Goddard, Cliff (2006). Natural Semantic Metalanguage. In Keith Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics. Second edition: Vol. 8 (pp. 544-551). Oxford: Elsevier.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2006) NSM semantics and Cognitive Linguistics
Goddard, Cliff (2006). Verbal explication and the place of NSM semantics in Cognitive Linguistics. In June Luchjenbroers (Ed.), Cognitive Linguistics investigations: Across languages, fields and philosophical boundaries (pp. 189-218). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/hcp.15.14god
This paper argues that verbal explication has an indispensable role to play in semantic/conceptual representation. The diagrams used within Cognitive Linguistics are not semiotically self-contained and cannot be interpreted without overt or covert verbal support. Many also depend on culture-specific iconography. When verbal representation is employed in mainstream Cognitive Linguistics, as in work on prototypes, cultural models and conceptual metaphor, this is typically done in an under-theorized fashion without adequate attention to the complexity and culture-specificity of the representation. Abstract culture-laden vocabulary also demands a rich propositional style of representation, as shown with contrastive examples from Malay, Japanese and English. As the only stream of Cognitive Linguistics with a well-theorized and empirically grounded approach to verbal explication, the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) framework has much to offer cognitive linguistics at large.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2006) Preface to Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). Preface. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 1-6). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.05wie
No abstract available.
(2006) Review (Catherine E. Travis, Discourse markers in Colombian Spanish)
Wong, Jock (2006). Book review of Catherine E. Travis, Discourse markers in Colombian Spanish. Journal of Pragmatics, 38, 469-472. DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2005.08.003
(2006) Romance languages – NSM primes, NSM syntax
Peeters, Bert (2006). Scope and contents of this volume. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 7-12). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
(2006) Romance languages – Semantic primes and universal grammar [BOOK]
Peeters, Bert (Ed.) (2006). Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81
Abstract:
This volume is part of a research program that started with the publication, in 1972, of Wierzbicka’s groundbreaking work on Semantic Primitives. The first within the program to focus on a number of typologically similar languages, it proposes French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian versions of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Repetition is avoided through teamwork: a number of authors working on the languages under examination have had equal input in a set of five chapters dealing with distinct parts of the metalanguage. Some of the findings presented here invite us to have a fresh look at what has already been achieved, and to amend some of the working hypotheses of the NSM approach accordingly. The volume also contains six case studies (detailed in the table of contents below).
Table of contents:
Preface (Anna Wierzbicka)
Scope and contents of this volume (Bert Peeters)
The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach: An overview with reference to the most important Romance languages (Cliff Goddard and Bert Peeters)
Part 1: Romance versions of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage
Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Substantives; determines; quantifiers (Bert Peeters, Marie-Odile Junker, Catherine E. Travis, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-Santos and Brigid Maher)
Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Evaluators and descriptors; mental predicates (Bert Peeters, Marie-Odile Junker, Catherine E. Travis, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-Santos and Brigid Maher)
Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Speech; actions, events and movement; existence and possession; life and death (Bert Peeters, Marie-Odile Junker, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-Santos and Brigid Maher)
Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Time and space (Bert Peeters, Marie-Odile Junker, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-Santos and Brigid Maher)
Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Logical concepts; intensifier and augmentor; taxonomy and partonomy; similarity (Bert Peeters, Marie-Odile Junker, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-Santos and Brigid Maher)
Part 2: The Natural Semantic Metalanguage applied
Sfogarsi: A semantic analysis of an Italian speech routine and its underlying cultural values (Brigid Maher)
Portuguese saudade and other emotions of absence and longing (Patrick Farrell)
The development of a key word: The deictic field of Spanish crisis (Deborah DuBartell)
The French connector certes : A Natural Semantic Metalanguage interpretation (Monique A. Burston)
Francamente, el rojo te sienta fatal : Semantics and pragmatics of some expressions of sincerity in present-day Spanish (Mónica Aznárez Mauleón and Ramón González Ruiz)
Towards a description of Spanish and Italian diminutives within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage framework (Angela Bartens and Niclas Sandström)
More information:
Each chapter has its own entry, where additional information is provided.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2006) Russian – Praise: MOLODEC, UMNICA
Gladkova, Anna (2006). Russian praise words molodec and umnica: A semantic and cultural analysis. In Keith Allan (Ed.), Selected papers from the 2005 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society (18 pp.). http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2005.html. PDF (open access)
This paper investigates the semantics of two very commonly used Russian language-specific praise words, molodec and umnica. The meanings of these nouns combine the evaluation of an action of another person with the evaluation of the person him- or herself. For this reason, they can be regarded as words with a culture-specific meaning. The study applies the methodology of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. The meanings of molodec and umnica are related to several important cultural themes of Russian culture.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2006) Semantic primes
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). Semantic primitives. In Keith Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics. Second edition: Vol. 11 (pp. 134-137). Oxford: Elsevier.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2006) Shape in grammar
Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). Shape in grammar revisited. Studies in Language, 30(1), 115-177. DOI: 10.1075/sl.30.1.05wie
No abstract available.
