Browsing results for Language families
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on December 8, 2019.
Hasada, Rie (2001). Meanings of Japanese sound-symbolic emotion words. In Jean Harkins & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 221-258). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.217
It has often been noted that the Japanese language is rich in sound-symbolic words, which form a conspicuous group in the Japanese lexicon. Japanese onomatopoeic words are generally referred to as giongo-gitaigo, and divided into three classes. The first class is phonomimes (giseigo/giongo), which imitate sounds. The second class is phenomimes (gitaigo), which describe appearances, states, conditions of the external world. The third class is psychomimes (gijoogo), which express one’s inner feelings or mental conditions. Phenomimes and psychomimes are often called mimetic words, as opposed to phonomimes which are called (sound-)onomatopoeia.
Japanese everyday conversation is full of these sound-symbolic words. In contrast to the Indo-European languages whose sound-symbolic words are mostly phonomimes (sound-onomatopoeia), Japanese has more mimetic words than sound-onomatopoeic words. It has also been noted that Japanese is rich in psychomimes that describe various emotion/sensation states.
While nonnative speakers of Japanese will certainly face difficulties in acquiring psychomimetic words, they need to master the correct use of them if they wish to communicate effectively with Japanese people. Psychomimetic words play a vital role in Japanese everyday language life, and thus they are an indispensable key for outsiders to understand the Japanese people and culture.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) biku-biku, (E) dokiq, (E) gyoq, (E) haq, (E) hara-hara, (E) hiya-hiya, (E) odo-odo
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 22, 2019.
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2001). The semantic prime THIS in Korean. In Cynthia Allen (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2001 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2001.html.
Open access
Abstract:
Korean is known to have three different demonstratives, i, ku, and ce, which are used differently according to context. Despite numerous studies on the meaning and function of these three words, it is difficult to find a clear semantic analysis of them in the literature. The main goal is, therefore, to identify the exponent of the prime THIS in Korean and, on this basis, to explore the possibility of explicating the meanings of the remaining demonstratives. Close examination of i, ku, and ce reveals that the exponent of the prime THIS in Korean is i. The remaining demonstratives, ku and ce, are found to be decomposable via the prime i and other semantic primes. The word ku is found to be polysemous, accordingly two different explications are proposed alongside one for the word ce. Two different texts are presented to test the validity of the analysis.
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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 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (2001). Lexico-semantic universals: A critical overview. Linguistic Typology, 5(1), 1-65. DOI: 10.1515/lity.5.1.1
Are there any word meanings which are absolute and precise lexico-semantic universals, and if so, what kind of meanings are they? This paper assesses the status, in a diverse range of languages, of about 100 meanings which have been proposed by various scholars (linguists, anthropologists, psychologists) as potential universals. Examples include: ‘I’, ‘this’, ‘one’, ‘big’, ‘good’, ‘true’, ‘sweet’, ‘hot’, ‘man’, ‘mother’, ‘tree’, ‘water’, ‘sun’, ‘wind’, ‘ear’, ‘say’, ‘do’, ‘go’, ‘sit’, ‘eat’, ‘give’, ‘die’, ‘maybe’, ‘because’. Though relatively small, the sample is variegated enough to justify the preliminary conclusion that the semantic primes proposed by Wierzbicka (1996) and colleagues are much stronger contenders for universal status than are terms designating natural phenomena, body parts, concrete objects, and other putative experiential or cultural universals.
Tags: (E) give, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 22, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2001). Hati: A key word in the Malay vocabulary of emotion. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 167-195). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880168.167
Abstract:
The word hati is one of the key words of Malay culture: it functions as a conceptual focal point for an entire complex of characteristically Malay values, attitudes and expectations. By studying the meaning and uses of this one word we can learn a surprising amount about Malay culture – in particular, about the conceptualization of emotion in Malay culture.
