Browsing results for Main Authors

(1971) English – Comparative

Wierzbicka, Anna (1971). The deep or semantic structure of the comparative. Linguistische Berichte, 16, 39-45.

(1972) Semantic primitives [BOOK]

Wierzbicka, Anna (1972). Semantic primitives. Frankfurt: Athenäum.

No abstract available.

(1973) Emotions

Wierzbicka, Anna (1973). The semantic structure of words for emotions. In Roman Jakobson, C. H. van Schooneveld, & Dean S. Worth (Eds.), Slavic poetics: Essays in honor of Kiril Taranovsky (pp. 499-505). The Hague: Mouton.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110889710.499

(1973) Problems of expression

Wierzbicka, Anna (1973). *Problems of expression: Their place in the semantic theory. In Josette Rey-Debove (Ed.), Recherches sur les systèmes signifiants (pp.146-164). The Hague: Mouton.

(1973) Time, space

Wierzbicka, Anna (1973). *In search of a semantic model of time and space. In Ferenc Kiefer, & Nicolas Ruwet (Eds.), Generative grammar in Europe (pp. 616-628).

(1974) English – Direct, indirect, free indirect discourse

Wierzbicka, Anna (1974). The semantics of direct and indirect discourse. Papers in Linguistics, 7, 267-307. DOI: 10.1080/08351817409370375

The claim that every utterance contains in its deep structure the component “I say to you” has been referred to as the performative hypothesis. I do not accept that every utterance contains the component “I say to you”, but I do adhere to a weaker version, i.e. I believe that every utterance contains in its deep structure the component “I say”. In this paper, I argue that, in light of the semantics of direct, indirect, and so-called free indirect discourse, it looks stronger and more resilient than ever. Direct discourse does underlie indirect discourse (a view questioned by some), but the relation between the two is not as straightforward as it appears: direct discourse is “show” as well as speech, indirect discourse is speech only. Moreover, it is an essential aspect of the meaning of both direct and indirect discourse (as well as of all the transitional forms between the two) that they involve an act of imagination. I suggest that “imagine” is an indispensable element in human thinking as well as in semantic analysis, in other words, it is a semantic primitive (alongside with “say”, “you”, “I” and ten others). An investigation of the semantics of different forms of reported speech seems to corroborate this hypothesis.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(1975) Action sentences

Wierzbicka, Anna (1975). Why “kill” does not mean “cause to die”: The semantics of action sentences. Foundations of Language, 13(4), 491-528. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25000935

No abstract available.

 

(1975) Kinship

Wierzbicka, Anna (1975). *For the umpteenth time – kinship. Language Sciences, 34, 1-4.

 

(1975) Topic, focus, deep structure

Wierzbicka, Anna (1975). Topic, focus, and deep structure. Papers in Linguistics, 8(1/2), 59-87. DOI: 10.1080/08351817509370390

The interpretation of the phenomena associated with the terms “topic” and “focus” which will be proposed here forms a part of a general semantic theory, the main assumption of which is that the semantic representation of an utterance should be its “explication”, i.e. its paraphrase in natural
language which would employ only indefinable expressions. It is claimed that the indefinable expressions be found in any natural language correspond to a universal set of elementary semantic units.

(1976) English

Wierzbicka, Anna (1976). Mind and body. In James McCawley (Ed.), Syntax and semantics: Vol. 7. Notes from the linguistic underground (pp. 129-157). New York: Academic Press.

Abstract:

The underlying idea of this paper, the first draft of which was written five years before the publication of the author’s Semantic primitivesis that every natural language contains a subdomain that can be used as the language of semantic representation for the natural language in question. This subdomain reflects in an isomorphic way the universal and non-arbitrary lingua mentalis – the language of human thought. Sets of indefinable expressions, found in every natural language, correspond to universal ‘semantic primitives’ (1970s terminology for what is now known as semantic primes) that can be thought of as lexical items of the mental language, or ‘atoms of thought’. Proper semantic representation consists in paraphrase into these indefinable expressions drawn from natural language; no artificial symbols, features, markers, abstract elements, labels, or indices are acceptable.

(1976) NSM primes – I, YOU

Wierzbicka, Anna (1976). In defense of YOU and ME. In Wolfgang Girke, & Helmut Jachnow (Eds.), Theoretische Linguistik in Osteuropa: Originalbeiträge und Erstübersetzungen (pp. 1-21). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.

In 1976 terminology, I and YOU are “semantic primitives”; in more recent times, they have been referred to as semantic primes. They cannot be defined away in terms of other primes and they cannot be dispensed with in favour of some arbitrary indices, such as those used in the artificial languages of symbolic logic. Their status as semantic primes can be confirmed on the basis of empirical semantic studies.

(1976) Particles

Wierzbicka, Anna (1976). Particles and linguistic relativity. International Review of Slavic Linguistics, 1(2/3), 327-367.

(1976) Rejoinder to Sullivan

Wierzbicka, Anna (1976). *A rejoinder to Sullivan. Language Sciences, 40, 24-26.

(1977) Mental language and semantic primitives

Wierzbicka, Anna (1977). *Mental language and semantic primitives. Communication and Cognition, 10(3/4), 155-179.

Reviews the history of the concept of a universal mental language that is distinct from particular native languages. 13 fundamental concepts of mental languages are proposed, and examples of the use of these elements are described. The importance of viewing linguistics as a science of the mind is stressed.

(1977) Speech acts (ignorative)

Wierzbicka, Anna (1977). *The ignorative: The semantics of speech acts. International Review of Slavic Linguistics, 2(2/3), 251-313.

(1978) Syntax vs. semantics

Wierzbicka, Anna (1978). *Syntax vs. semantics. Theoretical Linguistics, 5(1), 115-133. DOI: 10.1515/thli.1978.5.1-3.115