Browsing results for Indo-European
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 10, 2022.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2003). ‘Reasonable man’ and ‘reasonable doubt’: The English language, Anglo culture, and Anglo-American law. Forensic Linguistics, 10(1), 1-22.
Abstract:
This paper investigates, in a historical and cultural perspective, the meaning of the word reasonable, and in particular, of the phrases reasonable man and reasonable doubt, which play an important role in Anglo-American law. Drawing on studies of the British Enlightenment such as Porter (2000), it traces the modern English concept of ‘reasonableness’ back to the intellectual revolution brought about by the writings of John Locke, who (as Porter says) ‘replaced rationalism with reasonableness, in a manner which became programmatic for the Enlightenment in Britain’. The paper also argues that the meaning of the word reasonable has changed over the last two centuries and that as a result, the meaning of the phrases reasonable man and beyond reasonable doubt has also changed; but since these phrases were continually used for over two centuries and became entrenched in Anglo-American law as well as in ordinary language, and since the older meaning of reasonable is no longer known to most speakers, the change has, generally speaking, gone unnoticed. On a theoretical level, the paper argues that meaning cannot be investigated in a precise and illuminating manner without a coherent semantic framework; and that a suitable framework is provided by the ‘NSM’ semantic theory.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) a reasonable doubt, (E) a reasonable man
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2003). Sexism in grammar: The semantics of gender in Australian English. Anthropological Linguistics, 44(2), 143-177.
Published on August 7, 2017. Last updated on September 9, 2018.
Olivieri, Kate (2003). A semantic analysis of teasing-related speech act verbs in Australian English. BA (Hons) thesis, University of New England.
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 January 10, 2022.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2003). Singapore English: A semantic and cultural perspective. Multilingua, 22, 327-366.
Abstract:
This paper examines some aspects of Singapore English, raising questions about Singaporean culture and national identity, and, more generally, about the nature of links between language and culture in a multilingual, hetero- geneous, and rapidly changing society. It argues that Singapore English is grounded in Singapore experience; in doing so, it takes up the notion of ‘interculturality’, proposed by the Singapore linguist Ho Chee Lick. Using the ‘Natural Semantic Metalanguage’, developed by the author and col- leagues, and based on empirically established universal human concepts, the paper offers a detailed semantic analysis of a number of Singaporean ‘key words’, and shows how their meaning reflects the unique Singaporean experience. The detailed semantic analysis of these ‘key words’, and of some other aspects of Singapore English, leads the author to posit some Singaporean ‘cultural scripts’, also formulated in universal human concepts.
Ratings:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Ah, (E) Ah Beng, (E) ang moh, (E) cheena, (E) filial piety, (E) kiasu, (E) what
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 15, 2018.
Besemeres, Mary & Wierzbicka, Anna (2003). Pragmatics and cognition: The meaning of the particle lah in Singapore English. Pragmatics & Cognition, 11(1), 3-38. DOI: 10.1075/pc.11.1.03bes
This paper tries to crack one of the hardest and most intriguing chestnuts in the field of cross-cultural pragmatics and to identify the meaning of the celebrated Singaporean particle lah, the hallmark of Singapore English. In pursuing this goal, the authors investigate the use of lah and seek to identify its meaning by trying to find a paraphrase in ordinary language that would be substitutable for lah in any context. In doing so, they try to enter the speakers’ minds, and as John Locke urged in his pioneering work on particles, published in 1691, “observe nicely” the speakers’ “postures of the mind in discoursing”. At the same time, they offer a general model for the investigation of discourse markers and show how the methodology based on the NSM semantic theory allows the analyst to link pragmatics, via semantics, with the study of cognition.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Ah, (E) lah, (E) you know
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 6, 2018.
Wong, Jock (2003). The reduplication of Chinese names in Singapore English. RASK, 19, 47-85. PDF (open access)
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 3 (pp. 57-93) of:
Wong, Jock O. (2014). The Culture of Singapore English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139519519
In Singapore English, a range of culture-specific address forms are found that do not exist in any other culturally Anglo variety of English. These forms of address are loaded with meanings and can tell us a lot about the evolving Singapore culture and the cultural grounding of Singapore English. Such knowledge benefits a cultural outsider because it facilitates a better understanding of and integration in the Singapore English speech community.
This study looks into one such form of address used in Singapore English: the reduplication of Chinese names. It shows that this grammatical construction is meaningful and captures its meaning in the form of a reductive paraphrase using Natural Semantic Metalanguage. The use of this address form can be shown to be motivated by a Chinese cultural attitude, which speakers are now able to express in Singapore English.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) reduplication
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Gladkova, Anna (2003). The semantics of nicknames of the American presidents. In Peter Collins, & Mengistu Amberber (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2002 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2002.html. PDF (open access)
This study is focused on the recorded public nicknames of the American presidents, which were collected from onomastic dictionaries, reference literature on American presidents, and the internet. The data consisted of approximately 430 nicknames for 43 presidents. It is shown that the semantic structure of nicknames can be explicated with lexical universals to make their meaning transparent and avoid a culture-biased analysis and that the semantic analysis of nicknames can give clues to cultural values and assumptions determining their coining.
