Browsing results for Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 11, 2018.
Levontina, Irina B. & Zalizniak, Anna A. (2001). Human emotions viewed through the Russian language. In Jean Harkins & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 291-336). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.291
Russian emotions can be studied in two ways. First, by searching for specifically Russian words, i.e. words comprising conceptual configurations peculiar to the Russian language and missing in other languages. Second, by dealing with words that refer to universal human categories and can be translated into other languages, but have some language-specific aspects of meaning. This paper analyses words of both types. The authors do not aim to provide a complete description of the world of feelings in Russian. They focus on those concepts that are not mentioned in the literature or have not been described in detail. In so doing, they try to uncover various aspects of the emotional life of a person who speaks Russian.
Explications are provided for обида obida ‘resentment’, стыдно stydno / совестно sovestno ‘ashamed’, and неудобно neudobno ‘uncomfortable’.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) neudobno неудобно, (E) obida обида, (E) sovestno совестно, (E) stydno стыдно
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Russian cultural scripts: The theory of cultural scripts and its applications. Ethos, 30(4), 401-432.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2002.30.4.401
Abstract:
Cultural scripts reflect shared cultural understandings. They are representations of cultural norms that are widely held in a given society and that are reflected in language (in culture-specific key words, phrases, conversational routines, and so on). A key methodological principle in the theory underlying this article (a study in ethnopragmatics avant la lettre) is that the proposed cultural scripts must be formulated in NSM. The author argues that cultural scripts formulated in universal human concepts allow us to understand cultural norms and attitudes from within, that is, from the perspective of cultural insiders, while at the same time making them intelligible to outsiders as well.
In this article, the theory of cultural scripts is applied to Russian culture and, in particular, the Russian cultural scripts concerning speech, truth, and interpersonal communication (“obščenie”).
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) govorit' nepravdu, (E) iskrenno, (E) istina, (E) sincerely, (E) truth, (S) bodily contact, (S) commands, (S) depth of feeling, (S) disagreement, (S) emphasis on verbal interaction, (S) freedom of expression, (S) physical closeness, (S) praise, (S) questions, (S) sincerity, (S) truth and untruth
Published on June 16, 2019. Last updated on June 25, 2019.
Вежбицкая, Анна [Wierzbicka, Anna] (2002). Русские культурные скрипты и их отражение в языке [Russian cultural scripts and their reflection in the language]. Русский язык в научном освещении, 2(4), 6-34.
More information:
Reissued as:
Вежбицкая, Анна (2005). Русские культурные скрипты и их отражение в языке. In Анна А. Зализняк, И.Б. Левонтина, А.Д. Шмелев (Eds.), ключевые идеи русской языковой картины мира [Key ideas of the Russian linguistic worldview] (pp. 467-499). Москва (Moscow): Языки славянских культур [Languages of Slavic Culture].
Chapter 11 (pp. …-…) of Вежбицкая, Анна (2011). Семантические универсалии и базисные концепты [Semantic universals and basic concepts]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки славянских культуры [Languages of Slavic Culture].
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (T) Russian
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 September 17, 2018.
Gladkova, Anna (2005). New and traditional values in contemporary Russian: Natural Semantic Metalanguage in cross-cultural semantics. In Ilana Mushin (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2004 Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society (16 pp.). http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/93. PDF (open access)
Revised and expanded as:
Gladkova, Anna (2008). Tolerance: New and traditional values in Russian in comparison with English. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 301-329). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Work in contrastive semantics can tell us a great deal about differences between cultures in which the words that are being contrasted are used. Linguists can contribute to the social sciences and to the investigation of values prevailing in different cultures and different societies by detailed semantic analysis, which in turn can be successful if the appropriate methodology is used. NSM is able to reveal subtle differences in the meaning of value words and proves to be an adequate tool for this kind of task.
