Browsing results for Language families
Published on December 8, 2019. Last updated on December 8, 2019.
Yu, Kyong-Ae (2017). Perceptions and functions of Korean mianhada: comparison with American English sorry. The Sociolinguistic Journal of Korea, 25(2), 197-224.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.14353/sjk.2017.25.2.07 / Open access
Abstract:
Sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic conventions for apology vary from culture to culture. While the illocutionary purpose of apologizing in English is the speaker’s sense of social obligation and Japanese sumimasen involves social-self with a social alter, this study argues that Korean mianhada is an apology from the speaker’s moral perspective linked with collective-self. Employing NSM, this study discusses that sorry is a separate concept but mianhada is a nebulous concept mixed with other emotions, e.g., thanks and love. In addition, presenting the examples from corpus-based dictionaries, COCA, and the Sejong 21st Century Corpus, this study discusses that sorry is authentically used as indirect and ritualistic apologies while mianhada is used as direct, indirect, ritualistic and substantive apologies. Finally, distinguishing main functions of mianhada into a sincere apology, a pseudo-apology, gratitude, a request initiator, a preclosing signal, and a territory invasion signal to strangers, this study provides cultural and ethnographical explanations.
More information:
Only Kim (2008) has analysed the semantic differences in cultural perceptions between Australian sorry and Korean mianhada using NSM, but the analysis proposed here for Korean mianhada is different.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) gomapgo yeomchiga eopda, (E) mianhada, (E) nonverbal apology, (E) sorry, (E) thank
Published on August 19, 2018. Last updated on June 29, 2019.
Karaaslan, Hatice (2017). A contrastive analysis of English anger-fury and Turkish kızgınlık-öfke. Karadeniz, 36, 119-136.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17498/kdeniz.357575 / Open access
Abstract:
This study investigates one particular area within the emotion lexicon of English and Turkish, focusing on two anger-related emotion terms in each of the two languages. It explores how the terms relate to each other intra-linguistically and whether, from a contrastive point of view, their cognitive scenarios match. The core meanings of the target concepts are claimed to show a high degree of correspondence; differences in immediacy and intensity do not (according to the author) appear to prompt the need for differentiation. The English emotion concept anger is said to match the Turkish emotion concept kızgınlık, and likewise for fury and öfke. Accordingly, the same reductive paraphrases can be used for the English words and for their Turkish counterparts.
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The claims contained in this paper need to be approached with caution: the so-called “high degree of correspondence” may not be high enough to warrant identical explications across the two languages. |
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Rating:
Crude application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) angry, (E) furious, (E) kızgınlık, (E) öfke
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Ameka, Felix K. (2017). Meaning between algebra and culture: Auto-antonyms in the Ewe verb lexicon. In Hilke Reckman, Lisa L.S. Cheng, Maarten Hijzelendoorn, & Rint Sybesma (Eds.), Crossroads semantics: Computation, experiment and grammar (pp. 227-248). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/z.210.14ame
Are meanings about “things in the world” or “things in the mind”? Are they about algebraic calculations or about cultural conceptions? How are multiple senses of a word related? Questions like these continue to be debated by semanticists and are explored in this chapter through a detailed semantic analysis of two verbs in Ewe (Gbe), a Kwa language of West Africa. The two verbs are mie ‘germinate/dry up’ and dró ‘put load up on/down from head’. It is argued that the individual senses of each verb involve directional opposition and that, as such, the verbs are auto-antonyms. From a logical point of view, the interpretations of the verb mie may not look antonymous; however, from the perspective of cultural practices and conceptualizations, the image-schematic representations go in opposite directions. NSM-inspired semantic representations are adopted to show the contrasts in a transparent manner.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) dró, (E) mie
Published on June 23, 2017. Last updated on November 5, 2021.
Peeters, Bert (2017). Du bon usage des stéréotypes en cours de FLE: le cas de l’ethnolinguistique appliquée [Making good use of stereotypes in the French foreign language classroom: the case of applied ethnolinguistics]. Dire, 9, 43-60. http://epublications.unilim.fr/revues/dire/816.
Written in French.
