Browsing results for Language families
Published on July 30, 2018. Last updated on August 29, 2018.
Hasada, Rie (1994). The semantic aspects of onomatopoeia: Focusing on Japanese psychomimes. MA thesis, Australian National University. PDF (open access)
This thesis aims to examine the semantic aspects of Japanese onomatopoeia, which is among the least studied language phenomena in Japanese linguistics. The focus of the thesis is on explicating the meaning of psychomimes, the onomatopoeic words that refer to emotions. Among Japanese onomatopoeia, psychomimes are the hardest for non-native speakers to acquire. This is because their meanings are more abstract and more culturally embedded than other types of onomatopoeic words. The thesis also considers some cultural aspects that are
linked to Japanese onomatopoeic words, since their explication will facilitate a deeper understanding of the use and meaning of those words.
I demonstrate that the complex Japanese-specific meanings involved in selected psychomimes can be clearly shown and made comprehensible to outsiders when they are translated into the universal or near-universal Natural Semantic Metalanguage and represented in
the framework of a “prototype scenario”. I show that the complex and unique semantic concepts of Japanese psychomimes, which are usually described as ‘untranslatable’, are nonetheless translatable on the level of semantic explication with language-independent semantic
metalanguage. The similarities and dissimilarities in labelling and the conceptualization encoded in different psychomimes become apparent with the use of the universal Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) biku-biku, (E) doki-doki, (E) dokiq, (E) gyoq, (E) haq, (E) hara-hara, (E) hiya-hiya, (E) ira-ira, (E) iso-iso, (E) kaq, (E) mukaq, (E) muq, (E) musha-kusha, (E) odo-odo, (E) sowa-sowa, (E) uki-uki, (E) waku-waku
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 3, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1994). “Cultural scripts”: A semantic approach to cultural analysis and cross-cultural communication. Pragmatics and Language Learning [Monograph Series], 5, 1-24. PDF (open access)
This paper argues that the ways of speaking characteristic of a given speech community cannot be satisfactorily described (let alone explained) in purely behavioral terms. They constitute a behavioral manifestation of a tacit system of “cultural rules” or “cultural scripts”. To understand a society’s ways of speaking, we have to identify and articulate its implicit “cultural scripts”. Furthermore, it is argued that to be able to do this without ethnocentric bias we need a universal, language-independent perspective; this can be attained if the”rules” in question are stated in terms of lexical universals, that is, universal human concepts lexicalized in all languages of the world.
To illustrate these general propositions, the author shows how cultural scripts can be stated and how they can be justified. This is done with particular reference to Japanese, (White) Anglo-American, and Black American cultural norms.
The cultural scripts advanced in this paper are formulated in a highly constrained Natural Semantic Metalanguage, based on a small set of lexical universals (or near-universals) and a small set of universal (or near-universal) syntactic patterns. It is argued that the use of this metalanguage allows us to portray and compare culture-specific attitudes, assumptions, and norms from a neutral, culture-independent point of view and to do so in terms of simple formulae that are intuitively self-explanatory while at the same time being rigorous and empirically verifiable.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) enryo 遠慮, (S) advocate stance, (S) agreement, (S) apologies, (S) attitudes to emotion, (S) criticism of others, (S) freedom of expression, (S) imposition of opinions, (S) likes and dislikes, (S) non-advocate stance, (S) open-mindedness, (S) opinions of others, (S) resilience, (S) self-assertive behaviour, (S) speech, (S) spokesman stance, (S) toughness, (S) verbal restraint, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Pawley, Andrew (1994). Kalam exponents of lexical and semantic primitives. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 387-422). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.19paw
For most of the proposed primitives it is not hard to find one or more Kalam equivalents. Most concepts on the list of primitives have one or more translation equivalents. However, there are a few problematic cases, namely those in which: (a) Kalam has two partial equivalents (WANT); (b) Kalam has a translation equivalent but this term has a more general meaning which subsumes the putative primitive (‘mental predicates’, especially KNOW, FEEL, and SAY; IF). The question arises in these cases whether the general meaning is properly analysed into a number of distinct senses, one of which coincides with the primitive, or whether it is better left unanalysed with specific interpretations determined by pragmatic factors.
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.
