A resource base of publications using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. 1,100+ detailed notices, and counting!
Machin, Elita (2021). Minimal English and Revitalisation Education: Assisting Linguists to Explain Grammar in Simple, Everyday Words. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 83-107
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_4
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Sadow, Lauren (2021). Standard Translatable English: A Minimal English for Teaching and Learning Invisible Culture in Language Classrooms. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 139-169
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_6
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Goddard, Cliff. (2021). “Minimal language” and COVID-19: How to talk about complex ideas using simple words. 국어문학 [Society of Korean Language and Literature] 77. (2021): 125-144.
Abstract:
This paper presents an expanded version of a keynote lecture given to the annual conference of the Society of Korean Language and Literature (국어문학), 18 February 2021.
This lecture has four Parts. Part 1 briefly discusses ‘Critical communication issues in the pandemic era’, focussing on the need to use clear, simple language that everyone can understand. Part 2 explains what “minimal languages” are and how they have emerged from empirical research in linguistics. Part 3 presents and discusses examples of how to write about aspects of COVID-19 using minimal language. Part 4 addresses the implications for education and public policy.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Gladkova, Anna. (2021). “What is beauty?”: Cultural semantics of the Russian folk aesthetics. International Journal of Language and Culture 8(1): 84–105
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00036.gla
Abstract:
The paper studies the semantics of four Russian key terms of aesthetic evaluation: krasivyj ‘beautiful’, prekrasnyj ‘beautiful/fine’, nekrasivyj ’ugly/ plain’ and bezobraznyj ‘ugly/frightful’. It demonstrates different patterns of polysemy of the words and the nuances of meaning. Following the framework of folk aesthetics and cultural semantics, the meanings of the terms in question are represented using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) and are shown to relate to Russian cultural themes. The analysis demonstrates cultural significance of aesthetic value in Russian and its intrinsic link with ethics, morality and politeness.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Romero-Trillo, Jesús. (2021). The good, the bad… and the ugly? The conceptualization of aesthetics in Spanish. International Journal of Language and Culture 8(1): 147–168
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00039.rom
Abstract:
The present article describes the conceptualization of aesthetics in Spanish through the analysis of the two prototypical terms that describe positive and negative sensory appreciation, i.e., “bonito” (beautiful) and “feo” (ugly). Following a mixed-approach methodology combining Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Corpus Pragmatics, the article compares the use of these adjectives in spoken and written language, analyzes their realization in the corpora under analysis, provides the explications that support their poly- semy, and describes their distribution in different contexts. The final part of the paper is devoted to the comparison of the use of these adjectives with their counterparts in English, as evidenced by another paper in this special issue.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Fernández, Susana S. (2021). The Conceptual Semantics of ‘Latin America’: Popular Geopolitics and Spanish Language Teaching in Denmark. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics, 5(2021), 31–54
Abstract:
This article explores how the concept of ‘Latin America’ is constructed in connection with the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language in Denmark, and how it is received and understood by Spanish learners in the country. The paper explores the concept of Latin America from different perspectives: Danish learners, young Latin Americans and through a historical overview, in order to embrace its complexity. The hypothesis is that the conceptualization of ‘Latin America’ in the context of language teaching in Denmark does not do justice to the diversity and richness of the geographical area and its peoples.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Fenyvesi, Katalin, Bick, Eckhard, & Geyer, Klaus. (2022). Sadness-related Expressions in Danish and German: A Corpus-assisted NSM-analysis. Scandinavian Studies in Language, 13(1), 249-273. Retrieved from https://tidsskrift.dk/sss/article/view/135080
Abstract
The study explores sadness-related expressions in two typologically closely related languages in the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) framework. A systematic corpus enquiry revealed the syntactic patterns and helped to identify the most frequent head-nouns of a number of Danish and German sadness- related expressions. German traurig, for instance, has a distribution similar to that of Danish sørgelig with semiotic products and clauses as subjects. However, when used with human subjects, its distribution aligns with the Danish multi-word expression ked af det. Semantic consultations conducted about the use of the most salient sadness adjectives with some speakers of Danish and German revealed fine-grained differences between German traurig and trist and Danish ked af det and trist respectively. Thus, when used with a human headword, Danish trist is more trait-like while ked af det is more state- like. The concept of sadness-related emotions in Danish and German is discussed, followed by a methodological discussion about the combinability of a quantitative corpus approach, a qualitative semantic consultation approach and NSM explications. Corpus inquiry was used to chart the adjectives’ polysemy, and as a method for creating the NSM explications, consultation data were used.
