Browsing results for Main Authors

(2018) Polish, Portuguese – HOME

Bułat Silva, Zuzanna (2018). The concept of HOME in Polish and Portuguese — distant cultures, similar concepts. Studia Linguistica [Wrocław], 37, 7-23.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.19195/0137-1169.37.1 / Open access

Abstract:

The aim of the present paper is to investigate the concept of HOME in Polish and Portuguese language and culture. The methodology that suits this purpose best and allows to compare words from different languages without an ethnocentric bias is the NSM approach. On the basis of lexical and textual data, the meaning of Polish dom is explicated and compared with its Portuguese equivalent, casa. Despite differences in the way public and private space are treated in Polish and Portuguese cultures, the notions of HOME in these two languages have many things in common: both dom and casa are multidimensional concepts referring not only to ‘people living together in a place’ but they are also related to emotions such as love, tenderness and homesickness, and to feelings of security and warmth.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2018) Ten lectures on NSM

Goddard, Cliff (2018). Ten lectures on Natural Semantic Metalanguage: Exploring language, thought and culture using simple, translatable words. Leiden: Brill. DOI: 10.1163/9789004357723

These lively lectures introduce the theory, practice, and application of a versatile, rigorous, and non-Anglocentic approach to cross-linguistic semantics.

Table of contents:

  1. Preliminary material
  2. From Leibniz to Wierzbicka: The history and philosophy of NSM
  3. Semantic primes and their grammar
  4. Explicating emotion concepts across languages and cultures
  5. Wonderful, terrific, fabulous: English evaluational adjectives
  6. Semantic molecules and semantic complexity
  7. Words as carriers of cultural meaning
  8. English verb semantics: Verbs of doing and saying
  9. English verb alternations and constructions
  10. Applications of NSM: Minimal English, cultural scripts and language teaching
  11. Retrospect: NSM compared with other approaches to semantic analysis

Chapter 3 discusses selected exponents of primes in Farsi (Persian). Chapter 4 provides an explication of a North-Spanish homesickness word (morriña). Chapter 7 provides an explication of Chinese 孝 xiào ‘filial piety’.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2018) Warlpiri – PART(S)

Wierzbicka, Anna, & Goddard, Cliff (2018). Talking about our bodies and their parts in Warlpiri. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 38(1), 31-62. DOI: 10.1080/07268602.2018.1393862

Linguists generally assume that all languages have some words for parts of the human body such as ‘head’, ‘hands’, ‘mouth’, and ‘legs’, but it is not so widely agreed that speakers of all languages can speak – or even consciously think – of the designata of such words as ‘parts of the body’. NSM researchers have long maintained that PART(S) is a universal semantic prime, i.e., an indefinable meaning expressible by words or phrases in all human languages. However, it has been claimed that the Australian language Warlpiri, for instance, lacks any suitable lexical equivalent of ‘part(s)’. Using data from the Warlpiri English Encyclopedic Dictionary, this study contests this claim, arguing that the relevant sense of ‘part’ exists in Warlpiri as one sense of the polysemous closed-class item yangka (whose main meaning can be stated, roughly, as ‘that one, you know the one’). The study also considers broader issues to do with semantic theory, polysemy and translation.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Arabic, Hebrew – NSM primes

Habib, Sandy (2019). NSM substantives: the Arabic and Hebrew exponents of six simple, universal concepts. International Journal of Arabic Linguistics, 5(2), 188-207.

Open access

Abstract:

Of all the substantives, only six are regarded by the NSM approach as being simple and universal. These six substantives are realized in English by means of the words I, you, someone, something, people, and body. While proving their simplicity is evidenced by the fact that they cannot be defined further using simpler terms, proving their universality requires identifying them in as many languages as possible. This paper aims to do so in three Semitic languages, which are Jish Arabic, Standard Arabic, and Hebrew, and demonstrates that these six concepts indeed have exponents in these three languages.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Chinese – Semantics of grammar

Ye, Zhengdao (2019). The emergence of expressible agency and irony in today’s China: A semantic explanation of the new bèi-construction. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 39(1), 57-78.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2019.1542933

