Browsing results for Language families
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff, & Wierzbicka, Anna (2009). Contrastive semantics of physical activity verbs: ‘Cutting’ and ‘chopping’ in English, Polish, and Japanese. Language Sciences, 31, 60-96. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2007.10.002
This study explores the contrastive lexical semantics of verbs comparable to ‘cut’ and ‘chop’ in three languages (English, Polish, and Japanese), using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) technique of semantic analysis. It proposes a six-part semantic template, and argues that this template can serve as a basis for a lexical typology of complex physical activity verbs in general. At the same time, it argues that language-specific aspects of the semantics are often culturally motivated. Nine verbs are examined (English cut, chop, slice, Polish ciąć ‘‘cut’’, krajać ‘‘cut/slice’’, obcinać ‘‘cut around’’, rąbać ‘‘chop’’, Japanese kiru ‘‘cut’’, kizamu ‘‘chop’’), and NSM explications are proposed for each one based on its range of use in natural contexts, thus capturing the semantic similarities and differences in fine-grained detail.
Contrastive semantics; Lexical semantics; Physical activity verbs; NSM; Lexical typology; Semantic template; Lexicology; Polysemy; Semantics and culture
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 20, 2018.
Trbojević-Milošević, Ivana (2009). Some contrasts in politeness structure of English and Serbian. In Marek Kuźniak, & Bożena Rozwadowska (Eds.), PASE Papers 2008: Studies in language and methodology of teaching foreign languages (pp. 177-184). Wrocław: Oficyna Wydawnicza ATUT.
Published on December 16, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Guarddon Anelo, María del Carmen (2009). The Natural Semantic Metalanguage of Old English compound adpositions. ES: Revista de filología inglesa, 30, 61-84. PDF (open access)
This paper examines the lexical content of a number of complex adpositions in Old English and the semantic processes that have produced them. Specifically, I have analyzed the complex adpositions that have in, on and at as controlling elements. The theoretical framework used is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. The semantic primes put forward within this model are used to approach four fundamental aspects: 1) The senses of the component elements that are inherited by the complex adposition and the senses that are blocked; 2) The new senses which were not present in the component elements but arise in the process; 3) The potential semantic incompatibilities that prevent the combination of some adpositions and 4) The internal syntactic organization found in these complex adpositions.
This paper is also concerned with the more general issue of the diachronic evolution of the complex adpositions under analysis. I attempt to unveil the semantic factors that have led to the disappearance of some of these adpositions while others have survived to present-day English.
On the whole, the main goal of this paper is to demonstrate that the explanation of the combinatorial properties of spatial primes can serve to
shed light upon aspects of the grammar of space that have not been clarified yet by the Cognitive Linguistics framework.
No actual explications are put forward in this paper.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Bromhead, Helen (2009). The reign of truth and faith: Epistemic expressions in 16th and 17th century English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
This ground-breaking study in the historical semantics and pragmatics of 16th and 17th century English examines the meaning, use and cultural underpinnings of confident- and certain-sounding epistemic expressions, such as forsooth, by my troth and in faith, and first person epistemic phrases, such as I suppose, I ween and I think. It supports the hypothesis that the British Enlightenment and its attendant empiricism brought about a profound epistemic shift in ways of thinking and speaking. In contrast to the modern ethos of empiricism and doubt, the 16th and 17th centuries were dominated by an ethos of truth and faith, which manifests itself (among other ways) in the meanings and usages of epistemic expressions for certainty and confidence.
The study is firmly based on evidence from texts and collocations in the writings of the day and is conducted using the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM).
Reviewed by:
Gladkova, Anna (2012). Intercultural Pragmatics, 9(2), 281-285. DOI: 10.1515/ip-2012-0016
Levisen, Carsten (2012). Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 22(1), 128-129. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1395.2012.01120.x
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) by my faith, (E) by my troth, (E) forsooth, (E) I suppose, (E) I think, (E) I trow, (E) I ween, (E) I wot, (E) in faith, (E) in truth, (E) methinks, (E) pleased, (E) probably, (E) really, (E) suppose, (E) surely, (E) truth, (E) verily
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 27, 2018.