The stereotypes envisaged in this paper serve as a starting point for a research protocol aimed at corroborating the reality, in French languaculture, of the cultural value of stance-taking. The protocol adopted here is part of a research paradigm called applied ethnolinguistics, elaborated for use with and by foreign language students whose linguistic competence is sufficiently advanced to enable them to use their language resources to discover, through essentially (but not uniquely) linguistic means, the cultural values typically associated with the languaculture they study. Since the posited values are hypothetical, corroboration will be required. A specific protocol (the one illustrated here) has been set aside for this purpose. The cultural value of stance-taking will be presented in the form of a pedagogical script expressed in minimal French, a descriptive tool based on the French version of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Precautions are taken to ensure that end-users of such scenarios are aware that they are dealing with generalizations (which are unavoidable as languacultures are never homogeneous).
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) freedom of speech, (S) opinions
Published on July 29, 2018. Last updated on June 29, 2019.
Brise, Lillian (2017). Eating regret and seeing contempt: A Cognitive Linguistic approach to the language of emotions in Igala (Nigeria). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/b11354
Abstract:
This book, which deals with emotions and their expression in Igala, a Nigerian minority language with about two million speakers, calls for significant revisions within the NSM framework, its universal lexicon and its universal syntax, especially with respect to the prime FEEL. It challenges the claim that, in its present form, NSM is adequate for the analysis of emotion concepts universally. The challenge is based on the way emotions are conceptualized in Igala as well as on the absence of certain semantic primes that the NSM approach considers necessary for the analysis of emotions.
The author argues that NSM’s rigid claims to universality (of its syntax, for example) hinder the elegant description of emotion concepts in Igala and that the status of FEEL has to be re-evaluated. Igala does not have a generic lexical item that fits into the allegedly universal syntax specifications for FEEL and that lends itself to the explication of both physical and emotional (mental) states. FEEL must therefore possibly be downgraded and accorded the status of a semantic molecule rather than a prime. This would make it a language-specific concept, required for the explication of emotion concepts in some languages (e.g. English) but unnecessary in others (e.g. Igala).
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) àjìlò, (E) áɲó, (E) ɛ̀dɔ̀ dúdú, (E) ɛ̀dɔ̀ ɛ̀bɔ́, (E) ɛ̀dɔ̀ ɛ́kpabíe, (E) ɛ̀dɔ̀ ɛ̀kpabíɛ́, (E) ìhìɛ̀nɛ̀, (E) ìmélí, (E) ìwɔ̀, (E) òkpò, (E) ɔ́la ɟìɟìlì, (E) ufɛ́dɔ̀, (E) ùgɛ́dɔ̀, (E) ùgójì, (E) ùkàtà, (E) ùlàkà, (E) ùwɛ́dɔ̀, (E) ùyɔ̀, (T) Igala
Published on April 2, 2018. Last updated on June 22, 2019.
Gusmeldi, Ridha Fitryani (2017). Indonesian cultural keyword hati and its English translation. Master’s thesis, Australian National University.
Hati, regarded by Indonesian speakers as the central controller of psychological functioning, is a cultural key word that is very difficult to translate into other languages. Due to this fact, selecting equivalent words for target texts, as well as understanding the concept of hati itself, is highly challenging. However, without a good understanding of this cultural key word, cultural and linguistic misunderstandings of hati-related terms are bound to emerge in translation.
This thesis investigates the meanings and English translations of hati-related terms in Bahasa Indonesia. Hati-related terms are grouped into several categories: feeling, moral judgement, thinking, religion, and physical meaning. The eleven highest frequency terms including hati are explicated using semantic primes. The terms are dalam hati, sepenuh hati, sakit hati, patah hati, senang hati, besar hati, menarik hati, baik hati, rendah hati and sesuka hati.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) baik hati, (E) besar hati, (E) dalam hati, (E) hati, (E) menarik hati, (E) patah hati, (E) rendah hati, (E) sakit hati, (E) senang hati, (E) sepenuh hati, (E) sesuka hati, (T) Malay
Published on August 10, 2017. Last updated on June 29, 2019.
Hanczakowski, Allira (2017). Translating emotion: A lexical-semantic analysis of translating emotion words from Italian to English in Marco Braico’s novel La festa dei limoni (2011). Master of Translation thesis, University of Western Australia.
Open access
Abstract:
Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences are particularly evident within expressions of emotion, creating a challenging task for translators who are required to find the closest possible equivalent term in the target language. The context in which emotion words are used plays a crucial role in determining the most accurate translatant. This study explores how context influences and governs the selection of translatant within the novel La festa dei limoni by Marco Braico. Based on a select list of Italian emotion words, the author demonstrates that while Italian can employ the same emotion word in a variety of contexts, English requires different terms depending on textual context, linguistic context and the sociolinguistic identity of the person employing the term.