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the new passive bèi-construction in Chinese, dating approximately from 2009. By 2012, this new usage had entered the most authoritative Chinese dictionary. While previous studies have mostly focused on the pragmatic effect of this structure, this study aims to trace the motivational forces behind this language innovation by examining the linguistic, cultural and social factors contributing to its emergence. In particular, it examines the specific features of the bèi-construction, using NSM to spell out its meaning and identify the semantic links between its variant forms, especially with respect to degrees of transitivity. It is then demonstrated that it is not accidental that the conventional bèi-construction has been ingeniously and humorously recruited and modified to express agency and disagreement with a higher authority, or even dissent in an authoritarian society, and that a deeper understanding of the bèi phenomenon not only affords insight into the cultural ethos developing in today’s China, but also offers an excellent example of (a) non-autonomous syntax and (b) mechanisms of language change in the age of internet and social media, when language innovation often takes place consciously
among internet users, transcends geographical barriers and is easier to trace than before.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Chinese (Cantonese, Hong Kong) – Ethnopragmatics

Wong, Jock, & Liu, Congyi (2019). Two ways of saying ‘thank you’ in Hong Kong Cantonese: m-goi vs. do-ze. In Alessandro Capone, Marco Carapezza, & Franco Lo Piparo (Eds.), Further advances in pragmatics and philosophy: Vol. 2. Theories and applications (pp. 435-447). Cham: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00973-1_24

Abstract:

While in English there is only one main way of thanking someone, using the phrase thank you or one of its variants (e.g. thanks, ta), in Hong Kong Cantonese there are two phrases, 唔該 m4-goi1 and 多謝 do1-ze6, both of which could be translated in English as thank you. Whereas in some instances it is clear which one of the two Hong Kong Cantonese phrases one should use, in other situations both could be used. This suggests that the two Hong Kong Cantonese phrases have different meanings and that learners of Hong Kong Cantonese could be confused. However, the meanings of and differences in meaning between the two phrases have hitherto not been articulated with any degree of clarity, making it rather difficult for learners of Hong Kong Cantonese to understand precisely how they are used in native Hong Kong Cantonese culture. The objective of this paper is thus to articulate the meaning of each of these two phrases using a maximally clear and minimally ethnocentric metalanguage (NSM).

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Chinese (Cantonese) – Discourse particles

Wakefield, John C.; Lee, Hung Yuk (2019). The grammaticalization of indirect reports: The Cantonese discourse particle wo5. In Alessandro Capone, Manuel García-Carpintero, & Alessandra Falzone (Eds.), Indirect reports and pragmatics in the world languages (pp. 333-344). Cham: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78771-8_16

Abstract:

This paper proposes a definition for the Cantonese sentence-final discourse particle wo5, which marks the proposition contained within a clause as an indirect report that does not belong to the speaker. The methodology for defining wo5 is based on NSM theory and draws on a general model for the investigation of discourse markers, the goal of which is to come up with a formula that would make sense in all the contexts in which the discourse particle can occur, and that could also explain why in some contexts it cannot be used at all. The proposed definition we propose is discussed in light of what other authors have said about wo5, and is tested against a number of examples within which wo5 can and cannot appear.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Danish – Colours and vision

Levisen, Carsten (2019). “Brightness” in color linguistics: New light from Danish visual semantics. In Ida Raffaelli, Daniela Katunar, & Barbara Kerovec (Eds.), Lexicalization patterns in color naming: A cross-linguistic perspective (pp. 83-108). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.78.05lev

Abstract:

This chapter scrutinizes the discourse of “brightness” in colour linguistics. Drawing on insights from visual semantics and linguistic anthropology, and challenging the universal applicability of “brightness”, the study provides new evidence from Danish. The chapter provides a new analysis of the lexicogrammar and linguaculture of lys ‘light, brightness’ in relation to color. The NSM approach is used to provide detailed semantic explications for three grammatical devices based on lys (lys, lys-, and lyse-), along with an analysis of three Danish lys + colour compounds lyserød ‘light red’, lysegrøn ‘light green’, and lyseblå ‘light blue’. Based on the evidence from Danish and other studies in visual semantics, the chapter calls for a renewed focus on the non-chromatic aspects of visual meanings, and for a metalinguistic reform in colour linguistics.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Danish — Humour