Guarddon Anelo, María del Carmen (2009). Un análisis de las propiedades combinatorias de los primitivos semánticos a través de las adposiciones complejas en inglés antigua [An analysis of the combinatorial properties of semantic primes through a study of complex adpositions in Old English]. Revista española de lingüística, 39(2), 93-122. PDF (open access)
This paper presents a study of the lexical content of a number of complex adpositions in Old English and the morpho-semantic processes that have motivated them. Specifically, I have analysed the adpositions which have in, on and at as controlling elements. The theoretical framework supporting this analysis is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (henceforth, NSM). The main goal of this paper is to demonstrate
that the explication of the combinatorial properties of the spatial primes put forward in the NSM can serve to shed light upon certain aspects of the grammar of spatial relations that have not received attention by schools highly focused in this type of metalanguage, i.e. Cognitive Linguistics.
The spatial primes are used to address four fundamental issues: 1) Semantic content of the resulting adposition; senses of the constituent elements that are transferred to the complex adposition, senses that are blocked and senses not present in the constituents that arise in the process of compounding; 2) Semantic incompatibilities preventing the combination of certain simple adpositions; 3) Internal syntactic organization found in these complex adpositions. 4) The diachronic evolution of the complex adpositions analyzed in the article. Particularly, I unveil the semantic factors that have led to the disappearance of some of these adpositions while others have survived up to the present day.
Published on December 12, 2018. Last updated on December 12, 2018.
Mulyadi (2009). Kategori dan peran semantis verba dalam Bahasa Indonesia [Semantic categories and roles of verbs in Indonesian]. Logat: Jurnal Ilmiah Bahasa dan Sastra, 5(1), 56-65.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2009). A semantic analysis of Japanese epistemic markers: Chigainai and hazuda. Language Sciences, 31(5), 837-852. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2009.02.002
This paper presents a semantic analysis of two epistemic markers in Japanese, chigainai and hazuda. These are often translated as I am sure, must, or should in English, and they indicate the speaker’s certainty about the truth or falsehood of a proposition. While chigainai and hazuda are semantically similar, they are not always interchangeable. Thus, questions arise about the level of certainty implied by the terms and also about how to articulate their differences.
Although certainty is a convenient vehicle for capturing the meaning, it is problematic in explaining the differences between these synonyms since the level of certainty cannot be accurately articulated. Previous studies have attempted to explicate the differences between the two expressions by the use of qualifying terms such as ‘firm faith’, ‘reliable and firm grounds’, or ‘absolute basis for assertion’. These attempts are also problematic because the definitions they propose are not necessarily consistent with the actual usage of each expression. Alternatively, this paper adopts the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) Theory. It addresses the issue of how to explain the speaker’s certainty by using semantic primes.