The NSM approach is adopted in Chapter Three of the thesis to create a systematic method for the translation of emotion words. Employing NSM facilitates a cross-linguistic analysis to be carried out from a language independent stance. Semantic primes are used to create semantic explications of five Italian emotion terms identified in Chapter Two as problematic from a translational point of view: affetto, rabbia, ansia, fastidio and meraviglia. The explications achieve the aim of demonstrating how to select the most accurate English translatant of Italian emotion terms, depending on the specific context within the novel.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) affetto, (E) ansia, (E) fastidio, (E) meraviglia, (E) rabbia, (T) Italian
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2017). Terms of address in European languages: A study in cross-linguistic semantics and pragmatics. In Keith Allan, Alessandro Capone, & Istvan Kecskes (Eds.), Pragmemes and theories of language use (pp. 209-238). Berlin: Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-43491-9_12
One of the deepest differences between English-based human interaction and the interaction based on the languages of continental Europe has to do with terms of address. For speakers of languages like French, Italian, or German it goes without saying that “polite” words such as vous, Lei and Sie are indispensable in daily exchanges with others. What do these words actually mean? To what extent do their meanings differ from one European language to another? Why can some of these terms, for example, vous, be applied to God (or to one’s spouse), whereas others, for example, Sie, cannot?
There has been an upsurge of interest in both nominal and pronominal terms of address in recent years, but most publications in this area focus on frequencies, forms, functions, and sociolinguistic variation, with virtually no mention of meaning. To uncover the secrets hidden in the meanings of such essential tools of daily communication and to bring to light their cultural significance, we need an appropriate methodology. As I hope to show in the present paper, NSM semantics provides the necessary tools and techniques.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) grazie, (E) Lei, (E) się, (E) voi, (E) vous
Published on October 15, 2017. Last updated on May 23, 2019.
Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2017). Kawaii discourse: The semantics of a Japanese cultural keyword and its social elaboration. In Carsten Levisen & Sophia Waters (Eds.), Cultural keywords in discourse (pp. 211-234). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: 10.1075/pbns.277.09asa
Abstract:
Taking its starting point in the Japanese cultural key word kawaii (roughly, ‘cute’), this chapter explores contemporary Japanese social discourse. Using NSM to explicate kawaii, the two kawaii compounds ita-kawaii and otona-kawaii and the related cultural key words itai and otona, it breaks new ground and increases our understanding of the conceptual basis of kawaii and its elaborations in discourse. A view on Japanese socialization and gendered discourse is simultaneously developed, and the value of ‘being kawaii’ is being scrutinized through the stability and innovations of kawaii in discourse.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ita-kawaii いた かわいい, (E) itai 痛い, (E) kawaii かわいい, (E) otona 大人, (E) otona-kawaii 大人ーかわいい
Published on August 4, 2018. Last updated on August 23, 2018.
Putri, Darni Enzimar (2017). Makna idiom Bahasa Jepang: Kajian Metabahasa Semantik Alami [The meaning of Japanese idioms: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage analysis]. PhD thesis, Universitas Udayana, Denpasar.
Written in Indonesian.
The research reported in this thesis focuses on the analysis of the meaning of Japanese idioms. The Japanese idioms investigated are limited to those including body part terms. The purpose of the research is twofold: (1) to describe and to explain by means of semantic primes a set of phrases belonging to the Japanese language, and (2) to describe and to analyse the semantic structure of idioms in the Japanese language. Anna Wierzbicka’s Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is used as the basic method for the analysis of the idioms.
The analysis indicates that the idioms can be divided into 3 prototypes: (1) a mental predicate prototype that includes the primes THINK, KNOW, FEEL, WANT, SEE, and HEAR; (2) a speech prototype that involves the prime SAY; and (3) a prototype involving action, events, movement, and contact that is formed around the primes DO, HAPPEN, and MOVE.
Published on August 14, 2018. Last updated on May 23, 2019.
Asano-Cavagh, Yuko & Lee, Duck-Young (2017). NSM Approach による類義語の意味分析: 日韓の伝達表現を中心に [NSM-based approach to meanings of synonyms: Focusing on hearsay markers in Japanese and Korean]. 日本語學硏究 [Japanese Language Association of Korea], 54, 87-106.
