last updated on August 23, 2018.
Jayantini, I Gusti Agung Sri Rwa (2014). The medical concept of damage and its Indonesian equivalent cedera: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. Lingual: Journal of Language and Culture, 3(2). DOI: 10.24843/LJLC.2014.v03.i02.p06. PDF (open access)
This paper investigates the meaning configuration of the English medical concept ‘damage’ and its Indonesian equivalent ‘cedera’ as one of the interesting phenomena faced in English-Indonesian medical terminology translation. The former is found in the medical textbook entitled General Ophtamology while the latter is its Indonesian translation identified in Oftamologi Umum. The two books are references for the study of eye disease and medication. Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory is utilized to explicate the meaning of the terms. Adding the specific features of meaning once the basic explication is drawn up allows for the distinctive characteristics of ‘damage’ and ‘cedera’ to be comprehensively presented.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) cedera, (E) damage
Published on August 2, 2018. Last updated on May 23, 2019.
Neale, Miles (2014). No rest for the wicked; no leisure for the poor: A comparison of Japanese and English proverbs using Natural Semantic Metalanguage. BA(Hons) thesis, University of Queensland.
Abstract:
Can two proverbs created by different cultures in different languages have the same meaning? This dissertation presents the results of an investigation comparing the core meanings of ten Japanese and English proverbs that certain proverb dictionaries define as being equivalent in meaning. The thesis compares Japanese proverbs chosen from iroha karuta, a proverb-based card game, with English ‘equivalents’ listed in Japanese proverb dictionaries. The investigation uses data from the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese, the British National Corpus and a corpus of internet blogs to develop semantic explications that demonstrate the core meaning of each proverb. These explications reveal that many of the Japanese proverbs rely on a different metaphor, offer different advice and index a different real-world situation compared to their English ‘equivalents’. The results of this investigation demonstrate how proverbs reproduce folk wisdom, ritual and the differing ideologies of Japanese and English culture.
More information:
The following proverbs are explicated and compared:
Nen niwa nen o ireyo versus Look before you leap
Binbō hima nashi versus No rest for the wicked
Inu mo arukeba bō ni ataru versus Every dog has its day
Ryōyaku wa kuchi ni nigashi versus Good medicine tastes bitter
Ron yori shōko versus The proof of the pudding is in the eating
Nakittsura ni hachi versus To pour salt on the wound
Atama kakushite shiri kakusazu versus The foolish ostrich buries its head in the sand (and thinks it is not seen)
Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru versus Many a little makes a mickle
Hana yori dango versus Pudding before praise
Raku areba ku ari versus There is no pleasure without pain
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 25, 2019.
Gladkova, Anna (2014). HERE, NEAR, FAR: Spatial conceptualisation and cognition in a cross-linguistic perspective (English vs. Russian). In Luna Filipović, & Martin Pütz (Eds.), Multilingual cognition and language use: Processing and typological perspectives (pp. 121-150). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.44.05gla
Abstract:
This chapter explores variation and similarities in the conceptualization of space in Russian and English on the basis of selected terms of ‘location’ and ‘proximity/distance’. It adopts the NSM approach, which identifies eight semantic universals of space, three of which, HERE, NEAR, FAR, were tested for their realization in both languages. A semantic analysis of terms denoting ‘here’, ‘near’, ‘not far’, and ‘far’ confirms the presence of the three universal primes in English and Russian, though they differ in how they conceptually carve up the notion of space.
The study has implications for research into bilingualism and language acquisition and demonstrates that the NSM formulae can be used experimentally to test spatial conceptualization and cognition cross-linguistically.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) afar, (E) close by, (E) close to, (E) ne daleko не далеко, (E) nearby, (E) nedaleko недалеко, (E) nepodaleku неподалеку, (E) nevdaleke невдалеке, (E) next to, (E) otsjuda отсюда, (E) poblizosti поблизости, (E) rjadom рядом, (E) sjuda сюда, (E) vblizi вблизи, (E) vdaleke вдалеке, (E) vdali вдали, (T) Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 25, 2019.
