Browsing results for Language families
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Leung, Helen Hue Lam (2012). The semantics of the Cantonese utterance particle ‘laa1’. In Maïa Ponsonnet, Loan Dao, & Margit Bowler (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Australian Linguistic Society Conference – 2011 (pp. 245-280). http://langfest.anu.edu.au/index.php/als/als2011. PDF (open access)
This paper will carry out an in-depth semantic analysis of one of the most salient and frequently used Cantonese utterance particles, laa1 (high level tone). Cantonese utterance particles occur in continuous talk every 1.5 seconds on average, and play a very important role in Cantonese speakers’ self-expression.
There are approximately one hundred utterance particles in Cantonese, outnumbering those in Mandarin. However, it has been suggested that the particles have no meaning, and there has not been much comprehensive semantic analysis of individual particles. Where utterance particles have
previously been described, the descriptions do not fully and accurately convey their meanings.
In this study, a range of naturally occurring examples of laa1 from the Hong Kong Cantonese Corpus will be examined, and an invariant meaning of laa1 proposed using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). This approach offers advantages over previous descriptions of laa1, and will allow a simple,
precise and translatable definition to be constructed. It is found that laa1 indicates some shared knowledge between a speaker and an addressee. This study addresses the current gap in Cantonese linguistics, and contributes to the understanding of Cantonese utterance particles.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Levisen, Carsten (2012). Cultural semantics and social cognition: A case study on the Danish universe of meaning. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110294651
Abstract:
This book contributes to the emerging discipline of cultural semantics, and to the ongoing debates of linguistic diversity, metalanguage, and the use of linguistic evidence in studies of culture and social cognition. Presenting original, detailed studies of key words of Danish, it breaks new ground for the study of language and cultural values, offering new tools for comparative research into the diversity of semantic and cultural systems in contemporary Europe.
Based on evidence from the semantic categories of everyday language, such as the Danish concept of hygge (roughly ‘pleasant togetherness’), the book provides an integrative socio-cognitive framework for studying and understanding language-particular universes. The author uses NSM to account for the meanings of highly culture-specific and untranslatable linguistic concepts. It is argued that the worlds we live in are not linguistically and conceptually neutral, but rather that speakers who live by Danish concepts are likely to pay attention to their world in ways suggested by central Danish key words and lexical grids.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) co-cognition, (E) glad, (E) hygge, (E) hygger, (E) hygger sig, (E) janteloven, (E) lykkelig, (E) mener, (E) overskue, (E) security, (E) sind, (E) skråsikker, (E) stemning, (E) synes, (E) tilfreds, (E) tryg, (E) trygge rammer, (E) tryghed, (E) varm, (S) apprehension, (S) assertivity, (S) autonomous thinking, (S) categoricalness, (S) children, (S) cognitive relativism, (S) expectations, (S) humanism, (S) hygge, (S) imposing one's opinion, (S) living in the moment, (S) personal uniqueness, (S) self-worth, (S) strong group identity, (S) togetherness, (S) un-independence, (S) unreasonableness, (T) Danish
Published on August 20, 2018. Last updated on August 27, 2018.
Simonović, Marko (2012). “Ik ben toch niet gek!“ – Othering en normativiteit in het Nederlandse en het Servische vertoog [“I’m not crazy! – Othering and normativity in Dutch and Serbian discourse]. In Jelica Novaković-Lopušina, Tamara Britka, Bojana Budimir, Mirko Cvetković, & Lada Vukomanović (Eds.), Lage landen, hoge heuvels: Handelingen Regionaal Colloquium Neerlandicum (pp. 43-59). Belgrado: ARIUS/Filološki fakultet u Beogradu. PDF (pre-publication version on the author’s Academia page)
The goal of this contribution is twofold. On the one hand, it looks at the “normality” continuum in Serbian and Dutch (comparable to crazy > awkward/weird > strange > peculiar > normal > common in English), in an attempt to identify the main similarities and differences using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. On the other hand, it proposes to move away from the comparison paradigm. Instead, it develops an account approaching languages diffractively (à la Karen Barad), as an ongoing intra-action. Under such an approach, the role of the practices of the (broadly defined) bilingual speaker changes radically: the speaker is invited to live the difference productively and to overcome the ideology of sameness and representationalism. The bilingual speaker is always consigned to being more-than-normal and accountable for how she speaks the constitutive boundary.