DOI: 10.14817/jlak.2017.54.87 / Open access
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to analyse the evidential markers そうだ souda, らしい rashii and って tte in Japanese and 대 tay and 니까 nikka in Korean from an NSM perspective. そうだ souda, らしい rashii and って tte are used in similar situations and are often translated in English as ‘he/she says’, or ‘I heard’. Although these hearsay markers are considered synonyms, they are not necessarily interchangeable. There are subtle differences that cannot be captured by a dictionary or conventional semantic analysis. The current study shows that the NSM approach is more beneficial than previous research in that it can describe the (dis)similarities of synonyms in a simple and accurate fashion. The study then analyses the Korean markers 대 tay and 니까 nikka, and compares the results with those obtained for the Japanese evidentials. It is demonstrated that the NSM approach is capable of dealing with the semantic properties of markers/expressions in different languages, and that definitions facilitate the understanding of each expression and enable the comparison of meanings cross-linguistically.
More information:
Written in Japanese. The first authors’ name is reported here as per the (incorrect) spelling used in the paper.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) nikka 니까, (E) rashii らしい, (E) sooda そうだ, (E) tay 대, (E) tte って, (T) Japanese, (T) Korean
Published on August 26, 2018. Last updated on August 26, 2018.
Setiawan, Risky Hendra (2017). Semantic analysis on Javanese perception verbs. Lantern, 6(1). PDF (open access)
Based on:
Setiawan, Risky Hendra (2016). Semantic analysis on Javanese perception verbs. BA(Hons) thesis, Diponegoro University, Semarang (Indonesia).
The use and meaning of perception verbs (i.e. verbs of seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling and touching) differs from one language to another; these verbs have their own characteristics and uniqueness. This study aims to describe the exact meaning of perception verbs in Javanese. It relies on purposive sampling to retrieve data from Javanese language dictionaries and magazines as well as on the author’s intuition as a native speaker. The prime meanings SEE, THINK, WANT, KNOW, HEAR, DO, and HAPPEN are used to explicate the meaning of each of the verbs.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) katon, (E) ketingal, (E) ketok, (E) mandheng, (E) mirsani, (E) namatake, (E) ndeleng, (E) ndelok, (E) niliki, (E) ningali, (E) niteni, (E) nonton, (E) nyawang, (E) nyekseni, (E) sumerep, (E) weruh
Published on September 9, 2018. Last updated on September 9, 2018.
Ratna Erawati, Ni Ketut & Ngurah Sulibra, I Ketut (2017). Speech act verb in Old Javanese: Natural Semantics Metalanguage analysis. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 4(2), 71-80. PDF (open access)
Based on their semantic components, verbs in Old Javanese are classified into states, processes, and actions. Speech verbs are a subtype of the latter. In this paper, they are analysed with the help of NSM theory. Based on the analysis of the speech verbs included, we can see that each of them reflects two important components of semantics (dictum and illocutionary purpose) that show similar overall meaning but subtle differences from one verb to another.
The speech act verbs included belong to the following general categories: ask, reply, request, tell, promise, call, scold, persuade, advise, discuss, complain, accuse, entertain, mock, berate.
Crude application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) adaya, (E) adoya, (E) agosthi, (E) ajêmur, (E) akon, (E) amalĕh, (E) amañcana, (E) amarimisi, (E) ambada, (E) amid, (E) aminta, (E) amisuh, (E) Amitĕkĕti, (E) amrahasana, (E) añeta, (E) angdalih, (E) angĕdö, (E) angundang, (E) añjaluk, (E) añodya, (E) apunagi, (E) atag, (E) atutur, (E) cumala, (E) cumarita, (E) dumalih, (E) dumĕlingakĕn, (E) makon, (E) maminta, (E) masahur, (E) masamaya, (E) masasambat, (E) matakwan, (E) mataña, (E) matutur, (E) mawrĕta, (E) sumahur, (E) sumapa, (E) tumaña, (E) tumon, (E) umaradhana
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Priestley, Carol (2017). Some key body parts and polysemy: A case study from Koromu (Kesawai). In Zhengdao Ye (Ed.), The semantics of nouns (pp. 147-179). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198736721.003.0006
This chapter discusses body part nouns, a part of language that is central to human life, and the polysemy that arises in connection with them. Examples from everyday speech and narrative in various contexts are examined in a Papuan language called Koromu and semantic characteristics of body part nouns in other studies are also considered. Semantic templates are developed for nouns that represent highly visible body parts: for example, wapi ‘hands/arms’, ehi ‘feet/legs’, and their related parts. Culture-specific explications are expressed in a natural metalanguage that can be translated into Koromu to avoid the cultural bias inherent in using other languages and to reveal both distinctive semantic components and similarities to cross-linguistic examples.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (various body parts) (Koromu), (E) arms, (E) ehi (Koromu), (E) ehi ahane (Koromu), (E) ehi tikirine (Koromu), (E) hands, (E) tekere (Koromu), (E) wapi, (E) wapi ahane, (E) wapi serene, (E) wapi tikiri/tekere
Published on April 21, 2018. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
François, Jacques (2017). Review of Bert Peeters (Ed.), Language and cultural values: Adventures in applied ethnolinguistics. Bulletin de la Société de linguistique de Paris, 112(2), 26-32.