Gladkova, Anna, & Romero-Trillo, Jesús (2014). Ain’t it beautiful? The conceptualization of beauty from an ethnopragmatic perspective. Journal of Pragmatics, 60, 140-159.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.11.005
Abstract:
This study addresses the question of the ethnopragmatic conceptualization of ‘beautiful’ in three European languages – English, Russian and Spanish. Specifically, it investigates the polysemy and the spheres of application of English beautiful, Russian красивый krasivyj, and Spanish bonito/a. Through corpus analysis methodology, the authors investigate the most common collocations and the pragmatic and contextual uses of these terms. On the basis of the analysis, the study then adopts NSM to propose semantic explications of the three words in universal human concepts. In particular, it investigates the presence of the perception universals SEE, HEAR, and FEEL, which in the data are central to the analysis of the aesthetics vocabulary, along with the primes GOOD, SOMEONE, SOMETHING and THINK.
The data for the study comes from three online corpora: the Russian National Corpus (Russian), Cobuild’s Wordbanks Online (English) and the Corpus de referencia del español actual (Spanish).
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) beautiful, (E) bonito, (E) krasivyj красивый, (E) sympathy, (T) Russian, (T) Spanish
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2014). “C’est pas ma faute”: Analyse ethnophraséologique [“C’est pas ma faute”: An ethnophraseological analysis]. In Ana-Maria Cozma, Abdelhadi Bellachhab, & Marion Pescheux (Eds.), Du sens à la signification. De la signification aux sens: Mélanges offerts à Olga Galatanu (pp. 313-328). Bruxelles: Peter Lang.
Written in French. No abstract available.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) C'est pas ma faute
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 3, 2019.
Peeters, Bert (2014). On va s’arranger/On s’arrangera: étude ethnophraséologique de deux actes (généralement) rassurants [On va s’arranger/On s’arrangera: An ethnophraseological study of two (generally) reassuring speech acts]. Scolia, 28, 129-149.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Stanwood, Ryo E. (2014). On the adequacy of Hawai`i Creole English. Dallas: SIL International. PDF (open access)
Published version of a previously unpublished PhD thesis (1999).
Low prestige, non-standard speech varieties have been stigmatized by some psychologists and educators as a cognitive handicap responsible for the poor academic performance of minority children. This study investigates whether a particular non-standard variety, Hawai‛i Creole English (HCE), is equal to “real” languages (such as Standard English) in its expressive capacity. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage
(NSM) specification is the only explicit hypothesis about the expressive apparatus underlying all natural languages. It therefore offers us the only empirical means to carry out our investigation. This investigation argues in exhaustive detail that all the primitives and all the primitive combinations of the NSM specification are present in HCE.
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 September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Imprisoned in English: The hazards of English as a default language. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199321490.001.0001
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 22, 2019.
Mackenzie, Colin Peter (2014). Vernacular psychologies in Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.
Open access
Abstract:
This thesis examines the vernacular psychology presented in Old Norse-Icelandic texts. It focuses on the concept ‘hugr’, generally rendered in English as ‘mind, soul, spirit’, and explores the conceptual relationships between emotion, cognition and the body. It argues that despite broad similarities, Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English vernacular psychology differ more than has previously been acknowledged. Furthermore, it shows that the psychology of Old Norse-Icelandic has less in common with its circumpolar neighbours than proposed by advocates of Old Norse-Icelandic shamanism.
The thesis offers a fresh interpretation of Old Norse-Icelandic psychology that does not rely on cross-cultural evidence from other Germanic or circumpolar traditions. It argues that emotion and cognition were not conceived of ‘hydraulically’ as was the case in Old English, and that ‘hugr’ was not thought to leave the body either in animal form or as a person’s breath. Old Norse-Icelandic psychology differs from the Old English tradition; it is argued that the Old English psychological model is a specific elaboration of the shared psychological inheritance of Germanic whose origins require further study. These differences between the two languages have implications for the study of psychological concepts in Proto-Germanic: there are fewer semantic components that can be reliably reconstructed for the common ancestor of the North and West Germanic languages.
