Browsing results for Romance Languages
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Peeters, Bert; Junker, Marie-Odile; Travis, Catherine; Farrell, Patrick; Perini-Santos, Pablo; & Maher, Brigitte (2006). Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Substantives; determiners; quantifiers. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 41-77). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.09pee
Peeters, Bert; Junker, Marie-Odile; Travis, Catherine; Farrell, Patrick; Perini-Santos, Pablo; & Maher, Brigitte (2006). NSM exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Evaluators and descriptors; mental predicates. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 79-109). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.10pee
Peeters, Bert; Junker, Marie-Odile; Farrell, Patrick; Perini-Santos, Pablo; & Maher, Brigitte (2006). NSM exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Speech; actions, events and movement; existence and possession; life and death. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 111-136). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.11pee
Peeters, Bert; Junker, Marie-Odile; Farrell, Patrick; Perini-Santos, Pablo; & Maher, Brigitte (2006). NSM exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Time and space. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 137-175). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.12pee
Peeters, Bert; Junker, Marie-Odile; Farrell, Patrick; Perini-Santos, Pablo; & Maher, Brigitte (2006). NSM exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Logical concepts; intensifier and augmentor; taxonomy and partonomy; similarity. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 177-204). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.13pee
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 3, 2019.
Maher, Brigid (2006). Sfogarsi: A semantic analysis of an Italian speech routine and its underlying cultural values. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 207-233). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.15mah
This paper offers clear and precise paraphrases for the different meanings of the Italian key word sfogarsi which, in its most common use (roughly, ‘to vent one’s negative feelings’), refers to a way of releasing emotions that might otherwise build up inside a person in a dangerous way. It proposes two so-called “cultural scripts” aimed at describing some of the Italian folk theories (cultural norms and
values) relevant to the expression of emotions. The use of the simple, universal concepts of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage allows for both the paraphrases and the scripts to be tested against the intuitions of native speakers, and will help people from other language backgrounds gain a better understanding of selected aspects of Italian culture.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Farrell, Patrick (2006). Portuguese saudade and other emotions of absence and longing. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 235-258). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.16far
Relying on semantic primes and universal syntax, this study underscores the culture-specificity and explicates the meaning of the Portuguese emotion word saudade. It makes comparisons with related concepts in Portuguese and, to some extent, English. Among the kinds of evidence included are claims encountered in previous studies, native-speaker intuitions about the acceptability of constructed expressions employing the word in different ways, actual use in literary works and internet sources, aspects of the word’s grammar and its distributional properties, and contrasts with respect to these matters between saudade and other emotions. The approach differs from that of earlier work not only in its use of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage but also in its heavy reliance on distributional evidence and colloquial corpora.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) coração, (E) falta, (E) nostalgia, (E) saudade
Published on July 1, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Wong, Jock (2006). Book review of Catherine E. Travis, Discourse markers in Colombian Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics, 38, 469-472. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2005.08.003
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2006). Scope and contents of this volume. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 7-12). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 15, 2018.
Travis, Catherine E. (2006). The Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to discourse markers. In Kerstin Fischer (Ed.), Approaches to discourse particles (pp. 219-241). Oxford: Elsevier.
This paper presents an analysis of discourse markers based within the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (Wierzbicka, 1996; and references therein). It argues that discourse markers can only be fully understood if the meaning(s) they carry when used in different contexts are exhaustively defined. Within this framework, discourse markers are treated as polysemous, having a range of different meanings all of which share some element in common. The shared element of meaning can be considered a partial semantic invariant, and it is this that ties the uses of the marker together, while other components of meaning that differ account for the variation across the range of use. Such an analysis makes a clear distinction between what is encoded in the semantics of the marker and what is encoded in its pragmatics of use. I will illustrate how this can be done through an analysis of the Spanish discourse marker bueno (‘well’, ‘good’, ‘right’), based on a corpus of conversational Colombian Spanish.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bueno
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 3, 2018.