The findings of the study indicate that the semantic differences between chigainai and hazuda are not concerned with the degree of the speaker’s certainty. Instead, the meanings of the expressions are illustrated by cognitive scenarios such as ‘I can’t think not like this’, or ‘I think that it can’t be not like this’. The definitions proposed by this approach clarify the differences between chigainai and hazuda, and more generally serve as a practical guide to the understanding of the epistemic markers in Japanese.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) chigainai 違いない, (E) hazuda はずだ, (T) Japanese
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Tien, Adrian (2009). Semantic prime HAPPEN in Mandarin Chinese: In search of a viable exponent. Pragmatics & Cognition, 17(2), 356-382. DOI: 10.1075/p&c.17.2.07tie
HAPPEN is part of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) inventory of primes. Its most appropriate exponent in Mandarin Chinese was previously thought to be fa1sheng1. This article argues that fa1sheng1 is not the correct exponent of HAPPEN as it is marked for ‘adversity’ as well as what I call ‘serious mention’ or ‘noteworthiness’ of the event, i.e., that an event is sufficiently serious or noteworthy to fare a mention. This article puts forward you3, lit. ‘have, exist, happen’, and zen3(me)yang4 / zhe4(me)yang4, lit. ‘like how/like this’ instead, as allolexic exponents of HAPPEN in Mandarin Chinese. Though highly polysemous each in its own way, the HAPPEN sense of you3 and zen3(me)yang4 / zhe4(me)yang4 can, respectively, be shown to be semantically irreducible and pragmatically neutral. This article delineates some of the syntactic and contextual distributions attesting to the viability of you3 and zen3(me)yang4 / zhe4(me)yang4 as the Mandarin Chinese exponents of HAPPEN.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (T) Chinese (Mandarin)
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (2009). The conceptual semantics of numbers and counting: An NSM analysis. Functions of Language, 16(2), 193-224. DOI: 10.1075/fol.16.2.02god
This study explores the conceptual semantics of numbers and counting, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) technique of semantic analysis (Wierzbicka 1996; Goddard & Wierzbicka (eds.) 2002). It first argues that the concept of a number in one of its senses (number-1, roughly, “number word”) and the meanings of low number words, such as one, two, and three, can be explicated directly in terms of semantic primes, without reference to any counting procedures or practices. It then argues, however, that the larger numbers, and the productivity of the number sequence, depend on the concept and practice of counting, in the intransitive sense of the verb. Both the intransitive and transitive senses of counting are explicated, and the semantic relationship between them is clarified. Finally, the study moves to the semantics of abstract numbers (number-2), roughly, numbers as represented by numerals, e.g. 5, 15, 27, 36, as opposed to number words. Though some reference is made to cross-linguistic data and cultural variation, the treatment is focused primarily on English.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2009). Case in NSM: A reanalysis of the Polish dative. In Andrej Malchukov, & Andrew Spencer (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of case (pp. 151-169). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199206476.013.0011
Abstract:
In this chapter, I show how NSM can be applied to the study of cases by revisiting my earlier (1986) study of the Polish dative. Since that earlier study, the metalanguage has been significantly expanded and revised in the light of empirical cross-linguistic investigations. As this chapter hopes to show, its current form offers a more precise and more effective tool for exploring the meaning of cases. At the same time, this chapter continues the semantic approach to cases launched, in opposition to the then prevailing ‘autonomous syntax’ approaches, in the author’s 1980 book The case for surface case.
Translations:
Into Russian:
Chapter 9 (pp. 302-328) 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
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 22, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2009). The theory of the mental lexicon. In Sebastian Kempgen, Peter Kosta, Tilman Berger, & Karl Gutschmidt (Eds.), Die slavischen Sprachen/The Slavic languages: Eine internationales Handbuch zu ihrer Struktur, ihrer Geschichte und ihrer Erforsching/An international handbook of their structure, their history and their investigation: Volume 1 (pp. 848-863). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI : https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110214475.1.11.848
The main thesis of this article is that (contrary to what, for example, Chomsky claims) a great deal is by now known about the mental lexicon. First of all, there is currently a great deal of evidence that at the heart of this lexicon lies a set of sixty or so universal semantic primes, each with its own set of combinatory characteristics. Second, cross-linguistic evidence suggests that large sections of the mental lexicon have a hierarchical structure, with several levels of semantic molecules operating and thus allowing for great conceptual complexity to be combined with relatively simple semantic structures. Third, it is now clear that many sections of the mental lexicon are organized according to a certain pattern, or template, shared by a large number of words. Fourth, a large body of research has shown that the mental lexicon of the speakers of any given language includes many words whose meanings are unique to that particular language, and that such words – a language’s cultural key words – help bind the speakers of a language into a cohesive cultural community.