Levisen, Carsten. (2019). The Cultural Semantics of Untranslatables: Linguistic Worldview and the Danish Language of Laughter. In A. Glaz (Ed.), Languages – Cultures – Worldviews: Focus on Translation (pp. 319-346). Palgrave Macmillan. Palgrave studies studies in translating and interpreting

Abstract

Through an in-depth case study of humour concepts in Danish, the chapter develops a cultural-semantic analysis of the untranslatables of laughter, and provides a new account of the worldview engendered by such words. The Danish language of laughter is particularly rich in synaesthetic humour metaphor; the chapter sets out to explicate key categories within this class: sort humor ‘black, murky humour,’ plat humor ‘flat, plain humour,’ fed humor ‘fat humour,’ and tør humor ‘dry humour.’ The analysis is undertaken within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework of analysis and takes an explicitly translational approach to language, culture, and worldview. Providing a roadmap for how to navigate in the landscape of translatables and untranslables, the chapter contributes to both translational semantics and linguistic worldview studies.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Danish — Humour, interjections

Levisen, Carsten. (2019). Laughter interjections: Contributions to a lexical anthropology of humour (with special reference to Danish). Scandinavian Studies in Language, 10(1), 110-130.

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7146/sss.v10i1.114674

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is threefold. Firstly, it seeks to fill a gap in the literature on interjections by suggesting that ‘laughter interjections’ (words such English haha or hehe) make up an important type of interjections that has so far not been accounted for in cross-linguistic work on interjections. Secondly, it argues that laughter interjections are thick with cultural meaning, and that they can play an important role for an “emic turn” in humour studies. Third, it develops a case study on “Danish funniness” with a point of departure in the Danish paradigm of laughter interjections. The paper explores humourous discourse from the perspective of these culturally specific expressive words, and provides high definition analysis of two Danish laughter interjections tøhø and hæhæ, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage technique of explication. The general framework of the study is Lexical Anthropology, an approach to meaning analysis that combines insights from lexical semantics and linguistic anthropology.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Emotions

Ye, Zhengdao. (2019).The semantics of emotion: From theory to empirical analysis. Pritzker, Sonya.E., Fenigsen, Janina., & Wilce, James.M. (Eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Language and Emotion (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780367855093

Abstract

This chapter provides a systematic account of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to emotion and “affective science,” especially how it addresses three methodological questions: (a) how emotional meaning can be explicated in terms that are psychologically real to people; (b) how culture-specific meanings can be convened authentically to another linguacultural community, so that important nuances in the conceptualizations of emotions can be appreciated by cultural outsiders; and (c) how commonalities and differences in human experiences can be identified and articulated? The chapter draws upon a wide selection of NSM work across many languages, including Bislama, English, Mbula (PNG), and Chinese.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) English – Cultural values

Wong, Jock (2019). Respecting other people’s boundaries: A quintessentially Anglo cultural value. In Alessandro Capone, Marco Carapezza, & Franco Lo Piparo (Eds.), Further advances in pragmatics and philosophy: Vol. 2. Theories and applications (pp. 449-467). Cham: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00973-1_25

Abstract:

A challenge that culturally non-Anglo speakers of English face is that of understanding what respecting boundaries, an Anglo cultural value, is about. This cultural value is unfamiliar to many cultures, especially so-called ‘group-orientation’ or ‘collectivist’ cultures. This means that even if culturally non-Anglo speakers of English have a good mastery of English grammar, they may not be able to connect with culturally Anglo people if they do not respect boundaries. Understanding what respecting people’s boundaries is about can also help cultural outsiders understand related Anglo values such as personal rights and personal autonomy.

This paper explores what respecting boundaries means to culturally Anglo speakers of English and what its cultural implications are. Meanings and cultural values are represented by semantic explications and cultural scripts. For the purposes of writing semantic explications and cultural scripts, Minimal English is used. The paper has implications for intercultural communication, cultural adaptation and language pedagogy.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) English – Ethnopsychology and personhood

Peeters, Bert (2019). The English ethnopsychological personhood construct mind “deconstructed” in universally intelligible words. Critical studies in languages and literature, 1(1), 61-77.

