Browsing results for French
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1986). Human emotions: Universal or culture-specific? American Anthropologist, 88(3), 584-594.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1986.88.3.02a00030
Abstract:
The search for ‘fundamental human emotions’ has been seriously impeded by the absence of a culture-independent semantic metalanguage. The author proposes a metalanguage based on a postulated set of universal semantic primitives, and shows how language-specific meanings of emotion terms can be captured and how rigorous cross-cultural comparisons of emotion terms can be achieved.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Chapter 3 (pp. 119-134) 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) dégout, (E) disgusted, (E) distasteful, (E) embarrassment/embarrassed, (E) fear/afraid, (E) homesick, (E) miss, (E) pine after, (E) repulsive, (E) revolting, (E) shame/ashamed, (E) shame/fear (Nhaalya), (E) tęsknić, (E) tęsknota
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 September 11, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1992). Talking about emotions: Semantics, culture, and cognition. Cognition and Emotion, 6(3/4), 285-319. DOI: 10.1080/02699939208411073
Translated into Polish as chapter 4 of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1999). Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
The author argues that the so-called “basic emotions”, such as happiness, fear or anger, are in fact cultural artifacts of the English language, just as the Ilongot concept of liger, or the Ifaluk concept of song, are the cultural artifacts of Ilongot and Ifaluk. It is therefore as inappropriate to talk about human emotions in general in terms of happiness, fear, or anger as it would be to talk about them in terms of liget or song. However, this does not mean that we cannot penetrate into the emotional world of speakers of languages other than our own. Nor does it mean that there cannot be any universal human emotions. Universality of emotions is an open issue which requires further investigation. For this further investigation to be fully productive, it has to be undertaken from a universal, language and culture-independent perspective; and it has to be carried out in a universalist framework that is language and culture-independent. The author proposes for this purpose the Natural Semantic Metalanguage based on universal (or near-universal) semantic primitives (or near-primitives), developed over two decades by herself and colleagues, and she argues that the use of this metalanguage facilitates such a perspective and offers such a framework.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) angry, (E) displeased, (E) displeasure, (E) glücklich, (E) grateful, (E) happy, (E) heureux, (E) joy, (E) liget, (E) pleased, (E) remorse, (E) sad, (E) song, (E) tjituru-tjituru, (E) watjilpa, (E) złość
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 22, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1992). Defining emotion concepts. Cognitive Science, 16(4), 539-581. DOI: 10.1207/s15516709cog1604_4
This article demonstrates that emotion concepts – including the so-called basic ones, such as anger or sadness – can be defined in terms of universal semantic primitives such as GOOD, BAD, DO, HAPPEN, KNOW, and WANT, in terms of which all areas of meaning, in all languages, can be rigorously and revealingly portrayed.
The definitions proposed here take the form of certain prototypical scripts or scenarios, formulated in terms of thoughts, wants, and feelings. These scripts, however, can be seen as formulas providing rigorous specifications of necessary and sufficient conditions (not for emotions as such, but for emotion concepts), and they do not support the idea that boundaries between emotion concepts are “fuzzy”. On the contrary, the small set of universal semantic primitives employed here (which has emerged from two decades of empirical investigations by the author and colleagues) demonstrates that even apparent synonyms such as sad and unhappy embody different – and fully specifiable – conceptual structures.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) amazement, (E) anger, (E) appalled, (E) ashamed, (E) contented, (E) delighted, (E) depressed, (E) despair, (E) disappointment, (E) distressed, (E) embarrassed, (E) excited, (E) frightened, (E) frustration, (E) glücklich, (E) grief, (E) guilt, (E) happy, (E) heureux, (E) humiliated, (E) hurt, (E) indignant, (E) indignation, (E) pleased, (E) pride, (E) relief, (E) remorse, (E) sad, (E) sčastliv, (E) shocked, (E) sorrow, (E) sorry, (E) surprise, (E) triumph, (E) unhappy, (E) upset, (T) English
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Béal, Christine (1993). Les stratégies conversationnelles en français et en anglais: Conventions ou reflet de divergences culturelles profondes? [Conversational strategies in French and English: Convention or reflection of profound cultural divergence?] Langue française, 98, 79-106. DOI: 10.3406/lfr.1993.5835. PDF (open access)
The inspiration for this paper was found in A. Wierzbicka’s Cross-cultural pragmatics (1991). The author describes contrastively some of the rules which underlie conversation in French and in Australian English. The transcription of authentic recordings shows how each system works in isolation and what kind of conflicts emerge when both systems meet (in the case of native speakers or French using their own conversational strategies when expressing themselves in English). It is claimed that the observed differences reflect divergent cultural norms. underlie conversation in French and in Australian English. The transcription of authentic recordings shows how each system works in isolation and what kind of conflicts emerge when both systems meet (in the case of native speakers or French using their own conversational strategies when expressing themselves in English). It is claimed that the observed differences reflect divergent cultural norms.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Ritz, Marie-Ève (1993). La sémantique de la négation en français. Langue française, 98, 67-78. DOI: 10.3406/lfr.1993.5834. PDF (open access)
This paper shows how the use of a metalanguage consisting of primitives allows one to clarify some of the problems raised by negation in French. The latter is envisaged not from a static point of view, but, within the psychomecanic tradition, as a cinetism moving from more to less, from plus to minus. The author deals first with fuzziness in negation as achieved by the use of hedges, then looks at the “redundant” ne wich occasionally occurs in the language.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Monville-Burston, Monique (1993). Les verba dicendi dans la presse d’information [Verba dicendi in the information press]. Langue française, 98, 48-66. DOI: 10.3406/lfr.1993.5833. PDF (open access)
Written in French.