A detailed semantic analysis allows us to show differences between the concepts терпимы terpimyj and tolerant. Tolerant has a more “social” character since it is an attitude towards something seen as different from social norms. Tерпимы terpimyj is more “personal” in its attitude as it is a reaction towards personal offence. Tolerant is related to the recognition of personal autonomy of thinking and behaviour as well as the idea of social harmony as an opportunity for people to behave and think in the way they want. Tерпимы terpimyj is linked to the value of смиренеи smirenie; it is about not developing bad feelings and negative reactions to those seen as doing bad things and about maintaining the social harmony of positive feeling among people. Thus, tolerant is more “rational” and “liberal” and терпимы terpimyj is more “emotional” and “moral”. The proposed definition of tolerant, formulated in simple universal concepts, also allows us to gauge the possible difference between the new Russian word tolerantnyj and the English tolerant.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) terpet' терпеть, (E) terpimyj терпимый, (E) tolerate, (T) tolerant
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 17, 2018.
Gladkova, Anna (2005). Sočuvstvie and sostradanie: A semantic study of two Russian emotions. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. Lidil, 32. 35-47. PDF (open access)
Semantic analysis of the word сочувствие sočuvstvie (usually translated into English as ‘sympathy’) shows that it is a complex feeling caused by the awareness of a negative emotional state of another person associated with some misfortunate event and resulting in the sharing of this negative emotional state. When experiencing сочувствие sočuvstvie, a person develops a positive attitude towards another person who is in trouble due to the desire to stop the negative emotional experience of that person and to do something good for that person. Cочувствие sočuvstvie is characterized by the desire to reveal this attitude to the suffering person.
Cострадание sostradanie (usually translated into English as ‘compassion’) has the same semantic structure as сочувствие sočuvstvie, but it is characterized by a stronger character of emotional experience of another person and a consequent stronger negative feeling of the one who feels cострадание sostradanie. The component of showing one’s attitude and feeling is absent in cострадание sostradanie.
Cочувствие sočuvstvie and cострадание sostradanie are important cultural words that support the idea of the significant role of emotional expressions in Russian language and culture. They also extend the value ascribed to communal actions and states to the importance of sharing the negative emotional experiences of others.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) sočuvstvie сочувствие, (E) sostradanie сострадание
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 17, 2018.
Гладкова, А. Н. [Gladkova, Anna] (2005). Чем русское сопереживание отличается от английского empathy? Опыт применения естественного семантического метаязыка в контрастивной семантике. In what ways the Russian sopereživanie is different from the English empathy? The Natural Semantic Metalanguage in contrastive semantics (pp. 102-108). In И. М. Кобозева, А. С. Нариньяни & В. П. Селегей (ред.) [I. Kobozeva, A. Narin’jani & V. Selegej (Eds.)], Компьютерная лингвистика и интеллектуальные технологии: Труды международной конференции «Диалог 2005» [Computational linguistics and intellectual technologies: Proceedings of the International Conference “Dialogue 2005”]. Москва [Moscow]: Nauka. PDF (open access)
Written in Russian. No English abstract available.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
The (E) tags listed below are added on the basis of information in the title of this paper, which also proposes other explications.
Tags: (E) empathy, (E) sopereživanie сопереживание, (T) Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2005). There are no “color universals” but there are universals of visual semantics. Anthropological Linguistics, 47(2), 217-244. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25132327
The search for the “universals of colour” that was initiated by Berlin and Kay’s classic book is based on the assumption that there can be, and indeed that there are, some conceptual universals of colour. This article brings new evidence, new analyses, and new arguments against the Berlin and Kay paradigm, and offers a radically different alternative to it. The new data on which the argument is based come, in particular, from Australian languages, as well as from Polish and Russian. The article deconstructs the concept of “colour,” and shows how indigenous visual descriptors can be analysed without reference to colour, on the basis of identifiable visual prototypes and the universal concept of seeing. It also offers a model for analysing semantic change and variation from “the native’s point of view”.