The aims of this paper are threefold: first, to outline the range of use and collocational possibilities of hati, informally comparing and contrasting it with English heart; second, to advance and argue for an explicit semantic explication of hati in its core or central meaning (as in an expression like hati orang ‘a person’s hati‘); third, to explicate the semantics of five common fixed expressions involving hati, all of which designate what we might term feeling states or emotional reactions: susah hati ‘troubled, worried’, senang hati ‘relaxed, easy at heart’; sakit hati ‘annoyed, offended’, puas hati ‘satisfied (with someone)’, and kecil hati ‘feel hurt’.
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) hati orang, (E) heart, (E) kecil hati, (E) puas hati, (E) sakit hati, (E) senang hati, (E) susah hati, (T) Malay
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (2001). The polyfunctional Malay focus particle pun. Multilingua, 20(1), 27-59. DOI: 10.1515/multi.2001.002
This is a study of the usage and semantics of the focus particle pun in contemporary Malay (Bahasa Melayu), the national language of Malaysia. Drawing on a sizeable corpus of naturally occurring textual examples, I propose a small set of semantic explications for pun, within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework. The polyfunctionality of pun, and its diverse range of translation equivalents and effects, is shown to be attributable partly to polysemy and partly to the operation of contextual inference.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 28, 2018.
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (2001). Emotions and the nature of persons in Mbula. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 73-118). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.69
The present paper seeks to precisely specify the meanings of a number of emotion expressions in the Mbula language of Papua New Guinea, focussing on those involving body part images. In doing so, use is made of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
Explications are proposed for a number of mata- phrases, many of which relate to seeing (mata = ‘eye’) and to emotions triggered by seeing (e.g. jealousy). Lele- phrases (lele = ‘insides’), kete- phrases (kete = ‘chest/liver’), ni- phrases (ni = ‘being’), kuli- phrases (kuli = ‘skin’), and kopo- phrases (kopo = ‘stomach’) are surveyed as well, each with their related emotions. Body parts less frequently used in body image
expressions are included towards the end of the paper
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ikam- phrases, (E) kete- phrases, (E) kopo- phrases, (E) kuli- phrases, (E) kwo- phrases, (E) lele- phrases, (E) mata- phrases, (E) ni- phrases, (E) ŋgure- phrases, (E) talŋa- phrases, (E) ur koi pa
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on December 8, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2001). A culturally salient Polish emotion: Przykro [pron. ‘pshickro]. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 337-357). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880168.337
Abstract:
The author analyses, on the basis of naturally occurring examples, the Polish word przykro, which, she argues, plays an important role in Polish emotion talk. She compares and contrasts this word with its closest English counterparts, such as hurt, offended, sorry, and sad, and she shows how each of these English words differs in meaning from the Polish key word przykro. To be able to show, clearly and precisely, what these differences are, she uses NSM and, in doing so, seeks to demonstrate the explanatory power of the proposed framework (the “NSM” semantic theory). At the same time, the author shows how language-specific lexical categories such as the Polish word przykro are linked with a culture’s core values. She also shows the cultural implications of the lexical category “hurt” in Anglo culture, and discusses the cultural implications of the absence of a word like przykro in English, and of a word like hurt in Polish.
More information:
Also published as:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2001). A culturally salient Polish emotion: Przykro [‘pshickro]. The International Journal of Group Tensions, 30(1), 3-27. DOI: 10.1023/a:1026697815334
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) było mi głupio, (E) było mi przykro, (E) feel bad, (E) hurt, (E) offended, (E) sorry
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2001). Universal semantic primitives and the semantics of the Polish aspect. In Viktor S. Chrakovskij, Maciej Grochowski, & Gerd Hentschel (Eds.), Studies on the syntax and semantics of Slavonic languages: Papers in honour of Andrzej Boguslawski on the occasion of his 70th birthday (pp. 429-448). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg.