(2006) The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach
Goddard, Cliff, & Peeters, Bert (2006). The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach: An overview with reference to the most important Romance languages. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 13-38). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.07god
Section 1.2 of this paper maps the growth of the NSM lexicon over the years. Sections 1.3 and 1.4 provide an account of the main analytical concepts (allolexy, portmanteaus and [non-compositional] polysemy) that, over the years, have emerged from the NSM enterprise, and notably from the pursuit of universality. Sections 1.5 and 1.6 report on developments in NSM syntax, including the idea that primes may have a number of “valency options”.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2006) West-African languages – Gratitude
Ameka, Felix K. (2006). “When I die, don’t cry”: The ethnopragmatics of “gratitude” in West African languages. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context (pp. 231-266). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110911114.231
This paper discusses the ethnopragmatics of speech formulas for “gratitude” in West African languages such as Ewe, Akan, and Buli, showing how they presuppose deeply culturally embedded values and beliefs about death and the rituals related to it.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2007-06) Russian, English – Feelings: empathy
Gladkova, Anna (2006-07). New and traditional emotion terms in Russian: Semantics and culture. Transcultural Studies, 2-3, 123-137. DOI: 10.1163/23751606-00201007
This article focuses on borrowings as a reflection of the influence of other cultures and languages on Russian. New words that enter Russian from other languages signify changes in way of life, thought and behaviour. The most revealing in this respect are emotion and value terms because their meanings are reflective of cultural beliefs, assumptions and understandings. Therefore, the approach implemented in this article is that language, and its lexicon in particular, can be considered a gateway into a people’s culture. Moreover, changes in a language are indicative of cultural changes.
The focus of the paper is on a term from the domain of emotions – емпатииа ėmpatiia (empathy). This word has been used in translated psychology literature for the last two to three decades, but it is gradually entering other spheres of Russian discourse. Against the claim that the content of the term емпатииа ėmpatiia is fully conveyed by the Russian word сопереживание sopereživanie, it is argued that English empathy and Russian сопереживание soperezhivanie are words with significantly different meanings that are largely related to the cultural assumptions of the societies they belong to. For this purpose, the author carries out a detailed comparative semantic analysis of the English word empathy and its closest Russian equivalent сопереживание sopereživanie.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2007) Chinese (Mandarin) – ‘Taste’
Ye, Zhengdao (2007). Taste as a gateway to Chinese cognition. In Andrea C. Schalley, & Drew Khlentzos (Eds.), Mental states: Vol. 2. Language and cognitive structure (pp. 109-132). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.93.08ye
In the Western philosophical tradition, taste is regarded as a lower-level sense. This may explain why few linguistic studies have explored its role in human cognition. Yet, to fully understand the Chinese conceptual world, one has to understand the meanings of its rich ‘taste’-based vocabulary. This study seeks to bring this important aspect of Chinese sensory and cognitive experience to the attention of researchers of human cognition. It proposes a Chinese model of cognitive states in relation to taste, and discusses the cultural bases for the peculiarly Chinese “embodied” way of experiencing. It also discusses the physiological basis that seems to underpin the general principles of the cognitive system observed in Chinese and in some Indo-European languages.
Chinese words explicated in NSM have approximate counterparts in English nouns such as ‘taste’, ‘feeling’; in adjectives such as ‘flavourful’, ‘absorbed [in doing something]’; and in verbal phrases such as ‘enjoy in retrospect’, ‘recollect the pleasant flavour of’, ‘understand through thinking about experience’, ‘taste so as to appreciate’ and hence ‘appreciate’, ‘have good taste’.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2007) Chinese (Mandarin) – Mental states
Ye, Zhengdao (2007). ‘Memorisation’, learning and cultural cognition: The notion of bèi (‘auditory memorisation’) in the written Chinese tradition. In Mengistu Amberber (Ed.), The language of memory in a crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 139-180). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/hcp.21.09ye
This study examines a cultural practice of ‘remembering’ – 背 bèi (‘auditory memorization’) that plays a prominent role in the learning experience of Chinese people. It first conducts a detailed semantic analysis of 背 bèi, using Natural Semantic Metalanguage to reveal a culture-internal view of and belief about memory formation and learning, and contrasts it with Chinese 记 jì (‘try to remember/write down’) and with memorize and learn by heart in English. It then explores linguistic, cognitive and cultural reasons that could explain such a practice. Finally, it addresses the question of why 背 bèi, which exhibits some key features of knowledge transmission in oral cultures, is so prized by the Chinese people, possessors of a long written history.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2007) English – Bodies, body parts
Wierzbicka, Anna (2007). Bodies and their parts: An NSM approach to semantic typology. Language Sciences, 29, 14-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2006.07.002
This paper puts forward, on the basis of evidence and analysis, seven general principles of conceptualization of the body, reflected in the semantic organization of the ‘body and body-parts’ field
across languages. It supplies a large set of semantic explications of English body-part terms, and it shows how ethno-anatomies can be described and compared through the use of the natural semantic
metalanguage (NSM). It also returns to the controversial issue of the body-centric character of language
and cognition. One of its goals is to vindicate well-established semantic universals such as body and part. More generally, the paper argues that semantic typology requires a semantic methodology and it shows what a theoretically anchored semantic typology can look like.