Open access

Abstract:

The dominance of English as the international lingua franca has led to rampant Anglocentrism and the reification of concepts that are in fact culture-specific. One such concept, often thought to refer to a universal human ‘attribute’, is the ethnopsychological personhood construct mind. This paper argues that the best weapon to combat Anglocentrism is the English language itself — or rather, a metalanguage such as NSM based on what English shares with all other languages of the world. The paper shows how far NSM practitioners have come in their efforts to demonstrate that the word mind is a cultural construct that has nothing universal about it and that cannot be used to define the ethnopsychological personhood constructs of other languages. Instead, it is just as culture-specific as any other ethnopsychological personhood construct and does not deserve any special status.

More information:

This paper builds on:

Peeters, Bert (2019). Delving into heart- and soul-like constructs: Describing EPCs in NSM. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 1-29). New York: Routledge.

The DOIs quoted on the journal’s web site and in the PDF are incorrect [20 June 2019].

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) English – Evaluational adjectives

Goddard, Cliff, Maite Taboada, & Radoslava Trnavac (In press). The semantics of evaluational adjectives: Perspectives from Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Appraisal. Functions of Language, 26(3), 308-342.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.00029.god

Abstract:

The authors apply the NSM approach to the lexical-semantic analysis of English evaluational adjectives and compare the results with the picture developed in the Appraisal Framework (Martin & White 2005). The analysis is corpus-assisted, with examples mainly drawn from film and book reviews, and supported by collocational and statistical information from WordBanks Online. We propose NSM explications for 15 evaluational adjectives, arguing that they fall into five groups, each of which corresponds to a distinct semantic template. The groups can be sketched as follows: “First-person thought-plus-affect”, e.g. wonderful; “Experiential”, e.g. entertaining; “Experiential with bodily reaction”, e.g. gripping; “Lasting impact”, e.g. memorable; “Cognitive evaluation”, e.g. complex, excellent. These groupings and semantic templates are compared with the classifications in the Appraisal Framework’s system of Appreciation. In addition, we are particularly interested in sentiment analysis, the automatic identification of evaluation and subjectivity in text. We discuss the relevance of the two frameworks for sentiment analysis and other language technology applications.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) English — Emotions, love

Wierzbicka, Anna. (2019). The biblical roots of English ‘love’: The concept of ‘love’ in a historical and cross-linguistic perspective. International Journal of Language and Culture 6(2) 225-254. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.18006.wie

Abstract

Seen from a broad cross-linguistic perspective, the English verb (to) love is quite unusual because it has very broad scope: it can apply to a mother’s love, a husband’s love, a sister’s love, etc. without any restrictions whatsoever; and the same applies to its counterparts in many other European languages. Trying to locate the origins of this phenomenon, I have looked to the Bible. Within the Bible, I have found both continuity and innovation. In the Hebrew Bible, the verb ’āhēb, rendered in the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint with the verb agapao, implies a “preferential love”, e.g. it is used for a favourite wife of a favourite son. In the New Testament, the concept of ‘love’ loses the “preferential” components and thus becomes applicable across the board: between anybody and anybody else.
The paper argues that the very broad meaning of verbs like love in English, aimer in French, lieben in German, etc. reflects a shared conceptual heritage of many European languages, with its roots in the New Testament; and it shows that by taking a semantic perspective on these historical developments, and exploring them through the rigorous framework of NSM and Minimal English, we can arrive at clear and verifiable hypotheses about a theme which is of great general interest, regardless of one’s own religious and philosophical views and commitments.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) English, Goemai – Direct and indirect speech

Goddard, Cliff, & Anna Wierzbicka (2019). Direct and indirect speech revisited: Semantic universals and semantic diversity. In Alessandro Capone, Manuel García-Carpintero, & Alessandra Falzone (Eds.), Indirect reports and pragmatics in the world languages (pp. 173-199). Cham: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78771-8_9

Abstract:

The new interpretations of ‘direct’ and ‘indirect’ speech presented in this chapter are framed using simple and cross-translatable words and phrases, i.e. using a language that is transparent both to linguists and to the speakers whose ways of speaking the analyst is trying to understand.

