Browsing results for Chinese (Mandarin)
Published on July 26, 2018. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Chappell, Hilary Margaret (1983). A semantic analysis of passive, causative and dative constructions in Standard Chinese. PhD thesis, Australian National University.
A semantic analysis of passive, causative and dative benefactive constructions in Chinese is carried out in this thesis.
In Part I, the view of the bèi passive as an adversity passive in its traditional use is upheld and supported principally by the evidence of the synchronic semantic analysis and secondarily by other considerations such as its evolution from verb to grammatical exponent, its restricted usage when compared with the neutral topic-comment constructions and its function as a warning in the negative imperative mood. The treatment of the bèi passive as a polysemous structure results in its division into two main types: the traditional bei passive, comprising four constructions, and the ‘Europeanized’ literary bèi passive where the influence of European languages in translation has led to the loss of the adversity feature and the modification of the semantic requirements pertaining to the agent with respect to its two constructions.
The analysis of the get passive in English as forming a complex of constructions – some adversative and others beneficial in their overall interpretation – serves as the link between the discussion of adversity passives in Part I and the discussion of the purely colloquial passives formed by ràng and jiào in Part II, where parallels are drawn between the non-reflexive adversative get passive and the rang passive.
In Part II, an argument in favour of considering the ràng and jiào passives to be semantically distinct both from one another and from the bèi passive is presented. It is contended that ràng forms passives of “avoidable events” whereas jiào forms passives expressing the unexpected nature of the event. The causative constructions formed by ràng and jiào are also treated in Part II and shown to differ considerably in their syntactic behaviour from their respective passive constructions despite the sharing of the same syntactic form. Evidence is adduced to support the view that none of the jiào causatives express the meaning of ‘let’ or ‘allow’ whereas some of the ràng causatives do. In this way, ràng and jiào causatives are shown not to be interchangeable.
In Part III, an argument is presented against the claim that the preverbal gěi construction in Chinese is polysemous to the extent of being a benefactive construction that is mutually substitutable with the meanings of two other constructions formed by ti ‘on behalf of’ and wei ‘for the sake of’. Secondly, it is argued that the benefactive gěi construction is not mutually transformable with either of the two dative constructions formed by gěi as each of these three constructions not only has a unique syntactic form but consequently a unique semantic structure.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bei, (E) gěi, (E) get, (E) jiào, (E) ràng
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Chappell, Hilary (1986). Formal and colloquial adversity passives in Standard Chinese. Linguistics, 24(6), 1025-1052. DOI: 10.1515/ling.1986.24.6.1025
A semantic analysis of the polysemy of analytic passive constructions in standard Chinese (Mandarin) that belong to both formal and colloquial levels of language is undertaken here. The three passive constructions in question all have the basic syntactic form of NP(undergoer)-BEI/RANG/JIAO-NP(agent)-VP.
The view of the formal bèi passive as an adversity passive in its continuing traditional usage in the spoken language is upheld and supported principally by the evidence of the semantic analysis. Its treatment as a polysemous structure results in division into two main types — the formal bei passive and the bèi passive of ‘translatese’ in written language. For the second type, it will be shown that the influence of European languages in translation has led to the loss of the adversity feature, the requirement of an overt agent, and a perfective predicate.
Finally, an argument in favour of considering the colloquial adversity passives formed by ràng and jiào to contain certain semantic features,
distinct both from one another and from the bèi passive, is presented. It is contended that ràng forms passives of ‘avoidable’ events whereas jiào forms passives expressing the unexpected nature of the event. Both contrast to bèi, where the serious nature of the adversity is encoded.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bei, (E) jiào, (E) ràng
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Chappell, Hilary (1986). The passive of bodily effect in Chinese. Studies in Language, 10(2), 271-296. DOI: 10.1075/sl.l0.2.02cha
In standard Chinese (pŭtōnghuà), besides the regular passive form NP (undergoer) – BEI – NP (agent) – VP, there is a second syntactically related passive with a complex predicate containing a postverbal or ‘retained object’ : NP (undergoer) – BEI – NP (agent) – V – LE – N (part of the body).