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 August 18, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2002). ‘I’m not a ghost!’: Semantic analyses of some ‘emotional adverbs’ in Mandarin Chinese. 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 paper constitutes a first attempt to carry out a systematic and in-depth semantic analysis of a selected set of ‘emotional adverbs’ in Mandarin Chinese, an area that has received little attention in Western linguistic discussion. It shows that, as elusive as their meanings are, with a rigorous semantic tool, the core meanings of emotional adverbs can be uncovered and stated in a clear and precise manner, making this category and its semantic contents accessible to both linguists and learners of Mandarin Chinese.
The analysis of you reveals that it expresses more than a simple ‘denial’, as commonly understood. Instead, it expresses a denial of an unstated message, which means an inference is being made by the speaker. In one of its uses, pian suggests a degree of perplexity towards an event that could have been avoided but that happened nonetheless, putting the speaker at the receiving end. In a different use, it is the speaker him- or herself who goes against someone else’s wish.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) piān, (E) yòu
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 29, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2002). Different modes of describing emotions in Chinese: Bodily changes, sensations, and bodily images. Pragmatics & Cognition, 10, 307-339. DOI: 10.1075/pc.10.12.13ye
In Chinese talk about emotions, the body is linguistically codified in different ways. There are three general modes of emotion description: one that relies on externally observable (involuntary) bodily changes, a second one that relies on sensations, and a third one that relies on figurative bodily images. While an attempt is made to introduce a typology of subcategories within each mode of emotion description, the paper focuses on the meaning of different iconic descriptions through the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). On the one hand, the linguistic evidence, from a Chinese perspective, attests to the emotional universals proposed by Wierzbicka (1999). On the other, it points to cultural diversity in the bodily conceptualization and interpretation of emotional experiences, which are crystallized in the linguistic conventions of Chinese emotion talk, including certain syntactic constructions. The paper also demonstrates the importance of examining the language of emotions in emotion studies, and concludes that a full account of emotions must include an examination of the language used to talk about them.
Explications are included for the following words and phrases: 煎熬 jiān’áo ‘simmering and stewing’, xin xiang zhen zha side ‘(my) heart is being pricked by needles’, 胆破 dǎn pò ‘broken gallbladders’, 魂不附体 hún bú fù tǐ ‘escaped souls’, 牵肠挂肚 qiān cháng guà dù ‘pulling on an intestine and hanging on a stomach’, xuan xin ‘heart dangling’, 心里七上八下 xīn li qī shàng bā xià ‘a heart like seven up and eight down’, 肝火 gānhuǒ ‘liver fire’.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) dǎn pò 胆破, (E) gānhuǒ 肝火, (E) hún bú fù tǐ 魂不附体, (E) jiān’áo 煎熬, (E) qiān cháng guà dù 牵肠挂肚, (E) xīn xiang zhen zha side, (E) xinli (xiang shiwu zhi diaotong) qi shang ba xia, (E) xuan xin
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Chappell, Hilary (2002). The universal syntax of semantic primes in Mandarin Chinese. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Meaning and universal grammar: Theory and empirical findings. Vol. I (pp. 243-322). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.60.12cha
The present chapter represents an enlargement in scope over Chappell (1994), which was mainly restricted to identifying Mandarin exponents of semantic primes, 39 in number at that time. In the present study, the primary focus is the syntax of the proposed primes in Mandarin. I examine the syntactic frames of each prime to test the claims made by Goddard and Wierzbicka with respect to the universal syntax of semantic primes. Since the number of primes has increased to 59 in the intervening period, some space has been allocated to justifying the selection of the particular lexemes or expressions for the newly proposed primes, and for cases where I have revised my earlier analysis.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) Good Samaritan, (S) Philosophy of the Middle Way
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2002). Explicating emotions across languages and cultures: A semantic approach. In Susan R. Fussell (Ed.), The verbal communication of emotions: Interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 19-53). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