Tags: (E) blue, (E) colour, (E) goluboj, (E) gungaltja, (E) gungarlcha, (E) gungundja, (E) gungunyja, (E) maru-maru, (E) niebieski, (E) shiny, (E) sinij, (E) yukuri-yukuri
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 17, 2018.
Gladkova, Anna (2006). Russian praise words molodec and umnica: A semantic and cultural analysis. In Keith Allan (Ed.), Selected papers from the 2005 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society (18 pp.). http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2005.html. PDF (open access)
This paper investigates the semantics of two very commonly used Russian language-specific praise words, molodec and umnica. The meanings of these nouns combine the evaluation of an action of another person with the evaluation of the person him- or herself. For this reason, they can be regarded as words with a culture-specific meaning. The study applies the methodology of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. The meanings of molodec and umnica are related to several important cultural themes of Russian culture.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) molodec молодец, (E) umnica умница, (T) Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 17, 2018.
Gladkova, Anna (2006-07). New and traditional emotion terms in Russian: Semantics and culture. Transcultural Studies, 2-3, 123-137. DOI: 10.1163/23751606-00201007
This article focuses on borrowings as a reflection of the influence of other cultures and languages on Russian. New words that enter Russian from other languages signify changes in way of life, thought and behaviour. The most revealing in this respect are emotion and value terms because their meanings are reflective of cultural beliefs, assumptions and understandings. Therefore, the approach implemented in this article is that language, and its lexicon in particular, can be considered a gateway into a people’s culture. Moreover, changes in a language are indicative of cultural changes.
The focus of the paper is on a term from the domain of emotions – емпатииа ėmpatiia (empathy). This word has been used in translated psychology literature for the last two to three decades, but it is gradually entering other spheres of Russian discourse. Against the claim that the content of the term емпатииа ėmpatiia is fully conveyed by the Russian word сопереживание sopereživanie, it is argued that English empathy and Russian сопереживание soperezhivanie are words with significantly different meanings that are largely related to the cultural assumptions of the societies they belong to. For this purpose, the author carries out a detailed comparative semantic analysis of the English word empathy and its closest Russian equivalent сопереживание sopereživanie.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) empathy, (E) sopereživanie сопереживание, (S) compassion, (S) empathy, (S) pity, (S) sympathy, (T) Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 19, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff, & Anna Wierzbicka (2007). Semantic primes and cultural scripts in language learning and intercultural communication. In Farzad Sharifian, & Gary B. Palmer (Eds.), Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication (pp. 105-124). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: 10.1075/celcr.7.08god
Abstract:
This chapter illustrates a number of potential practical applications of the NSM approach: as a guide to core vocabulary in the early L2 syllabus, as a means of writing cultural scripts and interpreting cultural key words for language learners, and as the basis for a culture-neutral international auxiliary language. Illustrative material is drawn from English, Russian, and Korean.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) deference, (S) expressiveness, (S) personal autonomy
Published on August 1, 2018. Last updated on November 11, 2020.
Gladkova, Anna (2007). Russian emotions, attitudes and values: Selected topics in cultural semantics. PhD thesis, Australian National University.
Abstract:
This thesis explores the relationship between the Russian language and Russian culture through a detailed semantic analysis of selected expressions relating to emotions, attitudes, and values. The basic idea behind the study is that some words of the lexicon reflect cultural beliefs and attitudes, that is, that the meanings of these words encode ways of thinking and ways of understanding which are shared by speakers of a language. The cultural significance of the expressions under study is demonstrated by their semantic relationship to other Russian cultural key words and cultural ideas. The thesis shows the linguistic and cultural specificity of the words by comparing them with their English translational equivalents. The meanings of these English quasi-equivalents are discussed in relation to Anglo cultural norms. Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is used to explicate meanings and to state cultural nonns. The explications of meanings are presented in two NSM versions – Russian and English. To justify the use of Russian NSM version, a focused study of the exponents of semantic primitives in Russian and their syntactic properties is undertaken. This study shows that the Russian and English NSM versions are equivalent. NSM provides a culture-neutral tool of linguistic analysis which allows one to formulate the results in a manner free from ethnocentric bias. The thesis seeks to contribute to a clearer understanding of Russian culture and of ways of thinking as they are embedded in the Russian language. The results of the thesis can be applied in language instruction, teaching cross-cultural communication, bilingual sh1dies, cognitive science and cultural psychology.