The semantic structure of nicknames contains both referential and expressive components. The referential components of nicknames can be evaluative. The expressive components are complex and can include emotive components, as well as components of status and familiarity. Nicknames differ in their expressive value, and their variety depends on the forms of personal names used in nicknames. It is possible to divide the nicknames examined here into several groups according to the cultural assumptions underlying their coining.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) expressive value of nicknames, (E) Father of the country, (E) Ike, (E) politician influenced by or compared to others, (E) self-made man, (E) undeserved leader
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on November 11, 2018.
Koselak, Arkadiusz (2003). Approche sémantique du concept de honte [A semantic approach of the concept of shame]. Pratiques, 117-118, 51-76. DOI: 10.3406/prati.2003.1995. PDF (free access)
Written in French.
The twofold aim of this paper is to characterize honte ‘shame’ as an emotion and to describe how it surfaces in some common French phrases. The approach is in part linguistic, in part non-linguistic. In the linguistic and more specifically semantic analysis of honte, the author takes his cue from different theoretical frameworks, including the NSM approach.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) coupable, (E) faire honte, (E) fier, (E) gêné, (E) honte, (E) shame
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Van Hecke, Tine (2003). Cultural scripts for French and Romanian thanking behaviour. In Katarzyna M. Jaszczolt, & Ken Turner (Eds.), Meaning through language contrast: Vol. 2 (pp. 237-250). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/pbns.100.15van
In her semantic dictionary of English speech act verbs, Wierzbicka (1987:214–215) proposes an all-round definition for the verb to thank that applies as well to the French and Romanian speech act verbs remercier and a mulţumi. However, in order to account for some differences between French and Romanian thanking behaviour, I propose to reduce it in some cases, and to further develop it in others.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 16, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2003). Whorf meets Wierzbicka: Variation and universals in language and thinking. Language Sciences, 25(4), 393-432. DOI: 10.1016/S0388-0001(03)00002-0
Probably no contemporary linguist has published as profusely on the connections between semantics, culture, and cognition as Anna Wierzbicka. This paper explores the similarities and differences between her ‘‘Natural Semantic Metalanguage’’ (NSM) approach and the linguistic theory of Benjamin Lee Whorf. It shows that while some work by Wierzbicka and colleagues can be seen as ‘‘neo-Whorfian’’, other aspects of the NSM program are ‘‘counter-Whorfian’’. Issues considered include the meaning of linguistic relativity, the nature of conceptual universals and the consequences for semantic methodology, the importance of polysemy, and the scale and locus of semantic variation between languages, particularly in relation to the domain of time. Examples are drawn primarily from English, Russian, and Hopi.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 20, 2018.
Trnavac, Radoslava (2003). Koncept nade u srpskom jeziku [The concept of hope in Serbian]. Slavia Meridionalis, 4, 215-246.
Written in Serbian.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Travis, Catherine (2003). The semantics of the Spanish subjunctive: Its use in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Cognitive Linguistics 14(1). 47-69. DOI: 10.1515/cogl.2003.002
This article presents an analysis of the Spanish subjunctive as it is used in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) of Spanish. One of the tenets of the NSM approach, as developed by Wierzbicka and colleagues, is its universality: that the lexicon and the syntactic patterns that comprise the metalanguage are found in all languages of the world. The use of the subjunctive in the NSM of Spanish potentially threatens the proposed “universal grammar” of NSM, as this form is not found in all languages and has a language-specific meaning. Following a discussion of the semantics of this form, I will consider the environments in which the subjunctive is used in the NSM of Spanish, namely with WANT (querer) with non-coreferential subjects, MAYBE (tal vez), NOT THINK (no pensar), and NOT KNOW (no saber). I will show that with WANT (querer) and NOT THINK (no pensar), the subjunctive does not encode a language-specific meaning, but is used to “index” a notion inherent in the proposition with which it occurs. With MAYBE (tal vez) and NOT KNOW (no saber), on the other hand, I will argue that the subjunctive does encode a language-specific meaning, and is therefore a more marked choice in these environments. The analysis shows that different syntactic structures across languages can be semantically equivalent, and the NSM notion of a “universal grammar” is supported.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2004). When ’empty words’ are not empty: Examples from the semantic analysis of some ’emotional adverbs’ in Mandarin Chinese. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 24(2), 139-161. DOI: 10.1080/0726860042000271807
This paper is about ‘emotional adverbs’, a characteristic category in the Chinese language that has received little attention in Western linguistic discussion. In the Chinese linguistic tradition, ‘emotional adverbs’ belong to the general category of xūcí (‘empty words’), whose meanings are often thought to be too elusive to pin down. By carrying out systematic and in-depth semantic analyses of a selected set – yòu, bìng, piān, and jìng – the paper illustrates that so-called ‘empty words’ are rich in semantic content, and their meanings can be explicated fully using Natural Semantic Metalanguage, thus making this category and its semantic content accessible to both linguists and learners of Chinese (Mandarin). The analysis also shows that it is important to take into consideration grammatical constructions in establishing polysemy and obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the full range of meanings of the words under discussion.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bìng, (E) jìng, (E) piān, (E) piānpiān, (E) unfortunately, (E) yòu