This second construction serves as the topic of discussion of this paper. It is shown to be restricted to expressing an inalienable relationship between a person and a part of the body, other relational nouns such as kinship or material possessions being excluded from postverbal position.
It is argued that the postverbal NP is not a case of a ‘retained object’ in Jespersen’s sense as the body part term neither acts as the true semantic undergoer nor can be considered as a kind of second object. This argument is supported by the additional evidence of the postverbal NP not permitting any modification by adjectives or demonstratives.
The interpretation of lasting effect on the undergoer (the affected person) resulting from an adversative passive event is claimed to be a main
semantic constraint of this construction.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bei
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Hill, Deborah (1987). A cross-linguistic study of value-judgement terms. MA thesis, Australian National University.
The purpose of this thesis is to try to establish the extent to which the words good, bad, true and right can be considered lexical universals. These words have been chosen because they are value-judgment terms that, individually, have been discussed at length by philosophers. It seems to be assumed by philosophers and semanticists that these words reflect concepts shared by speakers of all languages. By testing whether these words are candidates for lexical universals we can then see the extent to which this assumption is true.
On the basis of information from native speakers from 15 diverse languages, we can say that good and bad reflect language independent concepts (GOOD and BAD). However, in many languages, including English, the range of meaning of bad is narrower than the range of meaning of good. By looking at five of these fifteen languages we can see that the words right and true reflect concepts that are not language
independent. Thus, by taking a cross-linguistic approach, we can shed some light on the work done by language philosophers in the area of value-judgment terms.
The following languages are examined in this thesis: Arabic, Arrernte, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Ewe, Fijian, Finnish, Indonesian, Kannada, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Chappell, Hilary (1991). Strategies for the assertion of obviousness and disagreement in Mandarin Chinese: A semantic study of the modal particle me. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 11(1), 39-65. DOI: 10.1080/07268609108599451
This paper sets out to provide a semantic analysis of a little-researched modal particle in Mandarin Chinese – me, which occurs structurally in utterance-final position and belongs to a set of discourse markers facilitating both conversational interaction and the expression of a variety of different attitudes on the part of the speaker. The attitudinal value of these markers involves the coding of emotions as varied as surprise, exasperation, indignation and impatience. We provide a semantic analysis of the two distinct but related uses of me in utterance-final position. The two uses distinguished are shown to belong to different contexts and with different pragmatic purposes for the speaker.
The first use does not contain any component of feeling or emotion, but merely asserts a causal link between two propositions to the effect that one was the obvious consequence of the other. This is the modal particle me of an obvious logical connection found in explanatory contexts.
By contrast, the second use of me is shown to have the possibility of expressing a negative emotion such as indignation or impatience which is caused by what the speaker views to be a false opinion or misconception on the part of the addressee or a third party not present. The “true” nature of the matter is asserted by the speaker as self-evident through the use of me. This is the modal particle me of disagreement found in contexts where, for example, speaker and addressee hold opposite views.
It is furthermore shown that the effect of genre on the use of the modal marker me is relevant. The particle me proves to be much less frequent in narrative texts than in conversational ones, a consequence of diminished interaction between speaker and addressee in the narrative form, also affected by the more formal context of one of the narrative corpora. Finally, diachronic considerations are briefly outlined, and the semantic relationship of the interrogative to rhetorical questions and markers of modality such as me is described.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) me (particle)
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Chappell, Hilary (1994). Mandarin semantic primitives. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 109-147). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.09cha
The approach taken in this analysis of Mandarin is that only a small subset of lexemes and expressions of a natural spoken language serves as a potential ‘key’ or metalanguage in directly representing basic conceptual building blocks, a framework of semantic analysis advocated and developed by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard. In the main section of the paper, the eight classes of primitives proposed by Goddard and Wierzbicka are discussed in turn for Mandarin: (1) substantives and pronouns; (2) mental predicates; (3) determiners and quantifiers; (4) actions and events; (5) metapredicates; (6) time and place; (7) meronymy and taxonomy; and (8) evaluators and descriptors. Most of the data are elicited for the purpose of creating the set of test sentences with the primitives in their canonical contexts in order to provide a comparative corpus. Where possible, I have supplemented this with data from transcriptions of recorded conversations and narratives to add utterances from natural contexts.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
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 August 18, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2000). The language of emotions in Chinese: A study based on Hong Lou Meng. MA thesis, Australian National University.