But there is more. The goal of this contribution is to spoil othering/normativity/universality for the reader, strategically using the insight that not only are different things “crazy” in different discourses, but also the very scale of measuring “crazy” is discourse/language-specific and ever-becoming. In this sense, there is no transcendental norm(ality) to measure against, only what we make of what has been entrusted to us.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) gek, (E) lud, (E) normaal, (E) normalan
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on January 15, 2022.
Waters, Sophia (2012). “It’s rude to VP”: The cultural semantics of rudeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 44, 1051-1062. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2012.02.002
Over recent years, linguists have given an increasing amount of attention to impoliteness studies. Oddly, however, little attention has yet been paid to the semantics of the English word rude. Lacking precise translation equivalents in many languages, rude is a key word revealing much about socially accepted ways of behaving in Anglo society. In Australian English, as in English generally, it is the primary ethno-descriptor in the domain of “impoliteness”. This paper provides a detailed lexical semantic analysis of rude in the productive formula It’s rude to VP, and also in the fixed expression rude word. The semantic explications are framed in the simple universal primes of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). The argumentation is supported by data on Australian English collected from Google searches.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) rude, (E) rude word
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2012). The history of English seen as the history of ideas: Cultural change reflected in different translations of the New Testament. In Terttu Nevalainen, & Elizabeth Closs Traugott (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the history of English (pp. 434-445). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199922765.013.0037
Research on the history of English has often been undertaken in a somewhat atomistic spirit, with an emphasis on particular areas of phonology, morphology, syntax, and (to a far lesser degree) lexicon, or on aspects of what Ferdinand de Saussure termed “external history.” However, there is no attempt to take a broader view of the overall direction in which the English language was going. This article argues that the history of English is closely linked with the history of ideas and spiritual culture. It looks at some aspects of the hidden cultural legacy of English by analysing selected examples from the Revised Standard Version of the New Testament and its successor, the New Revised Standard Version, and comparing them with the King James Version. It also examines some close links between semantic change, cultural history, and the history of ideas, and shows that these links can be investigated in a rigorous and illuminating manner with the aid of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
Tags: (E) beseech, (E) urge
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2012). The semantics of “sex” in a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. In Jurij Apresjan, Igor Boguslavsky, Marie-Claude L’Homme, Leonid Iomdin, Jasmina Milicevic, Alain Polguère, & Leo Wanner (Eds.), Meaning, text, and other exciting things: A festschrift to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Professor Igor Alexandrovič Mel’čuk (pp. 641-649). Moscow: Jazyki slavjanskoj kultury. PDF (open access)
This paper explores the meanings of the English word sex in a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective, and argues that – unlike the universal and indefinable concept ‘die’ – the concept encoded in the present-day English word sex is culture-bound and is, in fact, a relatively recent conceptual artefact of Anglo culture. The paper seeks to show that the meanings of this word can be elucidated through the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) based on simple and universal concepts.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) sex
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2012). Cultural scripts and communication style differences in three Anglo Englishes (English English, American English and Australian English). In Barbara Kryk-Kastovsky (Ed.), Intercultural miscommunication past and present (pp. 101-120). Frankfurt: Peter Lang. DOI: 10.3726/978-3-653-01353-5
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 29, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2012). ‘Early interactions’ in Australian English, American English, and English English: Cultural differences and cultural scripts. Journal of Pragmatics, 44, 1038-1050.
DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2012.04.010
Abstract:
Different communicative styles pertaining to initial self-presentation have implications for mutual misperception, negative evaluation and stereotyping. This study applies the techniques of contrastive ethnopragmatics to communicative style in initial conversational interactions in three varieties of Anglo English: Australian English, American English, and English English. It proposes for each variety a distinctive suite of cultural scripts concerning matters such as presumed stance in relation to sameness and difference, degree of attention to accent and speech style, expected degree of interest in personal information about the interlocutor, expressions of accomplishments and ambitions, and ‘phatic complimenting’. Evidence is drawn from personal testimonies about cultural cross-talk, sociological and cultural studies, and contrastive corpus data.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on August 7, 2017. Last updated on September 9, 2018.
Rowen, Roslyn (2012). “Shit bloke! You’re always geeing me up like that”: A lexical semantic analysis of negative personal descriptors and “jocular” speech-act verbs in informal Australian English. BA (Hons) thesis, Griffith University.
This thesis explores the meaning and social functions of eight negative personal descriptors (asshole, crumb, shit bloke, wanker, wuss, nark, shit-stirrer, bogan) and four “jocular” speech act verbs (joke, tease, stir (up), gee up) in the colloquial Australian English spoken in Brisbane and surrounding areas. Data on usage comes from a corpus of recordings of informal interaction in natural settings. The method of semantic analysis is reductive paraphrase, using the semantic primes of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach.
There has been little lexical-semantic research on colloquial “social” terms in contemporary Australian English and this study contributes to filling this gap. In addition, there is a cultural angle. It is widely held that culture fosters new schools of thought and as such that language can be seen as a vessel for conveying the social realities and beliefs of a particular culture, including the mainstream “Anglo Australian” culture. Not all linguists agree, however, arguing, for example, that Australian English does not have a unique or distinct culture. Examining specifically Australian English words, especially colloquial ones, and how they are used in social interaction, can shed light on this issue. The thesis argues that the meanings and uses of these words correlate with cultural values and attitudes that are specific to Australian English.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) asshole, (E) bogan, (E) crumb, (E) gee up, (E) joke, (E) nark, (E) shit bloke, (E) shit stirrer, (E) stir, (E) stir up, (E) tease, (E) wanker, (E) wuss
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 11, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2012). Is pain a human universal? Conceptualisation of pain in English, French and Polish. Colloquia Communia, 92, 29-53.
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 6 (pp. 127-155) of:
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Note (11 September 2018): Tags will be added as soon as possible.
Published on October 13, 2018. Last updated on October 13, 2018.
Dewi, Putu Dian Aryswari Octania (2012). The translation of emotions in Eat, Pray, Love into Makan, Doa, Cinta: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. Thesis, Udayana University, Denpasar.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 11, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2012). Is pain a human universal? A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective on pain. Emotion Review, 4(3), 307-317. DOI: 10.1177/1754073912439761
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 6 (pp. 127-155) of:
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Pain is a global problem whose social, economic and psychological costs are immeasurable. It is now seen as the most common reason why people seek medical (including psychiatric) care. But what is pain? This article shows that the discourse of pain tends to suffer from the same problems of ethnocentrism and obscurity as the discourse of emotions in general. Noting that, in the case of pain, the costs of miscommunication are particularly high, this article offers a new paradigm for communicating about pain. It shows how the use of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) techniques can help in this area, as in other areas concerned with human subjectivity, and can lead to a greater understanding between psychologists, psychiatrists, medical practitioners, social workers, and ordinary suffering mortals.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) hurt, (E) hurting, (E) pain, (E) pika, (E) pleasure, (E) sore, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 3, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2012). ‘Advice’ in English and in Russian: A contrastive and cross-cultural perspective. In Holger Limberg, & Miriam A. Locher (Eds.), Advice in discourse (pp. 309-332). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/pbns.221.19wie
This paper argues that the English word advice encodes a language-specific perspective on the universe of discourse and that to analyse discourse in other languages and cultures in terms of this culture-specific English word would involve imposing on them an Anglocentric perspective. The paper introduces a different approach – the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach – based on 60 or so simple and universal human concepts. Using the NSM framework, the paper presents a comparative analysis of Russian and Anglo communicative norms and values associated with the English words advice and advise and their closest Russian counterparts, and demonstrates how the differences in the meanings of these words go hand-in-hand with differences in cultural practices, norms, and values. he paper concludes by proposing contrastive “cultural scripts” for English and Russian, which can be of practical use in language teaching, intercultural communication and education.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 20, 2018.