This chapter sketches out the integrated and meaning-based approach to the study of emotions that has been pioneered by Anna Wierzbicka. It seeks to bring together the study of the emotion lexicon of different languages with the study of different “cultural scripts” that are one factor (among others, of course) influencing the expression of emotions in discourse. More than this, it also aims to take in the encoding of emotional meanings by means of other linguistic devices, such as exclamations and specialized grammatical constructions, and even the encoding of emotional meanings in facial expressions and kinaesthetics. Because the Natural Semantic Metalanguage is based on simple, universally available meanings, it provides a tool that enables us to undertake this very broad range of investigations across languages and cultures, while minimizing the risk of ethnocentrism creeping into the very terms of description.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) amae 甘え, (E) appalled, (E) cemburu, (E) outraged, (E) przykro, (E) sad, (E) unhappy, (S) apologizing, (S) causing 'bad feelings' in others, (S) cheerfulness, (S) displaying insincere good feelings towards someone, (S) emotional caution and sensitivity, (S) responding to favours in a positive way, (S) saying what you feel
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 27, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Philosophy and discourse: The rise of “really” and the fall of “truly”. Cahiers de praxématique, 38, 85-112. DOI: 10.4000/praxematique.574
Does it matter that speakers of English have started to use more and more the word really and less and less the word truly? Does it matter that the word really has become very widely used in English – much more so than truly ever was? And does it matter that the references to “truth” in conversation appear to have become much less common than they used to be?
This paper argues that these things are indeed highly significant, that really does not mean the same as truly, and that the phenomenal rise of really throws a great deal of light on Anglo culture – both in a historical and comparative perspective.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (tag question), (E) evidence, (E) fact, (E) real, (E) true, (E) truly, (S) really, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 27, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Right and wrong: From philosophy to everyday discourse. Discourse Studies, 4(2), 225-252. DOI: 10.1177/14614456020040020601
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 3 (pp. 61-102) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). English: Meaning and culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
One of the most interesting phenomena in the history of the English language is the remarkable rise of the word right, in its many interrelated senses and uses. This article tries to trace the changes in the meaning and use of this word, as well as the rise of new conversational routines based on right, and raises questions about the cultural underpinnings of these semantic and pragmatic developments. It explores the hypothesis that the “discourse of truth” declined in English over the centuries; that the use of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ as parallel concepts (and opposites) increased; and it notes that the use of right as an adjective increased enormously in relation to the use of true.
Originally, right meant ‘straight’, as in a right line (straight line). Figuratively, perhaps, this right in the sense ‘straight’ was also used in an evaluative sense: ‘good’, with an additional component building on the geometrical image: ‘clearly good’. Spoken of somebody else’s words, right was linked (implicitly or explicitly) with ‘true’. However, in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, right appears to have begun to be used more and more with reference to thinking rather than speaking. The association of right with thinking seems to have spread in parallel with a contrastive use of right and wrong – a trend apparently encouraged by the influence of the Reformation, especially within its Calvinist wing. Another interesting development is that, over the last two centuries or so, the discourse of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ appears to have found a competitor in a discourse of ‘cooperation’ and mutual concessions. Judging by both the frequency and range of its use, the word right flourished in this atmosphere, whereas wrong was increasingly left behind.
This article traces the transition from the Shakespearean response “Right.”, described by the OED as ‘you are right; you speak well’, to the present-day “Right.” of non-committal acknowledgement and it links the developments in semantics and discourse patterns with historical phenomena such as Puritanism, British empiricism, the Enlightenment and the growth of democracy.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) right, (S) disagreement, (S) freedom of expression, (S) opinions, (S) truth and untruth, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 6, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). English causative constructions in an ethnosyntactic perspective: Focusing on LET. In Nick Enfield (Ed.), Ethnosyntax (pp. 162-203). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199266500.003.0008
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 6 (pp. 171-203) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). English: Meaning and culture. New York: Oxford University Press.