Written in French.
Tags: (E) lige, (E) Ordnung, (E) tall poppy
Published on August 15, 2018. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Vanhatalo, Ulla (2017). 65:lla alkusanalla kohti ymmärtämistä. In Sirpa Tarvainen, Soile Loukusa, Terhi Hautala, & Satu Saalasti (Eds.), Yhteinen ymmärrys – havainnoinnista tulkintaan: puheen ja kielen tutkimuksen päivät Helsingissä 30.-31.3.2017 (pp. …-…). Helsinki: Puheen ja kielen tutkimuksen yhdistys [Association of Speech and Language Research).
Written in Finnish.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on January 10, 2022. Last updated on January 10, 2022.
Vanhatalo, Ulla, & Tissari, Heli. (2017). Esittelyssä alkusanakieli [Presenting Natural Semantic Metalanguage]. Virittäjä, 121(2), 244–263.
(in Finnish)
Published on December 17, 2017. Last updated on March 14, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (2017). Natural Semantic Metalanguage and lexicography. In Patrick Hanks, & Gilles-Maurice de Schryver (Eds.), International handbook of modern lexis and lexicography (online). Berlin: Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-45369-4_14-1
Abstract:
This chapter gives perspectives on meaning description in lexicography from the standpoint of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to linguistics, which among contemporary approaches to linguistics can claim the longest and most serious engagement with lexical semantics.
Note:
The Handbook is classified as a “Living Reference Work”, which means it is being continously updated. It was first published in 2017.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) birrimbirr, (E) mind, (T) English, (T) semantic molecules, (T) Spanish
Published on October 15, 2017. Last updated on September 13, 2018.
Braga Mattos, Ana Paulla (2017). Subúrbio and suburbanos: Two cultural keywords in Brazilian discourse. In Carsten Levisen & Sophia Waters (Eds.), Cultural keywords in discourse (pp. 157-182). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/pbns.277.07mat
This chapter studies the Brazilian Portuguese key words subúrbio ‘suburb’ and suburbanos ‘suburb dwellers’. Despite formal similarities, the English cityscape word suburb conveys a very different concept than subúrbio. In dictionaries, the cultural semantics of the words subúrbio ‘suburb’ and suburbanos ‘suburb dwellers’ is largely missing. This is unfortunate since the semantic richness of these words shed light on Brazilian discourses of urbanism and on a culturally-specific way of categorising people in the urban space. Using evidence from a range of different Brazilian discourses and speakers’ reflections on the two words, I propose a semantic explication for each, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) to adequately account for the complex and cultural meaning of the words – seen from an insider’s perspective.
Published on May 16, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Si, Aung (2017). The semantics of honeybee terms in Solega (Dravidian). In Zhengdao Ye (Ed.), The semantics of nouns (221-245). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198736721.003.0009
In this chapter, the semantics of three honeybee words from the Dravidian language Solega is discussed, with particular attention paid to methodological issues. These include sourcing naturalistic data for an under-described language, and objectively determining the boundary between core meaning elements and peripheral encyclopedic knowledge. Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) explications for perceptually similar honeybees are presented, with notes on challenging issues, such as unambiguously placing the honeybees along a gradient of physical size, as well as incorporating information on ecological relationships between honeybees and other named species. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the Solega folk taxonomy of honeybees.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (bee/honeybee/bees/honeybees) (Solega), (E) (insect/insects) (Solega), (E) hejje:nu (Solega), (E) je:nu (Solega), (E) kaḍḍi je:nu (Solega), (E) nesari je:nu (Solega), (E) thuḍuve je:nu (Solega)