Evans, Nicholas (1994). Kayardild. In Cliff Goddard & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 203-228). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.12eva
Kayardild is an Australian language spoken in the South Wellesley Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria by a population traditionally numbering
around 120 people. Most of the proposed primitives find unproblematic translations into the language. The problems that arise can be divided into problems of combinability and problems of exuberance. Viewed from another angle, these two types of problem underscore the distinction between semantic and lexical universalis: the Kayardild evidence suggests that all the primitives considered in this volume are semantic universals, but that some fail to be lexical universals. In a case like THINK or DO there exist many Kayardild words that contain the relevant semantic component, supporting the claim that they are semantically universal, but they have not been lexicalised in a pure form. The case of putative universals expressible only as senses of gramemes is directly comparable: WANT and COULD are required in the explication of certain gramemes, but are not available in a pure form as lexemes. Yet only when a meaning is lexicalised does it become fully available for translation, which requires the ability to combine freely. Conversely, it may not be until one attempts translation that a particular lexical gap is even noticed, since all the commonest configurations involving a particular semantic primitive may be lexicalised — Kayardild, for example, has ‘do this’, ‘do that’, ‘do well’, ‘do badly’, ‘do what’, ‘do like someone else’ and so forth. By lexicalising all the regularly used combinations, a language can in some cases get by perfectly well without lexical exponents of the primitives themselves.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Hill, Deborah (1994). Longgu. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 311-329). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.16hil
In general it has not been difficult to find lexical exponents of all of the proposed semantic primitives in Longgu. Indeed, in most cases (e.g. TWO, ALL, KNOW, WANT) there is a lexical representation which clearly corresponds to the primitive. However, making the link between the existence of an exponent (and, if present cross-linguistically, a lexical universal) and a primitive is clearly not as simple as finding the exponent. In the case of THINK, the evidence suggests that the meaning of the lexical exponent (una) is not centred around ‘think’ but around ‘thusly’. This somehow seems unsatisfactory and it raises the question of the expected relationship between a primitive and its exponent.
The ease with which lexical exponents of other primitives (IF, HAPPEN) are being replaced with other lexemes also seems unsatisfactory, even if it can be argued that this merely indicates the existence of two exponents of the same primitive.
The other points that have arisen from looking for these lexical exponents in Longgu have been ones of methodology and, in the case of PART OF, questioning whether the primitive is targeting a range of functions that are not captured by one lexical exponent in the language. The methodological problem was most evident in the case of OTHER. Despite the use of canonical sentences it remained difficult to separate the meaning conveyed by the English lexeme from the primitive.
These problems may not be insurmountable to deal with but the idea of finding lexical universals which correspond to semantic primitives would be all the more convincing if they could be adequately dealt with.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on April 2, 2018. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (1994). The meaning of lah: Understanding “emphasis” in Malay (Bahasa Melayu). Oceanic Linguistics, 33(1), 145-165. DOI: 10.2307/3623004
The meaning of the illocutionary particle lah, a salient feature of Colloquial Malay, as well as of Malaysian and Singapore English, has proved notoriously difficult to pinpoint. For instance, with declaratives it may convey either “light-heartedness” or an “ill-tempered” effect, and it may either “soften” or “harden” a request. In this article, the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach of Anna Wierzbicka is applied to the analysis of lah. This involves developing a translatable reductive paraphrase explication. According to the proposed explication, which is the length of a short paragraph, lah offers an explanation of the speaker’s illocutionary purpose, which is roughly to correct or preempt a misapprehension or misunderstanding of some kind. The explication is shown to be flexible enough to predict the diverse effects that lah itself may convey in combination with other elements of an utterance, once Malay cultural norms of verbal interaction are taken into account.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) lah
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (1994). The exponents of semantic primitives in Mangap-Mbula. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical Universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 87-108). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.08bug
This paper examines the applicability of the proposed set of lexical and semantic universals to Mangap-Mbula, an Austronesian language spoken in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Hale, Kenneth L. (1994). Preliminary observations on lexical and semantic primitives in the Misumalpan languages of Nicaragua. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 263-284). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.14hal
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Mosel, Ulrike (1994). Samoan. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 331-360). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.17mos
Samoan data suggest that any classification of lexical universals into categories similar to word classes such as substantives and determiners may be problematic. A further problem is that the proposed canonical contexts cannot always be easily translated into idiomatic Samoan. In some cases all proposed lexical universals of a given canonical context have exponents in Samoan, but they are not combined to render the meaning of the canonical context in question.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 20, 2018.