(2007) English – Mental states
Goddard, Cliff (2007). A “lexicographic portrait” of forgetting. In Mengistu Amberber (Ed.), The language of memory in a crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 119-137). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.21.08god
Abstract:
This study aims to provide a detailed NSM analysis of the English verb forget. It examines its three main clausal complement types (to-complement, e.g. I forgot to lock the door; that-complement, e.g. I forgot that the door was locked; and wh-complement, e.g. I forgot where I put the key), NP-complements, and several more specialized constructions.
The picture that emerges is of a set of interrelated lexicogrammatical constructions, each with a specific meaning, forming a polysemic lexical “family”. Although the study concentrates on English alone, the semantic differences between the various constructions it has identified make it rather clear that one cannot expect a similar range of meanings to map across to apparently similar lexemes in other languages.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2007) English – MORAL SENSE
Wierzbicka, Anna (2007). ‘Moral sense’. Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology, 1(3), 66-85. PDF (open access)
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 7 (pp. 313-327) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). Experience, evidence, and sense: The hidden cultural legacy of English. New York: Oxford University Press.
The concept of ‘moral sense’ plays an important role in books on philosophy, psychology and popular science written by authors who write in English and who take the English language for granted. Yet there is no expression like moral sense in other languages, not even European ones like Spanish or German, let alone non-European ones, like Chinese. Nor was there any moral sense in English before the phrase was invented by so-called “British moralists” – Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, and Hume. This paper traces the origins of the modern Anglo/English concept of ‘moral sense’ in the influence of Locke’s empiricist philosophy on the eighteenth-century ‘British moralists’, and through them, on the language of British natural scientists, and especially Darwin’s.
Thus, the paper argues that when contemporary scientists of the English language like Dawkins, Hauser, and others write about ‘moral sense’ and present it as a panhuman characteristic evolved through biological evolution, they are looking at “human nature” and “human morality” through the prism of the English language. Seeing the phrase moral sense, and the discourse based on it, in a cross-linguistic and historical perspective can help us to stretch our imagination as to different possible conceptions of “morality” and to go beyond the culture-bound vision of what Dawkins calls “moral sense” and Hauser, a “universal sense of right and wrong”.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2007) English – REASONABLE MAN, REASONABLE DOUBT
Wierzbicka, Anna (2007). ‘Reasonable man’ and ‘reasonable doubt’: The English language, Anglo culture and Anglo-American law. International Journal of Speech Language and the Law, 10(1), 1-22.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2007) English (Australia) – Perceptions of the week-end
Peeters, Bert (2007). Australian perceptions of the weekend: Evidence from collocations and elsewhere. In Paul Skandera (Ed.), Phraseology and culture in English (pp. 79-107). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110197860.79
(2007) English, French, Polish, Korean – Physical qualities
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2007). NSM analyses of the semantics of physical qualities: sweet, hot, hard, heavy, rough, sharp in cross-linguistic perspective. Studies in Language, 31(4), 765-800.
DOI: 10.1075/sl.31.4.03god
Abstract:
All languages have words such as English hot and cold, hard and soft, rough and smooth, and heavy and light, which attribute qualities to things. This paper maps out how such descriptors can be analysed in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework, in terms of like and other semantic primes configured into a particular “semantic schema”: essentially, touching something with a part of the body, feeling something in that part, knowing something about that thing because of it, and thinking about that thing in a certain way because of it. Far from representing objective properties of things “as such”, it emerges that physical quality concepts refer to embodied human experiences and embodied human sensations. Comparisons with French, Polish and Korean show that the semantics of such words may differ significantly from language to language.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 3 (pp. 55-79) of:
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The term schema, used in the 2007 version of the text, refers to what has since been called a semantic template.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