Travis, Catherine E. (2006). The communicative realisation of confianza and calor humano in Colombian Spanish. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context (pp. 199-229). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110911114.199
Interactional norms and practices are indicative of ways of thinking and of underlying cultural ideals. In this study, I focus on the widespread use of terms of endearment in Colombian Spanish and consider this linguistic practice in terms of the cultural model for relationships in Colombia. The use of terms of endearment such as mi amor ‘my love’, gordo ‘fatty’, fictive mamita ‘mummy’ and papito ‘daddy’ and so on reflects the high value Colombian culture places on displaying affection for others, and on verbally affirming the ties that exist in relationships. Similar ideals are evident in the extensive use of the diminutive, manipulation of the second-person singular pronoun system, complex greeting and leave-taking routines, and so on, some of which are briefly dealt with.
The cultural model is also represented in certain cultural key words, in particular in the terms confianza ‘trust’, calor humano ‘human warmth’ and vínculos ‘bonds’. Through a semantic analysis of these key words, and through a discourse-based analysis of the use of terms of endearment, I propose a set of cultural scripts that outline some of the ideals for interaction in Colombian society, in accordance with a cultural model for how to maintain good relations with others.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) calor humano, (E) confianza, (E) vínculos, (S) good feelings towards others, (S) minor untruthfulness, (S) sensitivity to feelings of others, (S) terms of endearment
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 24, 2019.
DuBartell, Deborah (2006). The development of a key word: The deictic field of Spanish crisis. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 259-287). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.17dub
Abstract:
This study represents a preliminary investigation into the application of the principles of the NSM approach in historical linguistics. It offers synchronic evidence of cultural keyword status for Spanish crisis, both in Peninsular and in Latin American varieties, and, using semantic primes and universal syntax, demonstrates how the word itself developed over time. It uses the process of formulating semantic explications as the foundation of a methodology by which to assess change of meaning. The detailed comparison of the explications employs a “configuration method” aimed at offering insight into the semantic components of key word development. The method combines Bühler’s field theory with functional sentence perspective and emphasizes the dynamism of metalinguistic elements in order to track diachronic change.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) crisis
Published on June 23, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Aznárez Mauleón, Mónica, & González Ruiz, Ramón (2006). Semántica y pragmática de algunas expresiones de sinceridad en español actual [Semantics and pragmatics of some expressions of sincerity in modern Spanish]. In Manuel Casado, Ramón González Ruiz, & M. Victoria Romero (Eds.), Análisis del discurso: lengua, cultura, valores [Discourse analysis: language, culture, values]: Vol. 1 (pp. 1211-1228). Madrid: Arco Libros.
Written in Spanish.
This study, which deals with “sincerity” in Spanish, focuses on the use of the clausal adverbs sinceramente ‘sincerely’ and francamente ‘frankly’, and of phrases with the verbs hablar ‘speak’ and decir ‘say’ (e.g. hablar/decir con sinceridad, francamente, con el corazón en la mano ‘speak/say [something] with sincerity, frankly, with your heart in your hand’). In addition, the authors look at conditional structures in peripheral positions (e.g. si quieres que te diga la verdad ‘if you want me to tell you the truth’). The study involves an analysis, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, of semantic differences between the concepts of sinceridad ‘sincerity’ and franqueza ‘frankness’, and of the pragmatic and discursive functions of these expressions.
For a more comprehensive version of this chapter, see González Ruiz, Ramón, & Aznárez Mauleón, Mónica (2005). Approximación desde el Metalenguaje Semántico Natural a la semántica y la pragmática de algunas expresiones de sinceridad del español actual.