The chapter focuses in particular on the relatively new areas of semantic molecules and semantic templates. The illustrative material analysed is drawn from Polish and relates to emotions (including but not limited to emotions reminiscent of envy and compassion in English), speech acts (reminiscent of to order and to ask (someone about something) in English), names of animals (mice), and motion verbs.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ask (someone to do something), (E) denerwować się, (E) doszed, (E) kazać, (E) martwić się, (E) mysz, (E) poszed, (E) prosić, (E) przeszed, (E) przyszed, (E) pytać, (E) współczuć, (E) wszed, (E) wyszed, (E) zazdrościć, (T) Polish
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2009). How to use both the NSM and CL approaches to meaning – Portuguese lexeme paixão ‘passion’. Studia Linguistica, 28, 31-41. PDF (open access)
The aim of this paper is to show that the NSM approach to meaning can be used together with some methodological tools elaborated within Cognitive Linguistics. By combining NSM explications, based on reductive paraphrase, with prototype semantics, stating that meaning of a lexeme has a centric structure (with some senses more salient than others) we are able to refer more accurately to the peripheral senses of a given word. The radial network diagram makes it possible to isolate precisely the lexical unit we are interested in and describe it in terms of semantic primes.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) paixão, (T) English
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 August 18, 2018.
Tien, Adrian (2009). Singaporean culture as reflected by the shared Chinese-based lexicon of Singapore English and Singapore Chinese. In T. Shabanova (Ed.), Humanistic inheritance of great educators in culture and education (pp. 71-74). Ufa: BSPU.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Savage, André (2009). Que veulent dire les proverbes touareg? In Rainer Voßen, Dymitr Ibriszimow, & Harry Stroomer (Eds.), Études berbères IV – Essais lexicologiques et lexicographiques et autres articles (pp. 193-203). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on November 11, 2018.
Al Jallad, Nader (2010). The concept of “shame” in Arabic: Bilingual dictionaries and the challenge of defining culture-based emotions. Language Design, 12, 31-57. PDF (open access)
This paper aims at providing a theoretical framework for analysing, understanding, and describing the very complex emotion of ‘shame’ in Arabic. The complexity of this emotion is highlighted by problems of translatability, as shown by a survey of how Arabic ‘shame’ words are defined in four English-Arabic and Arabic-English bilingual dictionaries. The comparison of the various definitions highlights the need to define not only the emotion of ‘shame’, but also all other emotions and culture-loaded words in general, by means of universal language- and culture-free formulas. To test the proposed theoretical framework, a Natural Semantic Metalanguage-based system is used to define the ‘shame’ words addressed in this paper.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) 'ār عار, (E) 'ayb عيب, (E) faḍīḥa فضيحة, (E) ḥayā حياء, (E) ḥishmah حشمة, (E) khajal خجل
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Tien, Adrian (2010). The semantics of human interaction in Chinese E-communication. In Rotimi Taiwo (Ed.), Handbook of research on discourse behavior and digital communication: Language structures and social interaction (pp. 437-467). Hershey: IGI Global. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61520-773-2.ch028
The current study investigates typical, everyday Chinese interaction online and examined what linguistic meanings arise from this form of communication – not only semantic but also, importantly, pragmatic, discursive, contextual and lexical meanings etc. In particular, it sets out to ascertain whether at least some of the cultural values and norms etc. known to exist in Chinese culture, as selected in the Chinese language, are maintained or preserved in modern Chinese e-communication. To achieve his aims, the author collected a sample set of data from Chinese online resources found in Singapore, including a range of blog sites and MSN chat rooms where interactants have kept their identities anonymous. A radically semantic approach was adopted – namely, the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) model – to analyse meanings that arose from the data. The analyses were presented and compiled in the way of “cultural cyberscripts” – based on an NSM analytical method called “cultural scripts”. Through these cyberscripts, findings indicate that, while this form of e-communication does exhibit some departure from conventional socio-cultural values and norms, something remains linguistically and culturally Chinese that is unique to Chinese interaction online.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) leh, (S) Chinese CMC usage, (S) crude language, (S) downplay of mian zi ‘face’, (S) greater self versus smaller self, (S) non-preservation of guanxi, (S) pronominal highlighting, (S) small talk, (S) topic prominence, (S) what Chinese CMC users say, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 9, 2020.