Maskova, Stephanie. A Semantic Analysis of Snow-related Words in Danish and Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic). Scandinavian Studies in Language, 13(1), 225-248. Retrieved from https://tidsskrift.dk/sss/article/view/135079
Abstract
This paper emerges from the vexed question whether the allegedly many “Eskimo” terms for snow document a linkage between language, culture, and cognition. Using the semantic explication technique of the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) approach, the emic logics embedded in the Kalaallisut snow-related words aputit and nittaappoq and the Danish snow-related words sne and det sner are unfolded. Through a comparison of the findings, the paper discusses how the physical world is conceptualized in both culture-specific and transcultural ways. The explications are based on evidence from semantic consultations and text examples.
Goddard, Cliff, Wierzbicka, Anna & Farese, Gian Marco. (2022). The conceptual semantics of “money” and “money verbs”. Russian Journal of Linguistics 26(1) 7–20. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-27193
Abstract
The central purpose of this study is to apply the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) method of semantic-conceptual analysis to the word ‘money’ and to related “economic transaction” verbs, such as ‘buy’, ‘sell’ and ‘pay’, as used in everyday English. It proposes semantic explications for these words on the basis of conceptual analysis and a range of linguistic evidence and taking account of lexical polysemy. Even in its basic meaning (in a sentence like ‘there was some money on the table’), ‘money-1’ is shown to be surprisingly complex, comprising about 35 lines of semantic text and drawing on a number of semantic molecules (such as ‘country’, ‘number’, and ‘hands’), as well as a rich assortment of semantic primes. This ‘money-1’ meaning turns out to be a crucial semantic molecule in the composition of the verbs ‘buy’, ‘sell’, ‘pay’, and ‘(it) costs’. Each of these is treated in some detail, thereby bringing to light the complex semantic relationships between them and clarifying how this bears on their grammatical properties, such as argument structure. The concluding section considers how NSM semantic-conceptual analysis can help illuminate everyday economic thinking and also how it connects with Humanonics, an interdisciplinary project which aims to “re-humanise” economics.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Levisen, Carsten, Fernández, Susana S., and Hein, Jan (2022) Cognitive Cultural Semantics: A Nordic Guide to Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Scandinavian Studies in Language 13(1): 1–38. https://tidsskrift.dk/sss/article/view/135133.
No abstract available
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Goddard, Cliff (Forthcoming). Vocabulary of emotions and its development in English, German and other languages. In Gesine Lenore Schiewer, Jeanette Altarriba, & Bee Chin Ng (Eds.), Handbook of language and emotion. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Abstract:
In broad agreement with many emotion theorists, the NSM approach sees emotion concepts as “blends” of feelings and thoughts, sometimes accompanied by potential bodily reactions. This chapter delineates the semantic fundamentals of emotion vocabulary, demonstrates a framework for fine-grained contrastive analysis, and emphasizes the greater-than-expected semantic variability across languages, epochs, and cultures.
Using examples from English and German, the chapter summarizes findings about semantic templates and semantic components of various kinds of emotion terms, including adjectives (e.g. afraid, angry, ashamed), verbs (e.g. miss, worry), and abstract nouns (e.g. happiness, depression). Minor categories and examples from other, non-European, languages are also briefly considered. It is shown that it is both possible and necessary to differentiate between similar-but-different emotion concepts in a single language, e.g. English happy, pleased, satisfied, and across different languages, e.g. English disgust vs. German Ekel. Likewise, using English happy and happiness as examples, the author shows that the same word can vary in meaning across time. Considerable weight is placed on linguistic evidence such as usage patterns, collocational data, and phraseology.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
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Crude application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner |
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Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner |
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Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner |
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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners |
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners |