Browsing results for Language families
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Bromhead, Helen (2011). Ethnogeographical categories in English and Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara. Language Sciences, 33, 58-75. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2010.07.004
This study examines the contrastive lexical semantics of a selection of landscape terms in English and the Australian Aboriginal language, Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara. It argues that languages and cultures categorize the geographical environment in diverse ways. Common elements of classification are found across the languages, but it is argued that different priorities are given to these factors. Moreover, the study finds that there are language-specific aspects of the landscape terms, often motivated by culture and land use. Notably, this study presents ethnogeographical concepts as being anchored in an anthropocentric perspective, based on human vision and experience in space. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) technique of semantic analysis is used throughout, and it is argued that this methodology provides an effective tool in the exploration of ethnogeographical categories.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) apu, (E) creek, (E) hill, (E) karu, (E) mountain, (E) puli, (E) river, (E) stream
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2020.
Stock, Kristin, & Cialone, Claudia (2011). Universality, language-variability and individuality: Defining linguistic building blocks for spatial relations. In Max Egenhofer, Nicholas Giudice, Reinhard Moratz, & Michael Worboys (Eds.), Spatial information theory. 10th international conference (COSIT 2011) (pp. 391-412). Berlin: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23196-4_21
Abstract:
Most approaches to the description of spatial relations for use in spatial querying attempt to describe a set of spatial relations that are universally understood by users. While this method has proved successful for expert users of geographic information, it is less useful for non-experts. Furthermore, while some work has implied the universal nature of spatial relations, a large amount of linguistic evidence shows that many spatial relations vary fundamentally across languages. The NSM approach is a methodology that has helped identify the few specific spatial relations that are universal across languages. We show how these spatial relations can be used to describe a range of more complex spatial relations, including some from non-Indo-European languages that cannot readily be described with the usual spatial operators. Thus we propose that NSM is a tool that may be useful for the development of the next generation of spatial querying tools, supporting multilingual environments with widely differing ways of talking about space.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) across, (E) alongside, (E) cross, (E) inside, (E) pereekhat’, (E) pereezdit’, (E) pereidti, (E) perekhodit’, (E) surround, (E) vicino a
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2020.
Can, Hümeyra (2011). A cross-cultural study of the speech act of congratulation in British English and Turkish using a corpus approach. MA thesis, Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
PDF: Open access
Abstract:
This study aims to find out the culturally different conceptualizations of congratulation in British culture and tebrik and kutlama in Turkish culture using a corpus approach and to formulate cultural scripts for these three performative verbs using the NSM approach. More specifically, the study aims to reveal the contexts where the target speech act is used and to uncover the kinds of strategies/components employed in these situations.
To be able to collect the targeted data, the study begins with the monolingual and bilingual dictionary definitions of the performative verbs (i.e., congratulate, tebrik etmek and kutlamak) and then follows a corpus approach whereby the performative verbs and their various lexical forms are searched for in various corpora (i.e., BYU-BNC, MTC, Google). In total, 47 dictionaries are looked up and 442 contexts of congratulation, 339 contexts of tebrik and 348 contexts of kutlama are collected from the newspaper and blog genres in the three corpora. The analyses of the data aim to uncover the qualitative and quantitative features of congratulation, tebrik and kutlama in British and Turkish cultures.
The results of the study show that there are some cultural differences as well as similarities in the conceptualization of the speech act of congratulation in terms of its contexts of use and strategies. The findings also demonstrate the usefulness of the corpus approach in studying speech acts and their conceptualization.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) congratulate, (E) kutlama, (E) tebrik
Published on September 15, 2018. Last updated on September 15, 2018.
Sumarni, Laurentia (2011). A semantic and cultural analysis of the colloquial Jakartan Indonesian discourse particles. LLT Journal, 14(1). PDF (open access)
Indonesia is a diglossic speech community, where two significantly different “high” and “low” varieties co-exist. The high variety (Bahasa Indonesia/BI) is the official language of government, education, and formal occasions, while the low variety consists of the non-standard languages commonly spoken in informal ordinary speech. Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian is the most prominent non-standard language, predominant in casual speech and associated with urban youth in the capital city, Jakarta, used by most Generations X and Y in informal communication, novels, TV shows, films, and web-based social networks.
This article discusses the semantic and cultural analysis of two colloquial Jakartan discourse particles (DPs), dong and sih. DPs mark the difference between H and L varieties and are salient features in colloquial speech. However, the usage and meaning of these particles are not considered important in the development of language in Indonesia. Their meanings are hard to pin down because a lot depends on the mood, intonation and tone of voice at the time of utterance. The pragmatic and paralinguistic aspects of the particles are not easily translatable into other languages. NSM is used as a tool for explication to arrive at the semantic core meaning of DPs dong and sih so that they are accessible across languages. Corpus data is taken from 5 novels published between 2004 and 2010.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) dong, (E) sih
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 26, 2018.
Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko, & Cavanagh, Rob (2011). Semantic invariance and variance in linguistic analyses. In Jan Wright (Ed.), Researching across boundaries: AARE International Research in Education Conference proceedings. Hobart: Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE). http://www.aare.edu.au/publications-database.php. PDF (open access)
This paper was written for a symposium on invariance (The Invariance Condition in Educational Research: Invariance Between Groups, Instruments, Language and Across Time). The philosophical genre of hermeneutical phenomenology provided a perspective for examination of invariance in scientific research and linguistic analysis that applies the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) Approach. In both instances, a medium (theory and instruments) is constructed a priori on the assumption it will display invariance when taken out of the laboratory. The real world then inscribes the medium in accordance with qualitative differences (variance) in the phenomenon of interest. In this study, the medium is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage Approach and the phenomenon of interest are three Japanese ʻhearsayʼ markers: らしい rashii, そうだ sooda and って tte.
The raw data for this study are the meanings of らしい rashii, そうだ sooda and って tte as expressed in a corpus of eight novels written in Japanese and with English translations. Using the NSM Approachʼs syntactic rules, a combination of primes was used to define each marker. Reductive paraphrases that are simpler than the original words were identified by a process of semantic reduction. The resulting definitions comprised discrete components that defined the respective markers.
This NSM Approach analysis illustrates how explicating the differences between similar terms in one language and across more than one language needs a common medium with specific attributes. The medium requires that meaning be reduced to a level beyond which further simplification is not possible. This medium also limits the number of semantic primes to 64. It is the invariant nature of the NSM Approach that provides definitions that can accurately and consistently reveal qualitative differences between the terms – linguistic variance.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) rashii らしい, (E) sooda そうだ, (E) tte って
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2011). An analysis of three Japanese tags: Ne, yone, and daroo. Pragmatics and Cognition, 19(3), 448-475. DOI: 10.1075/pc.19.3.04asa
This paper presents an analysis of three Japanese words: ne, yone, and daroo. These three expressions are often interpreted as tag questions in English. Although these words are semantically closely related, they are not always interchangeable. The subtle differences between them are difficult to grasp, especially for language learners. Numerous studies have been undertaken to clarify the meanings of ne, yone, and daroo. However, opinions vary among different scholars, and definitions for these markers are not fully established.
This paper applies the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach. It proposes new explications in terms of semantic primes. The proposed semantic formulas clarify the differences between the three expressions and serve as practical tools indicating criteria that can assist in choosing an appropriate word for a given situation.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) daroo だろお, (E) ne ね, (E) yone よね
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 21, 2019.
Yoon, Kyung Joo (2011). Understanding cultural values to improve cross-cultural communication: An ethnopragmatic perspective to Korean child rearing practices. 언어연구 [The Journal of Studies in Language], 26(4), 879-899.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18627/jslg.26.4.201102.879 / Open access
Abstract:
Understanding cultural values is crucial for successful cross-cultural communication. Child rearing practices can demonstrate what cultural values a particular cultural group shares and cares about as they are often among the most culture-specific recurrent tasks requiring practical solutions. The present study examines one aspect of Korean child rearing practices that is chosen to be a window through which one can see some core Korean values. Based on linguistic evidence, a Korean cultural script is posited to reveal a Korean way of thinking and doing things. It revolves around the ‘fear of other people’s eyes’ and is somewhat related to other culture-specific concepts of shame.
The descriptive principles used in this study are those of the cultural scripts approach as developed within the NSM framework. The study can contribute to improved cross-cultural communication and to a better understanding between Koreans and cultural outsiders by elucidating an indigenous Korean perspective.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ashamed, (E) cheymyen, (S) fear of other people's eyes
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
이정애 [Lee, Jeong-Ae] (2011). *NSM에 기초한 국어 간투사의 의미 기술 [The semantic description of interjections in a Korean-based NSM] [In Korean]. 한국어 의미학 [Korean Studies in Meaning], 36.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2011). Common language of all people: The innate language of thought. Problems of information transmission, 47(4), 378-397. DOI: 10.1134/S0032946011040065
English translation of a Russian text (2011) published in Problemy Peredachi Informatsii, 47(4), 84-103.
As is well known, Leibniz was interested in language throughout his life, and he saw in it a key to the understanding of the human mind. Many of his ideas about language were expressed in unpublished manuscripts, and what has come to us is not always clear. Nevertheless, some of his ideas — even if he did not always consistently adhere to them himself — seem to be both clear and extremely appealing.
I would summarize these ideas as follows:
1. All human thoughts can be decomposed into a relatively small number of elementary concepts;
2. All explanations depend on the existence of some concepts which are self-explanatory (otherwise, they would lead to an infinite regress);
3. The elementary concepts are common to all languages, and can be found by means of semantic analysis;
4. These concepts are the foundation of an innate language, “lingua naturae.” Just as mathematics is, as Galileo said, the language of the physical world, so the innate “lingua naturae” is the language of the inner world, the language of thoughts;
5. This language can be identified;
6. This language can serve as an auxiliary means of mutual understanding for speakers of different languages;
7. This language can help us to reach a greater clarity in our thinking;
8. This language can serve as a means for clarifying, elucidating, storing and comparing ideas.
These are also the main ideas which lie at the basis of the NSM program and from which this program has derived and continues to derive its inspiration.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) cross, (E) God, (E) Máwú, (T) Russian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Tien, Adrian (2011). Lexical semantics of children’s Mandarin Chinese during the first four years. München: Lincom.
Revised version of the author’s PhD thesis, The semantics of children’s Mandarin Chinese: The first four years (University of New England, Armidale, 2005).
If children’s early words or word-like “phrasemes” have any meanings at all, then it should be possible to study and analyse their meanings. But how can early words and meanings be rigorously studied and analysed? In examining naturalistic production data from forty-seven subjects acquiring Mandarin during the first four years, this innovative study takes a radical, semantic approach to words and their meanings in child Mandarin through adopting the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach.
Amongst our findings, lexical exponents of sixty-one or so semantic primes posited in NSM are present in child Mandarin before the end of the fourth year. Many of these are among the earliest and the most frequent words that children produce. In addition, combinatorial properties of these lexical exponents also support hypotheses advanced about universal syntax within the NSM framework, despite challenges posed by a few exponents.
Early vocabulary comprises a great many semantically complex, i.e. “non-prime”, words. Before an NSM prime acquires a lexical exponent, it may first be conceptually present as core semantic elements in the meanings of common non-prime words. This phenomenon is termed “latency”: a semantic prime is considered “latent” when it is first represented conceptually and expounded lexically only later in development.
On the whole, in adopting a representational system (NSM) that is commensurable with the adult system, this study demonstrates that there is, in fact, developmental continuity between the young child’s semantic system and the adult’s system.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Bourdin, Gabriel Luis (2011). Partes del cuerpo e incorporación nominal en expresiones emocionales mayas [Body parts and nominal incorporation in Maya emotional expressions]. Dimensión antropológica, 51, 103-130. PDF (open access)
This paper relates to the expression of emotions in colonial Yucatec Maya. NSM is used on just one occasion, to explicate the Spanish word miedo ‘fear’.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 17, 2021.
Bullock, David (2011). NSM + LDOCE: A non-circular dictionary of English. International Journal of Lexicography, 24(2), 226-240.
DOI: 10.1093/ijl/ecq035
Abstract:
This paper describes an approach used to test the expressive power of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) and its tiny set of semantic primes. A small dictionary was created, using NSM to paraphrase definitions for each word in the controlled defining vocabulary of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE). Student participants performed several headword-identification tasks to evaluate the quality of these definitions. The resulting 2000-word dictionary is non-circular, and by extension provides non-circular definitions for all the words in the LDOCE.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) cup
Published on August 18, 2018. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Nicholls, Sophie (2011). Referring expressions and referential practice in Roper Kriol (Northern Territory, Australia). PhD thesis, University of New England.
In this thesis I describe aspects of referring expressions and referential practice in an English-lexified creole language spoken in the Ngukurr
Aboriginal community, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Kriol has substrate influences from seven traditional Aboriginal languages. Dialects of Kriol are spoken in Aboriginal communities across the Top End of Australia; with estimates suggesting more than 20,000 people speak it as a first language. The language has a low status and in many contexts, such as health, medical and legal contexts, it frequently goes unrecognized as a legitimate language requiring interpreters. There is no comprehensive grammar of Kriol and as yet, there have been few in-depth studies into its structure and use.
I investigate referential expressions in Kriol from various perspectives, using tools from a range of theoretical frameworks and research traditions, including descriptive linguistics, discourse analysis, information structure, and ethnopragmatics. The thesis provides an integrated description of how referential expressions are structured and how they are used in spontaneous talk to meet communicative needs. A further goal of this thesis is to demonstrate that there is significant continuity of referring strategies from Kriol’s Aboriginal substrate languages. The data used in this study consists of a corpus of spontaneous discourse between two or more speakers, elicited material, and consultation with Elders on cultural issues relevant to language use.
Each chapter in the thesis contributes original description of the Kriol language. By combining a number of theoretical perspectives, the thesis offers an integrated description of the structure and function of referring expressions.
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.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2011). Arguing in Russian: Why Solzhenitsyn’s fictional arguments defy translation. Russian Journal of Communication, 4(1/2), 8-37.
This paper discusses patterns of ‘arguing’ which prevails in Russian speech culture and shows that they differ profoundly from those characteristic of modern Anglo culture(s). The author focuses on the extended arguments (spory) in Solzhenitsyn’s novel ‘In the First Circle’ and shows that many linguistic and cultural aspects of the original are lost in the English translation. She argues that this was inevitable because English doesn’t have and “doesn’t need” linguistic resources to render various aspects of Russian communicative practices, which are culture-specific and have no counterparts in Anglophone
culture(s). The paper shows too that the techniques of semantic analysis developed in the “NSM” approach to cultural semantics help explain why Solzhenitsyn’s fictional arguments defy translation, and more generally, how they can be used to identify some deep differences between Russian and Anglo
speech cultures and communicative norms.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2011). Semantic analysis: A practical introduction. Second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Revised and expanded version of:
Goddard, Cliff (1998). Semantic analysis: A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The summary below reflects the contents of the second edition.
This lively textbook introduces students and scholars to practical and precise methods for articulating the meanings of words and sentences, and for revealing connections between language and culture. Topics range over emotions (Chapter 4), speech acts (Chapter 5), discourse particles and interjections (Chapter 6), words for animals and artefacts (Chapter 7), motion verbs (Chapter 8), physical activity verbs (Chapter 9), causatives (Chapter 10), and nonverbal communication. Alongside English, it features a wide range of other languages, including Malay, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Spanish, and Australian Aboriginal languages. Undergraduates, graduate students and professional linguists alike will benefit from Goddard’s wide-ranging summaries, clear explanations and analytical depth. Meaning is fundamental to language and linguistics. This book shows that the study of meaning can be rigorous, insightful and exciting.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
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Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2011). El dolor y el tango [Pain and tango]. Estudios hispánicos, 19, 27-37. PDF (open access)
Written in Spanish.
The present paper is dedicated to the analysis of the Spanish word dolor (‘pain’) on the basis of a corpus consisting of 100 tango lyrics. I describe the linguistic picture of dolor in tangos, demonstrating its cultural specificity. To describe its lexical and cultural meaning without an ethnocentric bias I rely on the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) dolor, (T) Spanish
Published on August 10, 2018. Last updated on September 1, 2018.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2012). Portugalski DOM – uma casa portuguesa [Portuguese HOME]. In Maciej Abramowicz, Jerzy Bartmiński, & Iwona Bielińska-Gardziel (Eds.), Wartości w językowo-kulturowym obrazie świata Słowian i ich sąsiadów: Volume 1 (pp. 123-135). Lublin: UMCS.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2014). Portugalski DOM – badanie korpusowe [Portuguese HOME – corpus examination]. In Jerzy Bartmiński, Iwona Bielińska-Gardziel, & Stanisława Niebrzegowska-Bartmińska (Eds.), Wartości w językowo-kulturowym obrazie świata Słowian i ich sąsiadów: Volume 2. Wokół europejskiej aksjosfery (41-52). Lublin: UMCS.
Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2014). Jaki obraz DOMU mają młodzi Portugalczycy? Badanie ankietowe [How do young Portuguese picture their ‘home’? A survey]. In Iwona Bielińska-Gardziel, Stanisława Niebrzegowska-Bartmińska, & Joanna Szadura (Eds.), Wartości w językowo-kulturowym obrazie świata Słowian i ich sąsiadów: Volume 3. Problemy eksplikowania i profilowania pojęć (pp. 309-322). Lublin: UMCS.
Written in Polish. The first of the three papers is a virtual translation into Polish of a Portuguese original (2012), which has its own entry.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on August 7, 2018. Last updated on August 23, 2018.
Sudipa, I Nengah (2012). Makna “mengikat” Bahasa Bali: Pendekatan Metabahasa Semantik Alami [Meanings related to ‘tying up’ in Balinese: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach]. Jurnal Kajian Bali, 2(2), 49-68. PDF (open access)
Written in Indonesian. All NSM explications are formulated in the language of the paper.
The Balinese verb ngiket ‘to tie up’, quoted here in its agentive voice usage (base form: iket), is only one of a number of different verbs having similar meanings: the list includes ngiket/negul, nalinin, mesel, ngimpus, nyangkling, ngeju, nyamok, nyeet, medbed/maste, nyangcang, ngantus, ngancét, and nyepingin (all forms quoted in the agentive voice). Adopting the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach, the author reveals that the first three words are slightly different in meaning, even though they belong to the same semantic field; the remainder, however, display overt semantic differences. Ngiket/negul, nalinin and mesel seem to apply to similar objects and involve the same tool used to carry out the activity, that is tali ‘string, rope, thread, etc’. The other verbs apply to specific objects: ngimpus, for instance, relates to the legs of an animal or a human being to be tied up, while nyangkling relates to the hands.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) maste, (E) medbed, (E) mesel, (E) nalinin, (E) negul, (E) ngancét, (E) ngantus, (E) ngeju, (E) ngiket, (E) ngimpus, (E) nyamok, (E) nyangcang, (E) nyangkling, (E) nyeet, (E) nyepingin
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Tien, Adrian (2012). Chinese intercultural communication in the global setting, as reflected through contemporary key words in the Chinese multimedia. In Birgit Breninger, & Thomas Kaltenbacher (Eds.), Creating cultural synergies: Multidisciplinary perspectives on interculturality and interreligiosity (pp. 169-184). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
The author casts a closer look on Chinese-speaking communities and cultural key words, which he claims play an important role in intercultural competence. Chinese cultural key words allow one to gain various cultural glimpses on different aspects of modern Chinese culture and society.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 9, 2020.
Wakefield, John C. (2012). A floating tone discourse morpheme: The English equivalent of Cantonese lo1. Lingua, 122(14), 1739-1762.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2012.09.008
Abstract:
Cantonese linguists have said that Cantonese sentence-final particles (SFPs) express the same kinds of meanings that are expressed by intonation in languages such as English, yet apparently no study has ever systematically attempted to discover whether any SFPs have English intonational equivalents. This study identifies the English intonational counterpart to the SFP 咯 lo1 by looking at the pitch contours of Cantonese-to-English audio translations, which were provided by four Cantonese/English native bilingual participants.
Based on the data, it is concluded that the English equivalent of 咯 lo1 is a high-falling pitch contour. A definition using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage is formulated to define 咯 lo1, and native English-speaker judgments indicate that this same definition also defines the meaning of 咯 lo1‘s English equivalent. Examples are given to demonstrate that this definition succeeds at defining either 咯 lo1 or its English equivalent in any context within which they are used. It is proposed that this 咯 lo1-equivalent pitch contour is a floating tone morpheme in the English lexicon. Linguists have long debated whether or not any forms of intonation have context-independent meanings. This study offers empirical evidence in support of the argument that they do.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) lo1 咯