Trbojević-Milošević, Ivana (2012). Modal hedges in para-pharmaceutical product instructions: Some examples from English and Serbian. Revista de lenguas para fines específicos, 18, 71-92. PDF (open access)
The paper investigates how modal hedges, understood as expressions of procedural meaning, i.e. expressions containing instructions for the addressee/reader on how to process the propositional content of an utterance/statement are used in product descriptions, advertisements and consumer instructions leaflets for a number of products belonging to the Consumer Health Care category for the purposes of complying with consumer protection laws on the one hand and serving as an implicit disclaimer of manufacturer’s responsibility on the other. The analysis is carried out contrastively for two languages, English and Serbian. The results obtained are discussed and viewed as a matter of cultural variety and difference, especially taking into consideration the fact that consumer protection laws seem to be equally strict in US, UK and Commonwealth, Europe and Serbia.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (S) directness
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Ameka, Felix Kofi (2012). Ewe: Its grammatical constructions and illocutionary devices. München: Lincom Europa.
Facsimile edition of the author’s PhD thesis, Australian National University (1991).
This thesis primarily provides an overview of Ewe grammar and a detailed investigation of the meanings of specific grammatical constructions and illocutionary devices in the language. The basic idea behind the study is that every grammatical and illocutionary construction or device encodes a certain meaning which can be discovered and stated so that the meanings of different devices can be compared not only within one language but across language boundaries. An attempt is made to explain the usage of grammatical forms from different perspectives. Priority is given to semantic, functional and discourse-pragmatic concerns although formal constraints and diachronic
considerations are also invoked in the explanations. A major concern throughout the thesis is to characterize the communicative competence of a native speaker of Ewe.
The body of the thesis is divided into four parts. Each part is preceded by a short overview about the rationale for its organisation.
Part I is a brief overview of the structural grammar of Ewe. It consists of three brief chapters. Chapter 1 contains introductory material about the language, the theoretical and methodological assumptions and the aims and organisation of the thesis. Chapter 2 describes the phonology while Chapters 3 and 4 provide information on the basic morphosyntax of Ewe. The other three parts are organised on the basis of three (macro-)functions (Halliday’s semantic metafunctions) of language: propositional, textual and interpersonal.
Part II is concerned with the grammatical coding of some cognitive domains: qualities or property concepts as coded by adjectivals (chapter 5); aspectual meanings, specifically the semantics of the ingressive and perfective aspect markers (chapter 6); and possession (chapter 7).
Part III examines the grammatical resources available to the Ewe speaker for structuring and packaging information in a clause. The constructions investigated here encode the different perspectives a speaker can assume with respect to how to present the message being conveyed or with respect to how a participant in the situation is conceptualized. Chapter 8 deals with scene-setting topic constructions. Chapter 9 describes “nyá-inverse” constructions and presents them in a typological perspective. Chapter 10 investigates the different ways of conceptualizing an ‘experiencer’ in Ewe through the different grammatical relations such an argument can assume in a clause.
Part IV is concerned with the illocutionary devices and constructions used in interpersonal communication. The description of the illocutionary devices is preceded by two chapters that serve as background for the understanding of the other chapters. Chapter 11 discusses the ethnography of speaking Ewe. Chapter 12 explores some theoretical issues in the analysis of illocutionary devices. The illocutionary devices are described in the remaining three chapters. Chapter 13 describes the modes of address in Ewe. Chapter 14 analyses various interactional speech formulae. This part – and the thesis – ends with an investigation of the significance of interjections (Chapter 15).
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.