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 December 8, 2019.
Ye, Zhengdao (2001). An inquiry into “sadness” in Chinese. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 359-404). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.359
This paper attempts to overcome the methodological problems that plague emotion studies by relying on the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). Through the explication of three so-called “sadness-like” Chinese emotion terms (悲 bēi, 哀 ai, and 愁 chóu), this paper will show how the NSM approach can provide a neutral comparative grid for further inquiries into the meaning of emotion concepts across languages and cultures.
The paper first provides a very general discussion of the Chinese emotion lexicon from a morphological point of view, followed by an in-depth semantic analysis of 悲 bēi, 哀 ai, and 愁 chóu in NSM. The discussion draws on linguistic evidence, including well-known textual examples, lexicalized items and conventionalized phrases and idioms that are familiar to the Chinese ear.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ai 哀, (E) bēi 悲, (E) chóu 愁, (T) Chinese
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on December 8, 2019.
Kornacki, Paweł (2001). Concepts of anger in Chinese. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 259-292). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.255
This paper focuses on five Mandarin Chinese words – 怒 nu, 生气 shēngqì, 恼(火) nao(huo), 憤 fen, 討厭 taoyan – as well as their figurative associations and elaborations, all of which are pertinent to the conceptualization of the “emotions” often rendered with, or comparable to, the English words angry or anger. Ever since Darwin’s classic treatment of emotions, “anger”, “something like anger”, or “a family of anger concepts/expressions” have been recurrently proposed by a number of Western psychologists as one of the “fundamental”, “universal”, “primitive” or “basic” human “emotions”, but this approach has also been criticized. My aim here will be to examine some of the insights that the analysis of the Chinese lexical data might contribute to this debate.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) fèn 憤, (E) năo 恼, (E) năohuo 恼火, (E) nù 怒, (E) shēngqì 生气, (E) tăoyàn 讨厌
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 27, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2001). Los sentimientos morales de la “tristeza” china: una ilustración del acercamiento del Metalenguaje Semántico Natural (MSN) al análisis de algunas emociones chinas “básicas” [Moral feelings of “sadness” in Chinese: An illustration of the NSM approach to the analysis of some “basic” Chinese emotions]. Isegoría, 25, 201-222.
Written in Spanish.
This study undertakes, within the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach developed by Anna Wierzbicka and colleagues, a detailed contrastive and comparative semantic analysis of a couple of Chinese emotion concepts: 悲 bēi and 哀 ai (often glossed interchangeably as sadness, sorrow, and grief), which are considered to be basic emotions in traditional Chinese philosophical texts. It illustrates that (a) they are by no means interchangeable, nor are they equivalent of the Western idea of sadness, (b) they are artifacts of the Chinese culture, shaped by Chinese people’s social and moral experiences, and their view of life and the universe. Essentially, 悲 bēi encompasses a fatalistic view, and 哀 ai is a moral emotion.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ai 哀, (E) bēi 悲, (T) Spanish
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2002). ‘I’m not a ghost!’: Semantic analyses of some ‘emotional adverbs’ in Mandarin Chinese. In Peter Collins, & Mengistu Amberber (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2002 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2002.html. PDF (open access)
This paper constitutes a first attempt to carry out a systematic and in-depth semantic analysis of a selected set of ‘emotional adverbs’ in Mandarin Chinese, an area that has received little attention in Western linguistic discussion. It shows that, as elusive as their meanings are, with a rigorous semantic tool, the core meanings of emotional adverbs can be uncovered and stated in a clear and precise manner, making this category and its semantic contents accessible to both linguists and learners of Mandarin Chinese.