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (2004). The ethnopragmatics and semantics of ‘active metaphors’. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(7). 1211-1230. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2003.10.011
“Active” metaphors are a kind of metaphor that can be categorically distinguished from other metaphorical phenomena due to its reliance on “metalexical awareness”, detectable by linguistic tests as well as by intuition. Far from being a natural function of the human mind or a universal of rational communication, active metaphorizing is a culture-specific speech practice that demands explication within an ethnopragmatic perspective. The paper proposes an ethnopragmatic script (a kind of specialized cultural script) for active metaphorizing in English, and dramatizes its culture-specificity by ethnopragmatic case studies of Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara (central Australia) and Malay. Finally, in relation to English active metaphors, an attempt is made to demonstrate that expository metaphors have determinable meanings that can be stated as extended reductive paraphrases. The analytical framework is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory and the associated theory of cultural scripts.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) food for thought, (E) graceful, (E) language is a mirror of the mind, (E) soft, (E) the past is a foreign country, (E) unemployment is a contagious disease, (S) sensitive words, (S) use of 'active' metaphors, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 11, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2004). ‘Happiness’ in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. Daedalus, 133(2), 34-43. DOI: 10.1162/001152604323049370
Also published as:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2007). “Happiness” in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. Slovo a Smysl – Word and Sense, 8. HTML (open access)
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 5 (pp. 102-126) of:
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
Progress in cross-cultural investigations of happiness and subjective well-being requires a greater linguistic and cross-cultural sophistication than that evident in much of the existing literature on the subject. To compare meanings across languages, we need a well-founded semantic metalanguage; and to be able to interpret self-reports across cultures, we need a methodology for exploring cultural norms that may guide the interviewees in their responses. It is the author’s firm belief that the Natural Semantic Metalanguage can solve the first problem and that the methodology of cultural scripts can solve the second. Together, they bring significant advances to the intriguing and controversial field of happiness studies.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) happiness, (E) happy
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2004). The English expressions good boy and good girl and cultural models of child rearing. Culture & Psychology, 10(3), 251-278. DOI: 10.1177/1354067X04042888
The expressions good boy and good girl are widely used in Anglo parental speech directed at children to praise them for their actions. Used in this way, these expressions have no equivalents in other European languages. In tracing the history of these expressions, and their negative counterparts bad boy and bad
girl, this paper seeks to show that they reflect a unique cultural model of child rearing, which links evaluation of a child’s behaviour with evaluation of the child him- or herself. It is argued that this model, which might seem natural and universal, but which is in fact culture-specific, has its roots in England’s and America’s Puritan past. Using the NSM semantic methodology, the paper explores the changes and continuities in this cultural model against the backdrop of broad linguistic usage.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2004). Tall poppy stuff. In B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk & A. Kwiatkowska (Eds.), Imagery in language: Festschrift in honour of Professor Ronald W. Langacker (pp. 613-623). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2004). “Thou shalt not be a tall poppy”: describing an Australian communicative (and behavioral) norm. Intercultural pragmatics, 1, 71-92.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2004). Tall poppies and egalitarianism in Australian discourse: From key word to cultural value. English world wide, 25, 1-25.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Stollznow, Karenina (2004). Whinger! Wowser! Wanker! Aussie English: Deprecatory language and the Australian ethos. In Christo Moskovsky (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2003.html. PDF (open access)
Abusive epithets form a significant part of the vocabulary of many people and have become a colourful and expressive part of the Australian lexicon, surfacing with great frequency within Australian television, radio, literature, magazines, newspapers and in domestic, social and work domains. Australian terms of abuse are unique compared to those found in other varieties of English. The aim of this study is to examine the meaning, usage and cultural significance of the popular abusive epithets whinger, wowser and wanker as they are used in contemporary Australian English. The words selected for this study are culturally significant and representative of social values in that they express characteristics deemed undesirable in Australian society. Abusive epithets are labels that admonish deviant social behaviour and can be considered to be keys to understanding synchronic cultural values. Thus, the socially leveling term wanker ridicules a person who is pretentious and arrogant, thereby suggesting that humility, solidarity and being down-to-earth are highly valued qualities in Australian society. Wowser derides prudishness and intolerance, indicative of a laissez-faire society, valuing tolerance and open-mindedness. Whinger conveys disapproval for a person who complains excessively and without validity, expressing that stoicism and fortitude are valued.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) wanker, (E) whinger, (E) wowser
