Kurteš, Svetlana (2008). An investigation into the pragmatics of grammar: Cultural scripts in contrast. In Martin Pütz, & JoAnne Neff-van Aertselaer (Eds.), Developing contrastive pragmatics: Interlanguage and cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 67-85). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110207217.1.67
This paper looks at verbal reflexivity and middleness as exemplified in a set of related verbs in Serbo-Croat, known as ‘se-verbs’. The performed analysis is monodirectional and corpus-based, starting from Serbo-Croat and observing the translation equivalents of the ‘se-verbs’ in English. The pragmatic principles underlying the rules of usage of these verbs, often rather neglected in traditional reference grammars and relevant pedagogical materials, need to be established and analysed in the socio-cultural context in which the examined instances were found to be naturally occurring. The author discusses these pragmatic principles and proposes ways of introducing them into language teaching curricula and relevant pedagogical materials. She also argues for a recognition of Wierzbicka’s ‘cultural scripts’ in foreign language teaching enabling the learner to interpret messages in terms of their underlying cultural norms and values. Examples are taken mainly from modern political discourses and public communication.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