The analysis of you reveals that it expresses more than a simple ‘denial’, as commonly understood. Instead, it expresses a denial of an unstated message, which means an inference is being made by the speaker. In one of its uses, pian suggests a degree of perplexity towards an event that could have been avoided but that happened nonetheless, putting the speaker at the receiving end. In a different use, it is the speaker him- or herself who goes against someone else’s wish.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) piān, (E) yòu
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 29, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2002). Different modes of describing emotions in Chinese: Bodily changes, sensations, and bodily images. Pragmatics & Cognition, 10, 307-339. DOI: 10.1075/pc.10.12.13ye
In Chinese talk about emotions, the body is linguistically codified in different ways. There are three general modes of emotion description: one that relies on externally observable (involuntary) bodily changes, a second one that relies on sensations, and a third one that relies on figurative bodily images. While an attempt is made to introduce a typology of subcategories within each mode of emotion description, the paper focuses on the meaning of different iconic descriptions through the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). On the one hand, the linguistic evidence, from a Chinese perspective, attests to the emotional universals proposed by Wierzbicka (1999). On the other, it points to cultural diversity in the bodily conceptualization and interpretation of emotional experiences, which are crystallized in the linguistic conventions of Chinese emotion talk, including certain syntactic constructions. The paper also demonstrates the importance of examining the language of emotions in emotion studies, and concludes that a full account of emotions must include an examination of the language used to talk about them.
Explications are included for the following words and phrases: 煎熬 jiān’áo ‘simmering and stewing’, xin xiang zhen zha side ‘(my) heart is being pricked by needles’, 胆破 dǎn pò ‘broken gallbladders’, 魂不附体 hún bú fù tǐ ‘escaped souls’, 牵肠挂肚 qiān cháng guà dù ‘pulling on an intestine and hanging on a stomach’, xuan xin ‘heart dangling’, 心里七上八下 xīn li qī shàng bā xià ‘a heart like seven up and eight down’, 肝火 gānhuǒ ‘liver fire’.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) dǎn pò 胆破, (E) gānhuǒ 肝火, (E) hún bú fù tǐ 魂不附体, (E) jiān’áo 煎熬, (E) qiān cháng guà dù 牵肠挂肚, (E) xīn xiang zhen zha side, (E) xinli (xiang shiwu zhi diaotong) qi shang ba xia, (E) xuan xin
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Chappell, Hilary (2002). The universal syntax of semantic primes in Mandarin Chinese. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Meaning and universal grammar: Theory and empirical findings. Vol. I (pp. 243-322). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.60.12cha
The present chapter represents an enlargement in scope over Chappell (1994), which was mainly restricted to identifying Mandarin exponents of semantic primes, 39 in number at that time. In the present study, the primary focus is the syntax of the proposed primes in Mandarin. I examine the syntactic frames of each prime to test the claims made by Goddard and Wierzbicka with respect to the universal syntax of semantic primes. Since the number of primes has increased to 59 in the intervening period, some space has been allocated to justifying the selection of the particular lexemes or expressions for the newly proposed primes, and for cases where I have revised my earlier analysis.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) Good Samaritan, (S) Philosophy of the Middle Way
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2004). When ’empty words’ are not empty: Examples from the semantic analysis of some ’emotional adverbs’ in Mandarin Chinese. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 24(2), 139-161. DOI: 10.1080/0726860042000271807
This paper is about ‘emotional adverbs’, a characteristic category in the Chinese language that has received little attention in Western linguistic discussion. In the Chinese linguistic tradition, ‘emotional adverbs’ belong to the general category of xūcí (‘empty words’), whose meanings are often thought to be too elusive to pin down. By carrying out systematic and in-depth semantic analyses of a selected set – yòu, bìng, piān, and jìng – the paper illustrates that so-called ‘empty words’ are rich in semantic content, and their meanings can be explicated fully using Natural Semantic Metalanguage, thus making this category and its semantic content accessible to both linguists and learners of Chinese (Mandarin). The analysis also shows that it is important to take into consideration grammatical constructions in establishing polysemy and obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the full range of meanings of the words under discussion.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) bìng, (E) jìng, (E) piān, (E) piānpiān, (E) unfortunately, (E) yòu
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 2, 2019.