This chapter focuses on one area of ‘cultural elaboration’ in grammar, namely, on the elaboration of causal relations in modern English. Topics discussed include causation and patterns of social interaction, Natural Semantic Metalanguage as a tool for studying ethnosyntax, the meaning of causatives in a cross-linguistic perspective, German lassen constructions, and English let constructions, and comparison of Russian and German.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) lassen, (E) let, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Klages, Monika, & Römer, Ute (2002). Translating modal meanings in the EFL classroom. In Sybil Scholz, Monika Klages, Evelyn Hantson, & Ute Römer (Eds.), Language: Context and cognition. Papers in honour of Wolf-Dietrich Bald’s 60th birthday (pp. 201-216). München: Langenscheidt-Longman.
In this paper we will argue that the difficulties EFL learners encounter with respect to modal verbs in English are at least partially due to the learners’ limited access to the cultural values encoded in the descriptive labels used in the traditional paraphrases. On the basis of Anna Wierzbicka’s system of semantic primitives (e.g. 1972, 1992, 1996) we present alternative forms of paraphrases. We will start from the widely shared assumption that speech acts, i.e. (at least) their felicity and appropriateness conditions differ between cultures and that these differences correspond to different cultural norms which in turn are – to some extent – reflected in the language spoken. While Wierzbicka’s Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) on the whole is sometimes criticized for its reductionism, its language-like conceptual system certainly provides a possible approximation to a culture-free metalanguage. We will provide examples which show that within limits it is possible to paraphrase modal notions by means of NSM.
Our discussion of the different meanings of the modals under investigation (can, may, will, shall, and must) will be based on real data, i.e. on actual occurrences of the modal verbs in the context of natural discourse. We see NSM paraphrases not only as useful points of departure for the teaching and learning of culture-based modal meanings and functions in the EFL classroom but also as a means to account for learner problems resulting from an overrepresentation of deontic modality in English textbooks. In the final section of this paper we will therefore suggest how taking into consideration the cultural concepts encoded in the use of modal auxiliaries may improve the teaching and learning success.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2002). On and on: Verbal explications for a polysemic network. Cognitive Linguistics, 13(3), 277-294. DOI: 10.1515/cogl.2002.019
The semantics of spatial prepositions has been much studied in cognitive linguistics, but not previously in terms in terms of verbal explication. This article analyzes prepositional on-constructions which concern the location of one physical object in relation to another (e.g., cup on the table, pendant on a chain, handle on the door, fins on its back), using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework originated by Anna Wierzbicka. Four semantically discrete categories are identified and each is assigned a verbal paraphrase (explication) framed in the metalanguage of semantic primes. The semantic interrelationships between these meanings are briefly explored.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Langford, Ian (2002). The semantics of crime: A linguistic analysis. PhD thesis, Australian National University.
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 August 31, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Australian cultural scripts – bloody revisited. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(9), 1167-1209. DOI: 10.1016/S0378-2166(01)00023-6
This paper focusses on ‘‘the great Australian adjective’’ bloody and it shows that far from being meaningless, the humble bloody is packed with meaning; and that by unpacking this meaning we can throw a good deal of light on traditional Australian attitudes and values. It argues that the use of bloody furnishes an important clue to both the changes and continuity in Australian culture, society, and speech and also offers us a vantage point from which to investigate a whole network of Australian attitudes and values. Furthermore, the paper shows that the Australian use of bloody also illuminates some important theoretical issues, it demonstrates that frequently used and apparently ‘‘bleached’’ discourse markers do in fact have their own precise meaning, and that this meaning can be revealed by means of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), based on empirically established universal human concepts. It also shows that once the precise meaning of such discourse markers is accurately portrayed, it can provide important clues to the values, attitudes, and modes of interaction characteristic of a given society or speech community.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) battler, (E) bloody, (E) Fuck!, (E) fucking, (E) sarcasm, (S) anti-whinging, (S) being like others, (S) defiance / rebelliousness / larrikinism, (S) importance of sticking to the facts, (S) not abandoning a mate, (S) not being better than others, (S) spirit of defiance and rejection of social conventions, (S) use of sarcasm, (T) English