For a more comprehensive English version of this chapter, see Aznárez Mauleón, Mónica, & González Ruiz, Ramón (2006). Francamente, el rojo te sienta fatal: Semantics and pragmatics of some expressions of sincerity in present-day Spanish.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) con franqueza, (E) con sinceridad, (E) francamente, (E) sinceramente
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Aznárez Mauleón, Mónica, & González Ruiz, Ramón (2006). Francamente, el rojo te sienta fatal: Semantics and pragmatics of some expressions of sincerity in present-day Spanish. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 307-330). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.19azn
This study, which deals with “sincerity” in Spanish, focuses on the use of clausal adverbs such as sinceramente ‘sincerely’, honestamente ‘honestly’, francamente ‘frankly’, and of phrases with the verbs hablar ‘speak’ and decir ‘say’ (e.g. hablar/decir con sinceridad, francamente, con el corazón en la mano ‘speak/say [something] with sincerity, frankly, with your heart in your hand’). In addition, the authors look at conditional structures in peripheral positions (e.g. si quieres que te diga la verdad ‘if you want me to tell you the truth’). The study involves an analysis, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, of semantic differences between the concepts of sinceridad ‘sincerity’, franqueza ‘frankness’ and honestidad ‘honesty’, and of the pragmatic and discursive functions of these expressions.
For a slightly different Spanish version of this chapter, see Aznárez Mauleón, Mónica, & González Ruiz, Ramón (2006). Semántica y pragmática de algunas expresiones de sinceridad en español actual.
For a less comprehensive Spanish version of this chapter, see González Ruiz, Ramón, & Aznárez Mauleón, Mónica (2005), Approximación desde el Metalenguaje Semántico Natural a la semántica y la pragmática de algunas expresiones de sinceridad del español actual.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) con franqueza, (E) con honestidad, (E) con sinceridad, (E) francamente, (E) honestamente, (E) sinceramente
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 30, 2018.
Bartens, Angela, & Sandström, Niclas (2006). Towards a description of Spanish and Italian diminutives within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage framework. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 331-360). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.20bar
This paper uses the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to describe Spanish and Italian diminutives, which are able to express a number of diverse emotional nuances ranging from the “affectionate” to the pejorative. Different dialects of Spanish are checked to gain a better insight into areal variation. The authors also investigate the status of the diminutive as a grammatical and/or lexical category, they attempt to establish whether diminutive formation instantiates derivation or composition, and they examine its relationship to reduplication and to the absolute superlative.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (diminutives)
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 19, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2007). NSM analyses of the semantics of physical qualities: sweet, hot, hard, heavy, rough, sharp in cross-linguistic perspective. Studies in Language, 31(4), 765-800.
DOI: 10.1075/sl.31.4.03god
Abstract:
All languages have words such as English hot and cold, hard and soft, rough and smooth, and heavy and light, which attribute qualities to things. This paper maps out how such descriptors can be analysed in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework, in terms of like and other semantic primes configured into a particular “semantic schema”: essentially, touching something with a part of the body, feeling something in that part, knowing something about that thing because of it, and thinking about that thing in a certain way because of it. Far from representing objective properties of things “as such”, it emerges that physical quality concepts refer to embodied human experiences and embodied human sensations. Comparisons with French, Polish and Korean show that the semantics of such words may differ significantly from language to language.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 3 (pp. 55-79) of:
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The term schema, used in the 2007 version of the text, refers to what has since been called a semantic template.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) chaud, (E) cold, (E) eat, (E) gładki, (E) hard, (E) heavy, (E) hot, (E) light, (E) miękki, (E) rough, (E) salty, (E) sharp, (E) smooth, (E) soft, (E) sour, (E) sugar, (E) sun, (E) sweet, (E) szorstki, (E) twardy, (E) warm, (T) English
Published on May 24, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (2007). A response to N. J. Enfield’s review of Ethnopragmatics (Goddard, ed. 2006). Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(4), 531-538. DOI: 10.1515/IP.2007.027
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) attitude towards someone older, (S) display of emotions, (S) terms of endearment
Published on May 24, 2017. Last updated on January 15, 2022.
Waters, Sophia (2007). “Ben, voilà, quoi”: les significations et les emplois des particules énonciatives en français parlé [“Ben, voilà, quoi”: The meanings and uses of discourse particles in spoken French]. BA(Hons) thesis, University of New England, Armidale.
Written in French.
The aim of this thesis is to extract the meanings of three French utterance particles, used in the spoken language, viz. quoi, voilà and ben. The author relies on authentic examples to describe the use of each. The tool used to this end is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, which allows us to make explications accessible both to speakers of French and to those for whom French is a second language.