Ye, Zhengdao (2004). Chinese categorization of interpersonal relationships and the cultural logic of Chinese social interaction: An indigenous perspective. Intercultural Pragmatics, 1(2), 211-230.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/iprg.2004.1.2.211
Abstract:
This paper explores the conceptual basis of Chinese social organization, and examines how the fundamental Chinese categories of interpersonal relationships affect Chinese ways of speaking and social interaction. Firstly, the paper will analyse the full meanings and interrelationship of two of the most distinctive (complementary) dyads of Chinese social categories, namely, 生人 shēngrén (lit. “uncooked person”, “stranger”) vs. shúrén (lit. “cooked person”, “an old acquaintance”), and zìjĭrén (lit. “oneself person”, “insider”) vs. wàirén (lit. “outer/outsider person”, “outsider”). It will then put forward two master scripts – general principles underlying norms of social interaction – in Chinese culture that are governed by the demarcations of these fundamental categories: nèiwàiyŏubié (“difference between the insider and outsider”) and yóushūzhìqīn (“from far to close”), and illustrate aspects of Chinese language use that are guided by these principles. They include dă zhāohu (“greetings”), the use of tóng X (“fellow X”) and lăo X (“old X”), and a brief discussion of the value of not being polite in Chinese culture.
On the one hand, this paper demonstrates the need for treating interpersonal relationships as a theoretical variable in the study of human interaction and shows the importance of an indigenous perspective; on the other, it relates theoretical discussion of human interaction to practical needs of understanding Chinese interactional style for the purpose of language teaching and political and commercial negotiations. Both goals can be attained by the use of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage and “cultural scripts” theory.
More information:
A more recent chapter that builds on this one is:
Chapter 2 (pp. 40-66) of Ye, Zhengdao (2006), Ways of meaning, ways of life: A semantic approach to Chinese ethnopsychology. PhD thesis, Australian National University.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) shēngrén 生人, (E) shúrén 熟人, (E) wàirén 外人, (E) zìjĭrén 自己人, (S) greeting, (S) insider vs. outsider, (S) reducing social distance between interactants, (S) referring to someone as a fellow X, (S) referring to someone as an old (long-standing) X, (S) working towards a closer relationship
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2004). The Chinese folk model of facial expressions: A linguistic perspective. Culture & Psychology, 10(2), 195-222. DOI: 10.1177/1354067X04040928
This study provides much-anticipated information on how facial expressions are perceived and interpreted by people from a non-Western culture by undertaking a detailed, culture-specific case study of their linguistic representations in the Chinese language. It shows that linguistic representations of facial expressions, which represent a local facial encoding system, provide valuable resources with which researchers can obtain a culture-internal view of the perceptions and conceptions of the face.
A folk model of facial expressions characteristic of the Chinese people is revealed through systematic documentation and linguistic analyses of set phrases for describing facial expressions drawn from Hongloumeng, the most popular and important literary work in the Chinese language. This folk model, which shows a way of seeing and thinking about facial expressions that is not commonly reflected in the English language, and is yet most natural to the Chinese people, questions the methodological assumptions underpinning the current dominant paradigm in research of the ‘universals’ of the human face, and highlights the force of culture and folk theories in scientific research programs. It also demonstrates the usefulness and viability of a linguistic perspective and methodology, in particular the cross-cultural semantic theory of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), for a theory of linguistic representations of facial expressions and emotions across cultures.
Explications are provided for the following phrases: mu deng kou dai (‘eyes wide open with strength, mouth dumbstruck’), tu/shen shetou (‘put out/stretch one’s tongue’), mei fei se wu (‘eyebrows fly, facial expression dances’).
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) méi fēi sè wŭ 眉飞色舞, (E) mù dèng kǒu dāi 目瞪口呆, (E) shēn shétou 伸舌头, (E) tŭ shétou 吐舌头
Published on May 7, 2018. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
黄囗盈 [Wong, Suet Ying] (2006). 新加坡华语会话中的语气词’leh’之硏究 [The ‘leh’ Particle in Singapore Mandarin]. BA(Hons) thesis. Singapore: National University of Singapore.
The abundant usage of particles in conversation is one of the most distinctive features of Singapore linguistic culture. It is typical for the conversations of Singaporeans to be littered with particles, whether they are speaking in English or Mandarin. These particles are loaded with pragmatic meanings. Many studies have been carried out throughout the years to explicate the meanings and functions they carry. However, the usage of such particles in conversation often makes no sense to foreigners.