As a whole, the thesis applies insights from cross-cultural linguistics and psychology to show how Old Norse-Icelandic psychological concepts differ not only from contemporary Germanic and circumpolar traditions but also from the present-day English concepts used to describe them.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) amae 甘え, (E) angry, (E) Ärger, (E) hati, (E) heart, (E) hugr, (E) maum 몸, (E) mind, (E) mōd, (E) sich ärgern, (E) sind, (E) think
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Tien, Adrian (2014). Chinese-based lexicon in Singapore English, and Singapore-Chinese culture. In Maria Grozeva-Minkova, & Boris Naimushin (Eds.), Globalisierung, interkulturelle Kommunikation und Sprache (pp. 473-482). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Also published as:
Tien, Adrian (2014). Chinese-based lexicon in Singapore English, and Singapore-Chinese culture. In Ewa Zebrowska, Mariola Jaworska, & Dirk Steinhoff (Eds.), Materialität und Medialität der sprachlichen Kommunikation – Materiality and mediality of linguistic communication (pp. 411-422). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Singapore sits at the crossroads between the East and the West, and its “unofficial” national creole, Singapore English (or “Singlish”), attests to the diverse linguistic and cultural amalgam consisting of primarily English and Chinese and, secondarily, Malay and Tamil. While English grammar serves as the backbone of Singlish, its lexical composition is strongly represented by loanwords or calques which originated from Chinese – not only Standard Mandarin but also Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Hakka dialects. These Chinese-based words in Singlish lexicon are worth studying because they demonstrate that the Singapore culture is both uniquely native and historically as well as culturally reflective of Chinese culture. To further substantiate the case, we examine a selection of cultural key words from Chinese-based Singlish lexicon using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) model as advanced by Wierzbicka and Goddard over the last 40 years. By using a set of 60 or so semantically unanalysable “primes”, this model allows us to decompose the complex meanings of cultural key words into configurations of semantic primes, thus making it possible to study, compare, and explain these words.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on August 17, 2018. Last updated on May 1, 2019.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2014). Some remarks on “pain” in Latin American Spanish. International Journal of Language and Culture, 1(2), 239-252.
DOI: 10.1075/ijolc.1.2.06bul
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to examine the Spanish counterpart of pain, that is, the lexeme dolor. It seems that dolor, different from both English pain and French douleur, has two clearly distinguishable meanings, dolor1 referring to physical (and emotional) sensation of pain, and dolor2, a quite frequent emotion term belonging to the domain of “sadness”. To support the above hypothesis, this article examines different lexical occurrences of the word dolor, coming inter alia from tango lyrics.
More information:
Reissued as:
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2016). Some remarks on “pain” in Latin American Spanish. In Cliff Goddard & Zhengdao Ye (Eds.), “Happiness” and “pain” across languages and cultures (pp. 109-122). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/bct.84.06bul
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) dolor, (E) me duele
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 17, 2018.
Wong, Jock O. (2014). The culture of Singapore English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139519519
This book provides a fresh approach to Singapore English, by focusing on its cultural connotations. The author, a native Singaporean, explores a range of aspects of this rich variety of English – including address forms, cultural categories, particles, and interjections – and links particular words to particular cultural norms and values. By using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach, which is free from technical terminology, he explains the relationship between meaning and culture with maximal clarity.
An added strength of this study lies in its use of authentic examples and pictures, which offer a fascinating glimpse of Singaporean life. Through comparisons with Anglo English, it also explores some difficulties associated with Standard English and cultural misunderstanding.
Table of contents
- English in Singapore
- The language of culture and the culture of language
- Singlish forms of address
- Cultural categories and stereotypes
- The discourse of can in Singlish
- Expressions of certainty and overstatements
- The tonal particles of Singlish
- The enigmatic particle lōr
- Interjections: aiya and aiyo
- Making sense of Singlish
Chapter 3 builds on: The reduplication of Chinese names in Singapore English (2003); Social hierarchy in the ‘speech culture’ of Singapore (2006)
Chapter 4 builds on: Contextualizing aunty in Singaporean English (2006)
Chapter 5 builds on: Cultural scripts, ways of speaking and perceptions of personal autonomy: Anglo English vs. Singapore English (2004)
Chapter 6 builds on: Why you so Singlish one? A semantic and cultural interpretation of the Singapore English particle one (2005); Reduplication of nominal modifiers in Singapore English: A semantic and cultural interpretation (2004); Anglo English and Singapore English tags: Their meanings and cultural significance (2008)
Chapter 7 builds on: The particles of Singapore English: A semantic and cultural interpretation (2004); To speak or not to speak? The ‘a’ particles of Singlish (2001)
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags listed below are in addition to those listed at the end of the entries for the earlier work on which this book builds.