Diller, Anthony (1994). Thai. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 149-170). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.10dil
This chapter argues that, in assessing how specific NSM primitives could best be represented in Thai and how formulations could be constructed using these items, it is useful to keep a few general features of the language in mind. In fact, just what ‘the language’ might mean for Thai is perhaps the most critical feature. Different speech registers or what Sapir refers to as ‘subforms of language’ are especially salient in the Thai communicative context. NSM formulations in Thai would be a subform. It is assumed that the Thai version of a semantic metalanguage is best constructed as an intimate, informal linguistic subform, as though we were overhearing, say, a mother talking to her daughter.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 31, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (1994). Lexical primitives in Yankunytjatjara. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 229-262). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.13god
All the posited lexical primitives find good candidates in Yankunytjatjara, once polysemy and allolexy are taken into account. In general, the posited exponents are formally simple (monomorphemic) words or clitics; but sometimes they are affixes, and occasionally they are formally complex (i.e. apparently polymorphemic) expressions. There are still some uncertainties about allolexic variants of some primitives, and about how to express certain collocations that the theory predicts are possible. We are not yet in full possession of a Natural Semantic Metalanguage based on Yankunytjatjara. What has been done, however, is to establish its basic lexicon. There would seem to be no serious barrier to the construction of a full NSM based on Yankunytjatjara and mutually translatable with expressively equivalent NSMs of other languages.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wilkins, David P. (1995). Expanding the traditional category of deictic elements: Interjections as deictics. In Judith F. Duchan, Gail A. Bruder, & Lynne E. Hewitt (Eds.), Deixis in narrative: A cognitive science perspective (pp. 359-386). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
The bulk of this chapter is an abridged and re-edited version of an earlier paper (Wilkins, 1992). The primary purpose of that paper and, hence, this chapter is to argue that the traditional American linguistic view of deictic elements must be expanded to embrace interjections alongside the more standard members such as pronouns and demonstratives. To rescue interjections from the periphery of linguistic concerns requires a demonstration of two points: (a) that interjections share specific linguistic and communicative properties with more standard deictic elements, and (b) that it is possible to render a convincing account of the semantic structure and pragmatic usage of interjections. I attempt to expand this argument, and extend the demonstration of the two forementioned points by tying interjections in with the narrative and deictic center concerns that form the focus of the book in which the new version appears, but that were not explicitly covered in the original paper.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Cincin!, (E) me (interjection), (E) Ngke!, (E) Ow!, (E) To'!, (E) Wow!
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Kornacki, Paweł (1995). Heart & face: Semantics of Chinese emotion concepts. PhD thesis, Australian National University.
Open access
Abstract:
This thesis uses NSM to explore the conceptual organization of a subset of the emotion vocabulary of Modern Standard Chinese. Chapter One (Introduction) provides background information on the analytic perspective adopted in the thesis, the sources of data, and a preliminary discussion of some of the issues in the early Chinese ethnotheory of “emotion”. Chapter Two explicates the key concept of 心 xin ‘heart/mind’, which is the cognitive, moral, and emotional ‘centre’ of a person. Chapter Three discusses two related notions, 面子 miànzi and 脸 liăn, usually glossed in English by means of the word face; both notions speak to the culturally perceived relevance to the self of other people’s judgements. Chapter Four develops this theme further, dealing with the ‘social feelings’ of Chinese, i.e. reactions to the things people say and think about us. Chapter Five focuses on the semantic field of Chinese ‘anger’-like expressions. Chapter Six analyses the lexical data pertinent to the conceptualization of different kinds of subjectively ‘bad’ feelings, whereas Chapter Seven discusses the emotional reactions to various types of good situations and events.
Wherever possible, the thesis seeks to probe into the culturally based aspects of the conceptual structure of emotion words by drawing on a variety of anthropological, psychological and sociological studies of the Chinese society. On the methodological level, the thesis attempts to demonstrate that the bias inherent in conducting the cultural analysis with complex, language-specific notions (e.g., ‘anger’, ‘shame’, ‘happiness’) can be subverted through a recourse to universally shared simple meanings.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) anger, (E) bù ān 不安, (E) bù hăoyìsi 不好意思, (E) cánkuì 惭愧, (E) chĭ 耻, (E) chóu 愁, (E) déyì 得意, (E) emotion, (E) face, (E) fèn 憤, (E) gāoxìng 高兴, (E) huáng 徨, (E) jì 寂, (E) jĭnzhāng 紧张, (E) kuàilè 快乐, (E) kŭmèn 苦闷, (E) liăn 脸, (E) miànzi 面子, (E) năo 恼, (E) năohuo 恼火, (E) nù 怒, (E) qíngxù 情绪, (E) shēngqì 生气, (E) tăoyàn 讨厌, (E) tòngkŭ 痛苦, (E) tòngkuài 痛快, (E) xīn 心, (E) xìngfú 幸福, (E) xiū 羞
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). *In defence of Australian culture. Quadrant, 39(11), 17-22.