Moreover, most studies have investigated the usage of particles in the context of Singapore English (Singlish) conversation, but are oblivious to the fact that the phenomenon is equally significant in Singapore Mandarin conversation.
This study looks at the particle leh in Singapore Mandarin conversation. Its aim is to investigate the inherent meaning of leh within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework, as well as the functions that come with the different lexical tones of leh, using data from natural conversation. Lastly, the phonetic changes of leh in Singapore Mandarin are also examined.
Tags: (E) leh
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 18, 2018.
Ye, Zhengdao (2006). Why are there two ‘joy-like’ ‘basic’ emotions in Chinese? Semantic theory and empirical findings. In Paolo Santangelo & Donatella Guida (Eds.), Love, hatred and other passions: Questions and themes on emotions in Chinese civilisation (pp. 59-80). Leiden: Brill.
Among different versions of ‘basic emotions’ based on English, it is uncommon for two emotions from the same cognitive domain of ‘something good happened’ to appear side by side on the same list. The two Chinese emotion terms xi and le, on the other hand, often appear together on lists of basic Chinese emotions. Thus, these ‘twin’ qingganzi have been chosen in the hope of answering a question that few have raised, that is, why are there two basic emotions belonging to this ‘joy-like’ category in Chinese? An in-depth analysis of the meaning of these so-called ‘basic’ emotions (within the Chinese language, and between Chinese and English) not only sheds light on the ‘basic’ Chinese emotional experience, but also has implications for the discussion of whether there are emotions ‘basic’ to people from all cultures, an issue that has been widely debated in studies of emotions.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) le 樂, (E) xi 喜
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 22, 2019.
Ye, Zhengdao (2006). Why the “inscrutable” Chinese face? Emotionality and facial expression in Chinese. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context (pp. 127-169). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110911114.127
Abstract:
This study challenges the long-held, unquestioned stereotype of the ‘inscrutable’ Chinese face (and the Oriental face in general), and probes the various factors – perceptual and cultural – that give rise to such stereotypes, which have almost become a kind of truism in the eyes and minds of others. Simultaneously, a Chinese cultural model of facial expressions is revealed through a detailed description and analysis of idiomatic Chinese phrases that refer to the face, along with an in-depth discussion of the cultural norms and values that influence the facial behaviour of the Chinese people.
Explications are provided for the following phrases: 吐/伸舌头 tŭ/shēn shétou (‘put out/stretch one’s tongue’), 撇嘴 piě zuĭ (‘corner of the mouth falls to one side’), 死眉瞪眼 sĭ méi dèng yăn (‘dead eyebrows and staring eyes’), 目瞪口呆 mù dèng kǒu dāi (‘eyes wide open with strength, mouth dumbstruck’), 咬牙切齿 yăo yá qiè chĭ (‘bite the molars, gnash the teeth’), 瞪着眼 dèng zhe yăn (‘having glaring eyes’), 揚眉吐氣 yáng méi tŭ qì (‘raising eyebrows, utter breath’), 眉飞色舞 méi fēi sè wŭ (‘eyebrows fly, facial expression dances’).
The overarching concerns of the study are theoretical and methodological. The chapter exemplifies the methodological issues confronting the study of the Other and demonstrates the usefulness of the NSM approach in demystifying certain persistent and mistaken beliefs about the Other, ultimately striving towards a better understanding between members from different cultural groups, with implications for studies in intercultural communication.
More information:
A more recent chapter that builds on this one is:
Chapter 3 (pp. 67-116) of Ye, Zhengdao (2006), Ways of meaning, ways of life: A semantic approach to Chinese ethnopsychology. PhD thesis, Australian National University.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) dèng zhe yăn 瞪着眼, (E) hé 和, (E) méi fēi sè wŭ 眉飞色舞, (E) mù dèng kǒu dāi 目瞪口呆, (E) piě zuǐ 撇嘴, (E) rĕn 忍, (E) shēn shétou 伸舌头, (E) sĭ méi dèng yăn 死眉瞪眼, (E) tŭ shétou 吐舌头, (E) yáng méi tŭ qì 揚眉吐氣, (E) yăo yá qiè chĭ 咬牙切齿, (S) inscrutable face, (S) laughter, (S) smiling, (S) wailing