The author also emphasizes the importance of a thorough understanding of the particles of a language.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ben, (E) quoi, (E) voilà, (T) French
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Koselak, Arkadiusz (2007). Sémantique des sentiments: “Quand je pense à toi, je ressens quelque chose de mauvais” en français et en polonais [The semantics of emotions: “When I think of you, I feel something bad” in French and in Polish]. PhD thesis, Université Paul-Verlaine (Metz). PDF (open access)
Written in French.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Elduayen, Luis Gastón (2007). Introduire le discours d’autrui: Actes de parole et verbes “secondaires” dans la presse franco-espagnole [Introducing other people’s discourse: Speech acts and “secondary” verbs in the French-Spanish press]. Revista española de lingüística aplicada, 20, 37-58. PDF (open access)
Is it necessary to recall that it is ultimately through the speech acts generated by verba dicendi that reported speech is introduced, clarified, even explicated, and that readers are placed on the path of good reception? With public life being nothing short of an immense interlocutional labyrinth, the importance of the words spoken and reported by the written press (in this case the French-Spanish written press), on the one hand, and that of the “relating” verbs, on the other, comes into even sharper focus. The object of this analysis, which is fundamentally semantic, will be this class of “secondary” items – secondary by reason of their frequency. It is a class that, at times, may even include collateral items, i.e. items which, precisely because of their function, belong to the said class but whose semantics is often unrelated to it.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 30, 2018.
Bartens, Angela, & Sandström, Niclas (2007). Italian diminutives in the light of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. In Juhani Härmä, Eva Havu, Mervi Helkkula, Meri Larjavaara, Mari Lehtinen, & Ulla Tuomarla (Eds.), SILF 2005. Actes du XXIXe Colloque International de Linguistique Fonctionnelle (pp. 31-36). Helsinki: Département des langues romanes de l’Université de Helsinki.
In a previous study (Bartens & Sandström 2006), the authors formulated a number of categories into which the usage of the diminutive in both Italian and Spanish seems to fall. Since the diminutive does not constitute a part of the semantic core, it was supposed to be explicable in terms of NSM. Based on our results, it is suggested that, although culturally seemingly central to both of these Mediterranean cultures, the usages of the diminutive are more diffuse and detailed in Spanish than they are in Italian. By using the semantic primes that operate in the NSM theory, we aim at explicating the various uses of the Italian diminutive.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) (diminutives)
Published on April 21, 2018. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
François, Jacques (2007). Book review of Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 102(2), 116-125.
Written in French.
This book review includes French translations of some of the explications provided in the chapters by Patrick Farrell and by Mónica Aznárez Mauleón and Ramón González Ruiz.
Tags: (E) con franqueza, (E) con honestidad, (E) con sinceridad, (E) francamente, (E) honestamente, (E) nostalgia, (E) saudade, (E) sinceramente
Published on June 27, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Koselak, Arkadiusz (2008). Cette personne a quelque chose que je n’ai pas: une approche contrastive de réactions du type de jalousie [This person has something I do not have: A contrastive approach of jealousy-type reactions]. In Jacques Durand, Benoît Habert & Bernard Laks (Eds.), CMLF 2008 – Congrès mondial de linguistique française (pp. 2085-2100). Paris: EDP Sciences. DOI: 10.1051/cmlf08050. PDF (open access)
Written in French.
The author analyses the French words jalousie ‘jealousy’ and envie ‘envy’ as well as some of their counterparts in Polish, Swedish, German and English. The aim of this Wierzbickian inspired study is to discover differences in conceptualization and to present them schematically.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) envie, (E) envy, (E) jalousie, (E) missunnsamhet, (E) Schadenfreude, (E) zawiść, (E) zazdrość
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Peeters, Bert (2008). Ça va? vs How are you? Remarques ethnophraséologiques [Ça va? vs How are you? Ethnophraseological notes]. Synergies-RUI, 1, 101-118.