In the current debate on culture many have challenged the notion of culture itself. Eric R. Wolf recently described it as a “perilous idea” and emphasised instead “the heterogeneity and … interconnectedness of cultures”.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 20, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). Lexicon as a key to history, culture, and society: “Homeland” and “fatherland” in German, Polish and Russian. In René Dirven, & Johan Vanparys (Eds.), Current approaches to the lexicon (pp. 103-155). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Abstract:
Since many languages, especially European languages, have words denoting ‘native country’, the concepts embodied in these words may be assumed to transcend language boundaries. In fact, words that appear to match in this way are laden with historical and cultural significance, and often differ from one another in particularly telling ways, offering valuable insight into different national traditions and historical experiences. This general proposition is illustrated here through an analysis and comparison of three cultural key words of modern German and Polish: Heimat, Vaterland, and ojczyzna. A cursory discussion of the Russian word rodina is also included.
In addition to universals, the explications rely on the words country, born, and child. These words (referred to in later work as semantic molecules) can be defined in terms of the universals, but to do so within the explications of such complex cultural concepts as Heimat, Vaterland, ojczyzna, and rodina would be confusing and counterproductive.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 12 (pp. 450-489) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Chapter 4 (pp. 156-197) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1997), Understanding cultures through their key words: English, Russian, Polish, German, Japanese. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Heimat, (E) ojczyzna, (E) rodina, (E) Vaterland
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on March 13, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). Dictionaries and ideologies: Three examples from Eastern Europe. In Braj B. Kachru, & Henry Kahane (Eds.), Cultures, ideologies and the dictionary: Studies in honor of Ladislav Zgusta (pp. 181-195). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
This paper considers three lexicographic definitions from three Eastern European dictionaries, produced under communist rule. In each case, the word under discussion presents ideological difficulties for the dictionary’s editors — either because its meaning is politically incorrect, i.e. reflects an outlook incompatible with the official communist ideology, or because it is politically sensitive, and can be used as a potent ideological tool in both desirable and undesirable political contexts.
Each of the three definitions concerns a keyword, that is, a word especially important in the life of the society in question and reflecting this society’s experience and values. The three keywords discussed are the German word Vaterland (roughly, ‘fatherland’), the Russian word smirenie (roughly, ‘humility’, ‘resignation’) and the Polish word bezpieka (roughly, ‘state security’).
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bezpieka, (E) smirenie, (E) Vaterland
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (1995). Conceptual and cultural issues in emotion research. Culture & Psychology, 1(2), 289-298. DOI: 10.1177/1354067X9512009
As suggested by its title, Wierzbicka’s 1995 paper ‘Emotion and facial expression: A semantic perspective’ is an attempt to apply a uniform framework for semantic analysis to two domains of emotional expression – words and facial expressions – and to advance some hypotheses about how they are related. Wierzbicka argues that linguistic research shows that no emotion word of English (or any other language) has a simple and undecomposable meaning; rather, the emotion words of different languages encode complex and largely culture-specific perspectives on ‘ways of feeling’, linking feelings with specific kinds of thoughts and wants (prototypical cognitive scenarios). Essentially, the claim is that the meanings of words like angry, proud, lonesome, etc., embody little ‘cultural stories’ about human nature and human interaction. To uncover and state such stories in non-ethnocentric terms, however, requires a framework of semantic universals. We need to go beyond the ‘either-or’ question and seek both the universal core of communication, as well as the precise role of culture. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage is a new method that will assist us to reach that goal.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) amae 甘え, (E) marah, (E) tęsknota
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on October 19, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (1995). ‘Cognitive mapping’ or ‘verbal explication’? Understanding love on the Malay Archipelago. Semiotica, 106(3/4), 323-354.