Peeters, Bert (2012). Les petites idées d’un petit Belge, ou quand petit ne renvoie pas à la taille [Les petites idées d’un petit Belge, or when petit doesn’t refer to size]. In F. Neveu, V. Muni Toke, P. Blumenthal, T. Klingler, P. Ligas, S. Prévost & S. Teston-Bonnard (ed.), CMLF 2012 – 3e Congrès mondial de linguistique française (pp. 1893-1907). Paris: EDP Sciences. DOI: 10.1051/shsconf/20120100071
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Baider, Fabienne (2012). Saillance scalaire et métalangue sémantique naturelle: Le sentiment haine en contexte linguistique et cognitif [Scalar salience and Natural Semantic Metalanguage: Hate in a linguistic and cognitive context]. Études romanes de Brno, 33(2), 171-188. PDF (open access)
This study attempts to provide a Franco-French definition of the emotion called hate / hatred in the NSM language. This is carried out on the basis of oral (questionnaires and interviews) and written (lexicographical definitions, electronic database and newspaper discourse) data in reference to this emotion. We combine the principles elaborated in the Dynamic Model of Meaning Framework (Kecskes 2008) and the concept of saliency (Giora 2003) to suggest the NSM definition and work our data. On the theoretical level, the collected data allow identification of the salient collective and individual features (Kecskes 2008) related to the lexical unit hate within the community under
investigation.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2018.
Baider, Fabienne (2012). Haine et colère: Approche socio-cognitive et explicitation en métalangue sémantique naturelle [Hate and anger: A socio-cognitive approach and an explication in Natural Semantic Metalanguage]. In Franck Neveu, Valelia Muni Toke, Peter Blumenthal, Thomas Klingler, Pierluigi Ligas, Sophie Prévost, & Sandra Teston-Bonnard (Eds.), CMLF 2012 – 3e Congrès mondial de linguistique française (pp. 1701-1717). Paris: EDP Sciences. DOI: 10.1051/shsconf/20120100185. PDF (open access)
Written in French.
This study explores the semantic proximity between the two notions of haine ‘hate’ and colère ‘anger’ in European French culture and society. A quick overview of the NSM approach is followed by a presentation of the morphosyntactic differences between the two nouns, in an attempt to identify the first indications of semantic difference. The next step is entirely semantic in nature: a study of the two emotions is undertaken on the basis of oral and written discourse, with reference to the theoretical and methodological principles of the socio-cognitive approach put forward by Rachel Giora and István Kecskes. This finally leads to explications formulated in NSM.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) colère, (E) haine, (E) triste
Published on December 12, 2018. Last updated on December 12, 2018.
Mulyadi; Beratha, Ni Luh Sutjiati; Oktavianus; & Sudipa, I. Nengah (2012). Emotion verbs in Bahasa Indonesia and Asahan Malay language: Cross-language semantics analysis. e-Journal of Linguistics, 6(1). PDF (open access)
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on May 23, 2019.
Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2012). Expression of kawaii (‘cute’): Gender reinforcement of young Japanese female school children. In Jan Wright (Ed.), Joint AARE APERA International Conference Proceedings. Sydney: Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE). http://www.aare.edu.au/publications-database.php.
Open access
Abstract:
This paper examines the Japanese cultural key word kawaii ‘cute’. Although the kawaii phenomenon has been discussed by many scholars, there has been no rigorous semantic analysis, particularly in its use by parents, students and teachers. Teachers frequently use kawaii to show positive feelings towards objects in the classroom. Girls, too, are primary users of the word, which suggests they are acquiring kawaii as an index of female gender identity. From a linguistic perspective, kawaii is not lexicalized in other languages. While English speakers may say cute for various social actions, scholars suggest that kawaii is tied to empathy and relationships.
NSM was used to explicate the exact meaning of kawaii for non-Japanese speakers. The analysis indicates that the core meaning of kawaii is linked to the notion of a ‘child’, and the emotion is explained as ‘when I see this, I can’t not feel something good’. The kawaii syndrome reveals a Japanese cultural characteristic that puts much emphasis on being ‘gender appropriate’ in society and schools. The analysis has implications for understanding gender construction and expression in non-Western cultures.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) kawaii かわいい