Following the example set by A. Wierzbicka’s English speech act verbs: A semantic dictionary (1988), the author explores on a more modest scale the area of French speech act verbs. Having identified, within a corpus of texts belonging to the newspaper press, the ten most frequent « verba dicendi », she sets out to provide a precise and rigorous definition for each, and she deals with the various constraints which rule their use by journalists.
Published on May 17, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Roberts, Catherine (1993). *Les paroles rapportées dans la presse. BA(Hons) thesis, University of Melbourne.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Peeters, Bert (1993). Commencer et se mettre à: une description axiologico-conceptuelle [Commencer and se mettre à: An axiologico-conceptual description]. Langue française, 98, 24-47. DOI: 10.3406/lfr.1993.5832. PDF (open access)
This paper examines in full detail all syntactic environments in which the Modern French aspectual verbs commencer and se mettre à are currently used. It also investigates the precise semantic differences between both verbs. Definitions are couched in semantic primitives. The author attempts to take a stand with respect to all observations made by others on these verbs over the last thirty years. Most examples are drawn from a corpus of weekly magazines and/or 20th century novels.
Tags: (E) commencer, (E) se mettre à
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Peeters, Bert, & Eiszele, Aileen (1993). Le verbe prendre pris au sérieux. Cahiers de lexicologie, 62, 169-184.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (1994). Semantic and lexical universals in French. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 423-442). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (1997). Les pièges de la conversation exolingue: le cas des immigrés français en Australie [The pitfalls of exolingual conversation: the case of French migrants to Australia]. Bulletin suisse de linguistique appliquée, 65, 103-118.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (1997). The syntax of time and space primitives in French. Language sciences, 19, 235-244. DOI: 10.1016/s0388-0001(96)00062-9
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (1999). ‘Salut! Ça va? Vous avez passé un bon weekend?’ Journal of French Language Studies, 9, 239-257.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 22, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2000). “S’engager” vs “to show restraint”: Linguistic and cultural relativity in discourse management. In Susanne Niemeier, & René Dirven (Eds.), Evidence for linguistic relativity (pp. 193-222). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/cilt.198.13pee
If ways of speaking are determined by the cultural values of a speech community, then it must be possible to find examples of communicative patterns reflecting such values. Taking this hypothesis as a starting point, the author analyses expressions supporting the existence of opposing cultural values in French and (Australian) English.
The French ideal is one of “engagement” in the interest of defending individual expression from the pressures of social constraint, whereas the Anglo-Saxon ideal is “not to commit oneself” in the interest of avoiding the risks associated with erroneous opinions and getting involved in other people’s business. Evidence for these orientations at the cultural level is found in each culture in a series of common evaluative expressions deployed by each group with respect to engagement and commitment. These differences in communicative ideology are then related to actual communicative norms such as patterns of interruption and to observed patterns of intercultural misunderstanding.
An earlier version of this chapter was published in 1998 and reissued (unchanged) in 2006 in the LAUD Working Papers, Series A, General and Theoretical Papers, 451. PDF (open access)
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) but, (E) mais, (E) well, (S) discourse interaction, (S) engagement, (S) interrupting, (S) restraint, (T) French
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2002). Les constructions du type commencer un livre: état de la question et nouvelles perspectives [Constructions of the type commencer un livre: state of the art and new perspectives]. In Dominique Lagorgette, & Pierre Larrivée (Eds.), Représentations du sens linguistique (pp. 167-186). München: Lincom Europa.
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 September 10, 2018.
Koselak, Arkadiusz (2004). Rêver: questions sémantiques [Dreaming: Semantic questions]. Le langage et l’homme, 39(1), 85-108.
Written in French.
This article looks at some of the semantic aspects of dreaming. After an introduction aimed at exploring the relationship between the etymology of the verb and the ethnology of the process, a description of the meanings of the French verb rêver is proposed, together with the supposedly prototypical conditions for the selection of each meaning. Lastly, we shall look at agentivity, a crucial parameter needed to establish the uniqueness of the verb in the paradigm of mental verbs. The study is set against the backdrop of the cognitive approach to language (broadly defined) and a Wierzbickian perspective is adopted.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2004). Commencer: la suite, mais pas encore la fin [Commencer: The next, but not the final, installment]. Journal of French language studies, 14(2), 149-168. DOI:10.1017/S0959269504001620