This is a review article of Karl G. Heider’s 1991 book Landscapes of emotion: Mapping three cultures of emotion in Indonesia. It is argued that a failure to grasp the nettle on the issue of translation, the exclusive reliance on a narrow range of artificial questionnaire-generated data and the lack of depth in the ethnographic commentary prevent Heider from making substantial progress toward his goal of understanding how culture influences emotion. For the purpose of modeling linguistic and cultural meanings, there is no escape from language, and the problem of translation must be faced fairly and squarely. Much progress has been made within linguistic semantics, especially within the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) approach led by Anna Wierzbicka, toward developing a systematic and non-ethnocentric approach to verbal explication. An attempt is made to show how this approach can be fruitfully and revealingly applied to the semantic analysis of some Malay emotion words.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) anger, (E) cinta, (E) fear, (E) frightened, (E) kasih, (E) kasihan, (E) sayang, (E) song
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1995). Kisses, handshakes, bows: The semantics of nonverbal communication. Semiotica, 103(3/4), 207-252. DOI: 10.1515/semi.1995.103.3-4.207
Gestures, and other forms of meaningful bodily behaviour, differ from culture to culture: the Japanese bow, Anglos shake hands, Russians kiss and embrace, the Tikopia press noses, and so on. However, although in different societies different types of bodily behaviour are favoured, the meaning expressed by at least some of them may be the same everywhere. In fact, it is only when we assume sameness of meaning that we can explain why certain universally interpretable gestures are favoured or avoided in some societies but not others (for example, why Anglos avoid, and the Japanese favour, bowing).
Of course, not all forms of bodily behaviour are universal or universally interpretable. Some are based on local conventions, and although these too are more likely to be partly iconic or indexical in nature than to be totally arbitrary, they may nonetheless be totally incomprehensible to outsiders. But many gestures, postures, facial expressions, and so on can be assigned ‘universal meanings’; and this applies even to those forms of behaviour that are not universally attested.
The same level of extended body parts (whether noses or hands) appears to suggest sameness, and, by implication, equality of the two people. The contact of the corresponding body parts (nose-to-nose, hand-to-hand, mouth-to-mouth) appears to suggest expected, assumed, or desired sameness of feelings. Voluntary bodily contact (if it is not of the kind that would cause the addressee to feel ‘something bad’, in particular pain) implies ‘good feelings toward the addressee’. And so on.
Clearly, much further research is needed before the exact meaning of gestures, postures, and facial expressions can be stated with certainty and precision; and before the universal aspects of nonverbal communication can be identified and distinguished from those that are culture-specific. It is important to recognize, however, that, universal or not, the meanings of gestures, postures, and facial expressions can be described in a rigorous and yet illuminating manner; and that they can be described in the same framework as arbitrary, ‘local’ gestures (such as, for example, clapping), and indeed, as vocal symbols (that is, speech). Smiles, kisses, interjections, and articulated utterances carry messages of the same kind. To understand human communicative behaviour, we need an integrated description of verbal and nonverbal communication. The ‘Natural Semantic Metalanguage’ based on universal semantic primitives provides a tool with the help of which such an integration can be achieved.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) arm-linking, (E) blushing, (E) bow, (E) bowing, (E) clapping, (E) crawling position, (E) crying, (E) hand-holding, (E) handshake, (E) hug, (E) kiss, (E) kiss on the hand, (E) kneeling, (E) laughter, (E) nose-to-nose contact, (E) ob'jatie, (E) prostration, (E) Sir, (E) slap on the back, (E) smile, (E) stamping one's foot, (E) wringing someone's hand
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 22, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (1995). Who are we? The natural semantics of pronouns. Language Sciences, 17(1), 99-121. DOI: 10.1016/0388-0001(95)00011-J
Working within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework of Anna Wierzbicka, this study proposes reductive paraphrase explications for a range of first-person pronominal meanings. A general explicatory schema is first developed for English we. It is then shown how this can be elaborated to accommodate the inclusive/exclusive distinction, dual number and trial number, and how it can be applied to minimal-augmented systems. Data is taken from various languages of Australia and Asia. It is argued that NSM explications are preferable to conventional feature analyses for two reasons: they are less subject to charges of arbitrariness and obscurity; and they are located within a comprehensive theory of semantic representation.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) 'ār عار, (E) kami, (E) kita, (E) nayin-nime, (E) ngagurr, (E) ngakorrbbarrah, (E) ngakorru, (E) ngali, (E) ngan'gityemerri, (E) nganana, (E) we, (E) yar, (E) yarrbbarrah, (E) yarru, (E) yukku, (E) yε, (E) ε, (T) English