Wakefield, John C. (2010). The English equivalents of Cantonese sentence-final particles: A contrastive analysis. PhD thesis, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Open access
Abstract:
Cantonese has a lexical tone system that severely restricts its ability to manipulate pitch. As a result, many of the speaker-oriented discourse meanings that are expressed through intonation in languages such as English are expressed in the form of sentence-final particles (SFPs) in Cantonese. Although this is widely known and accepted by linguists, apparently no study to date has made a systematic attempt to discover whether any of the more than 30 Cantonese SFPs have English intonational equivalents, and if so, what those equivalents are. To work towards filling this research gap, this study examines the English intonational equivalents of four Cantonese SFPs that divide into the following two pairs: particles of obviousness: 咯 lo1 and 吖吗 aa1maa3; question particles: 咩 me1 and 呀 aa4.
The English equivalent form of each of the four SFPs of this study is identified by examining the pitch contours of Cantonese-to-English audio translations, provided by Cantonese/English native-bilingual participants. A definition using Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is proposed for each SFP, which is hypothesized to apply equally to its English intonational counterpart. Following earlier proposals by Hirst regarding emphatic intonation, these pitch contours are proposed to be floating tones that exist as lexical entries in the minds of native speakers of English. Syntactic positions are proposed for the SFPs and their English equivalents adopting Rizzi‘s split-CP hypothesis.
The findings of this study have far reaching implications regarding the descriptions and classifications of intonation, as well as regarding the classifications of the various forms of suprasegmentals. This study used segmental discourse markers to discover their suprasegmental counterparts in English, exploiting a unique window through which to examine the forms and meanings of English discourse intonation, which is one of the least understood and most difficult to study aspects of English. This research has arguably provided the strongest and clearest evidence to date regarding the forms and meanings of the particular forms of English intonation with which it deals.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) aa1maa3 吖吗, (E) aa4 呀, (E) lo1 咯, (E) me1 咩, (T) Chinese (Cantonese)
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 13, 2018.
Sun, Jaclyn Kayen (2010). Deciphering the Chinese smile: The importance of facial expressions in linguistic communication. Cross-Sections, 6, 105-120.
This paper explores the role of facial expressions in Cantonese people’s communication, with a focus on 笑 siu3 (lit. ‘smiling’, ‘laughing’, ‘grinning’). The communicative implications underlying linguistic communication are discussed with reference to two core cultural values, 和諧關係 wo4 haai4 gwaan1 hai6 or wo6 haai4 gwaan1 hai6 (lit. ‘harmonious relationship’, ‘together relationship’) and 含蓄 ham4 chuk1 (lit. ‘implicit’, ‘contained’, ‘control’), which govern the facial movements of the Chinese. Semantic explications of cultural key words and cultural scripts are generated based on the author’s personal reflections as a native speaker of Cantonese who has resided in Hong Kong for 20 years. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is used as the methodology of this paper so that these cultural values can be captured through an insider perspective, in a language that is culture-independent. The use of NSM in this present study effectively avoids ethnocentrism, while meanings can be spelt out in an undistorted way that can be understood and translated systematically across different languages, serving as a rigorous tool for comparing different cultural norms. It is hoped that this will aid better understanding of the communicative styles involved and so help to facilitate an effective intercultural communication between Chinese speakers and cultural outsiders.
The following Cantonese words are explicated: 臉色 lim5 sik1 ‘complexion, look’; 賠笑 pui4 siu3 ‘compensating smile’; 苦笑 fu2 siu3 ‘bitter smile’
Note: Provided the first line (“many people think like this”) is dropped, the cultural scripts proposed by the author for particular types of smiles are at the same time semantic explications for the phrases used in Cantonese to identify the smiles in question.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) fu2 siu3 苦笑, (E) lim5 sik1 臉色, (E) pui4 siu3 賠笑, (S) communicative styles, (S) conflict, (S) emotions, (S) relationships, (S) smiling