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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 September 17, 2018.
Gladkova, Anna (2007). Universal and language-specific aspects of “propositional attitudes”: Russian vs. English. In Andrea C. Schalley & Drew Khlentzos (Eds.), Mental states: Vol. 2. Language and cognitive structure (pp. 61-83). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.93.06gla
In linguistic literature inspired by philosophical tradition, it is often assumed that the key distinction in the area of “propositional attitude” is that between “know” and “believe”. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory of language and thought argues that while know is a universal conceptual prime (KNOW), believe is not. It posits THINK, not believe, as a universal counterpart of KNOW. The Moscow Semantic School posits primitives ЗНАТЬ ZNAT’ (KNOW) and СЧИТАТЬ SČITAT’ (which has no exact English equivalent). This chapter argues that the use of считать sčitat’ and believe as putative primes is unjustified. It supports думать dumat’ as the Russian exponent of the universal conceptual prime THINK and it shows that the use of думать dumat’ as a prime leads to much better results than the use of считать sčitat’.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) sčitat’ считать
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on December 9, 2020.
Гладкова, А. Н. [Gladkova, Anna] (2008). Концепт ‘откровенность’ в русской и английской языковых картинах мира [The concept of ‘frankness’ in Russian and English linguistic world-views]. In Нина Арутюнова [Nina Arutjunova] (Ed.), Логический анализ языка: Между ложью и фантазией [Logical analysis of language: Between lie and fantasy] (pp. 502-514). Москва [Moscow]: Индрик [Indrik].
Written in Russian.
Abstract:
Исследования в области межкультурной прагматики показывают, что для русского языка и культуры характерно наличиел установки (или культурных скриптов) на прямое и открытое выражение своих мыслей и чувств [Вежбицка 2002; Гловинская 2003]. Похожие уста новки характерны и для других культур — например, испанской [Aznarez, Gonazalez 2006]. Однако в некоторых культурах (например, англосаксонской и малазийской) подобное правило менее значимо или отсутствует вообще [Goddard 1997; Wierzbicka 2006а]. Доминиро вание определенной культурной установки находит отражение в се мантике слов, которые по своему значению связаны с этой установ кой [Апресян 2006; Вежбицка 2002; Зализняк, Левонтина, Шмелев 2005; Wierzbicka 2006а]. Данную гипотезу интересно проверить при сравнительном семантическом анализе словпереводных эквивален тов из языков с различными культурными правилами. В работе про водится семантический анализ наречия откровенно в значении харак теристики манеры речи, которое может быть связано с установкой на открытое и прямое выражение своих мыслей и чувств, характерное для русской культуры. Данное наречие сравнивается с его ближай шими переводными эквивалентами candidly иfrankly в английском языке, где доминируют другие культурные скрипты [Wierzbicka 2006а].
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) candidly, (E) frankly, (E) откровенно frankly
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 17, 2018.
Gladkova, Anna (2008). Tolerance: New and traditional values in Russian in comparison with English. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 301-329). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.19gla
An earlier version of this paper was published as:
Gladkova, Anna (2005). New and traditional values in contemporary Russian: Natural Semantic Metalanguage in cross-cultural semantics. In Ilana Mushin (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2004 Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society. http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/93.