Tags: (E) able, (E) Ah, (E) Ah Beng, (E) Ah Lian, (E) Aiya!, (E) Aiyo!, (E) can already, (E) Can you do this?, (E) can?, (E) lōr, (E) Oh-oh!, (E) oops, (E) Ow!, (E) permission, (E) possible, (E) right? (tag), (E) sarong party girl (SPG), (E) tai tai, (E) uncle, (E) wink, (E) X can Y cannot, (E) You do this, (S) Asking people to do things, (S) attitude towards someone older, (S) being easy to please, (S) feeling good and showing it, (S) good feelings in verbal interactions, (S) honorific deference, (S) marking what one thinks from what one knows, (S) names, (S) not sounding excessively negative, (S) offering suggestions, (S) offering to do something for someone, (S) parental obligation, (S) presenting certainties as uncertainties, (S) saying something good about something, (S) sounding positive, (S) use of an address form when interacting with older people, (S) use of the imperative
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 January 15, 2022.
Levisen, Carsten & Waters, Sophia (2015). Lige, a Danish ‘magic word’? An ethnopragmatic analysis. International Journal of Language and Culture, 2(2), 244-268. DOI: 10.1075/ijolc.2.2.05lev
The Danish word lige [ˈliːə] is a highly culture-specific discourse particle. English translations sometimes render it as ‘please’, but this kind of functional translation is motivated solely by the expectation that, in English, one has to “say please”. In the Danish universe of meaning, there is in fact no direct equivalent of anything like English please, German bitte, or similar constructs in other European languages. Consequently, Danish speakers cannot “say please”, and Danish children cannot “say the magic word”.
However, lige is in its own way a magic word, performing a different kind of pragmatic magic that has almost been left unstudied because it does not correlate well with any of the major Anglo-international research questions such as “how to express politeness” or “how to make a request”. This paper analyses the semantics of lige to shed light on the peculiarities of Danish ethnopragmatics. It is demonstrated not only that Danish lige does a different semantic job than English please, but also that please-based and lige-based interactions are bound to different interpretations of social life and interpersonal relations, and reflect differing cultural values.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on October 29, 2021.
Levisen, Carsten (2015). Scandinavian semantics and the human body: An ethnolinguistic study in diversity and change. Language Sciences, 49, 51-66. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2014.05.004
This paper presents an ethnolinguistic analysis of how the space between the head and the body is construed in Scandinavian semantic systems vis-à-vis the semantic system of English. With an extensive case study of neck-related meanings in Danish, and with cross-Scandinavian reference, it is demonstrated that Scandinavian and English systems differ significantly in some aspects of the way in which they construe the human body with words. Reference is made in particular to the neck, throat, and Adam’s apple.
The study ventures an innovative combination of methods, pairing the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to linguistic and conceptual analysis with empirical evidence from the Evolution of Semantic Systems (EoSS) project. This combination of empirical and interpretative tools helps to integrate evidence from semantics and semiotics, pinning out in great detail the intricacies of the meanings of particular body words.
The paper concludes that body words in closely related languages can differ substantially in their semantics. In related languages, where shared lexical form does not always mean shared semantics, ethnolinguistic studies in semantic change and shifts in polysemy patterns can help to reveal and explain the roots of semantic diversity.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Adam's apple, (E) adamsæble, (E) hals, (E) hnakki, (E) nakke
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2015). Verb classes and valency alternations (NSM approach), with special reference to English physical activity verbs. In Andrej Malchukov & Bernard Comrie (Eds.), Valency classes in the world’s languages, vol. 2 (pp. 1671-1701). Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI: 10.1515/9783110429343-020
This study examines five English physical activity verbs (eat, pour, dig, carry, cut) and, using a dedicated semantic template, proposes detailed semantic explications for the basic activity-in-progress meanings of these verbs. It then shows, with a different template, how these basic meanings can be transposed into perfective uses. The study examines and explicates 11 alternations (specialized constructions) involving the five verbs, showing in each case exactly how the alternations are related to the base semantics of the verb. In his demonstration, the author relies on the concept of derivational base, which is a new concept in NSM studies.
The general picture is that the specialized constructions are quasi-derivational in nature: the primary or semantically basic sense of the verb is embedded in a more elaborate configuration containing additional semantic material. Often much of this additional material is modeled on the semantics of verbs that belong to different semantic types (lexicosyntactic blending), but it can be partly idiosyncratic or non-predictable. Each specialized construction represents a kind of “word in construction” polysemy.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) carry, (E) cut, (E) dig, (E) eat, (E) pour
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2015). The idea of a ‘spoon’: semantics, prehistory, and cultural logic. Language Sciences, 47(A), 66-83. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2014.08.005