This chapter examines the recent trend in contemporary Russian towards increased lexical borrowing from English. In particular, it compares and contrasts the meanings of a recently borrowed value term tolerantnyj with its English equivalent tolerant and the traditionally closest Russian equivalent терпимый terpimyj ‘tolerant/indulgent/forbearing’. A detailed contrastive semantic analysis demonstrates that, although tolerant and терпимый terpimyj are translational equivalents, their meanings do differ and reflect different cultural attitudes across the two societies involved.
The work also shows that the meaning of the new Russian term tolerantnyj does not fully coincide with the meaning of the English tolerant, as it reflects the Russian value system. The analysis is conducted using NSM as its main analytical tool.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) terpet' терпеть, (E) terpimyj терпимый, (E) tolerant, (E) tolerate, (T) Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff, & Anna Wierzbicka (2008). Universal human concepts as a basis for contrastive linguistic semantics. In María de los Ángeles Gómez González, J. Lachlan Mackenzie, & Elsa M. González Álvarez (Eds.), Current trends in contrastive linguistics: Functional and cognitive perspectives (pp. 205-226). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/sfsl.60.13god
This study sets out to demonstrate that the NSM metalanguage of semantic primes provides a stable language-neutral medium for fine-grained contrastive semantic analysis, in both the lexical and grammatical domains. The lexical examples are drawn from “yearning-missing” words in English, Polish, Russian and Spanish, while the grammatical examples contrast the Spanish diminutive with the hypocoristic “diminutive” of Australian English. We show that the technique of explication (reductive paraphrase) into semantic primes makes it possible to pin down subtle meaning differences which cannot be captured using normal translation or grammatical labels. Explications for the Polish, Russian and Spanish examples are presented both in English and in the language concerned, thus establishing that the metalanguage being used is transposable across languages.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2009). Pragmatics and cultural values: The hot centre of Russian discourse. In B. Fraser & K. Turner (Eds.), Language in life, and a life in language: Jacob Mey – A festschrift (pp. 423-434). Bingley: Emerald.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 17, 2018.
Гладкова, А. Н. [Gladkova, Anna] (2009). К вопросу о семантическом статусе глагола считать [About the semantic status of the Russian verb scitat’]. Русский язык в научном освещении [Russian language in scientific coverage], 17(1), 201-227.
Written in Russian. No English abstract available.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
The (E) tag listed below is added on the basis of information in the title of this paper, which also proposes other explications.
Tags: (E) sčitat’ считать, (T) Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2010). Universals and variation in the lexicon of mental state concepts. In Barbara C. Malt, & Phillip Wolff (Eds.), Words and the mind: How words capture human experience (pp. 72-92). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311129.003.0005
Abstract:
The first two sections of this chapter provide an overview of NSM research and findings, with a particular focus on mental state concepts. The next two sections show how NSM techniques make it possible to reveal complex and culture-specific meanings in detail and in terms that are readily transposable across languages. Examples include emotion terms, epistemic verbs, and ethnopsychological constructs in English, Chinese, Russian, and Korean. The next section discusses the relationship between linguistic meanings (word meanings) and cognition and elucidates the theoretical and methodological implications for cognitive science. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that people’s subjective emotional experience can be shaped or coloured to some extent by the lexical categories of their language.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bēi 悲, (E) believe that, (E) chóu 愁, (E) heart, (E) maum 몸, (E) mind, (E) sad, (E) sčitat’ считать, (E) unhappy, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 25, 2019.
Gladkova, Anna (2010). A linguist’s view of “pride”. Emotion Review, 2(2), 178-179.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073909355014
Abstract:
This brief commentary on a paper published in the same issue offers a linguistic perspective on ‘pride’. On the basis of a semantic analysis, it demonstrates that the interpretation of pride put forward in that paper is Anglocentric and consistent with the contemporary use of the English word pride. It compares the English concept of pride with the Russian concept of гордиться gordit’sja and demonstrates their differences. It calls for a psychological account of ‘pride’ free from ethnocentric bias.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) gordit'sja гордиться, (E) take pride in