In relation to ‘direct speech’, the authors present linguistic generalizations about two forms of quoted speech, which, they claim, are very likely to be found in all languages of the world. The semantics of logophoric constructions in West African languages are examined next, with particular reference to Goemai, which has been claimed to have no direct speech. It is argued instead that logophoric constructions in Goemai are forms of direct speech on any reasonable, semantically-based definition and that, until proof of the contrary, direct speech is a language universal.

The final part of the paper is about ‘indirect speech’, focusing on the English say that… construction.

An overall theme of the paper is that specialized and hybrid forms of reported speech, including logophoric speech, reflect cultural concerns and practices.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) English, Italian, Japanese – Emotions

Farese, Gian Marco; Asano-Cavanagh, Yuko (2018/19). Analysing nostalgia in cross-linguistic perspective. Philology, 4, 213-241.

DOI: https://doi.org/103726/PHIL042019.6

Abstract:

This paper presents a contrastive semantic analysis of the English nostalgia, the Italian nostalgia and the Japanese 懐かしい natsukashii adopting the methodology of the NSM approach. It is argued that: (i) emotion terms of different languages reflect different and culture-specific conceptualizations of human feelings; (ii) the Anglo conceptualization of feelings is not valid for all cultures; and (iii) linguistic analysis is central to the analysis of human feelings. The paper challenges the claim made by some psychologists that the English word nostalgia expresses a feeling that is pancultural and criticizes the use of English emotion terms as the basis for discussions on human feelings.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Ethnopsychology and personhood

Peeters, Bert (2019). Delving into heart- and soul-like constructs: Describing EPCs in NSM. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (pp. 1-29). New York: Routledge.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315180670-1

Abstract:

This introduction to a collection of four thematically related studies addresses the perennial problem of Anglocentrism and reification in scholarly discourse, where English continues to set the tone and its constructs continue to be used as yardsticks in the description of cultural diversity, thereby elevating the English language to a status it does not deserve, no matter how important it may be on a world scale. Use of NSM is put forward as a way out of the problem. In addition, to illustrate the idea that “every explication is an experiment”, the author reconstructs the various stages that explications of the English ethnopsychological personhood construct mind have gone through since the first attempt was made in the late 1980s.

More information:

A more recent publication building on this one is:

Peeters, Bert (2019). The English ethnopsychological personhood construct mind “deconstructed” in universally intelligible words. Critical studies in languages and literature, 1(1), 61-77.

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Finnish – Emotions

Vanhatalo, Ulla; Tissari, Heli; Lilja, Taru; Vehkalahti, Kimmo; & Siiroinen, Mari. (2019). “Something bad can now happen to me here”: Meaning components of emotion words. SKY Journal of Linguistics 32 (2019), 145–179

 

Abstract:

This paper reports on how people connect explications of emotion words to the terms they are meant to explicate. We focused on the Finnish counterparts to the following words: anger, disgust, fear, joy, love, sadness, and surprise. Our primary findings show that our participants, who were native speakers of Finnish, made the expected matches between Natural Semantic Metalanguage-based explications and the corresponding emotion words. However, there were significant differences between the emotion words, with the match rate ranging from 93% for ‘love’ to 51% for ‘sadness’. This research also contributes to our understanding of the meaning components of emotion concepts, and it may help people to talk about emotions in depth without using the conventional vocabulary for emotions.

 


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2019) Finnish — Emotions

Tissari, Heli, Vanhatalo, Ulla. & Siiroinen, Mari. (2019). From corpus-assisted to corpus-driven NSM explications: The case of Finnish viha (anger, hate). In Lege artis. Language yesterday, today, tomorrow. The Journal of University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. Trnava: University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, 2019, IV (1), June 2019, p. 290-334. ISSN 2453-8035

 

Abstract:

NSM researchers have not used corpus data very systematically thus far. One could talk about corpus-assisted rather than corpus-based or corpus-driven research. This article suggests a way to not only base research on corpus data, but also to let it guide us in defining words in terms of NSM. It presents a new method, which we have developed. Our data come from the Suomi24 Sentences Corpus and concerns the Finnish emotion words viha (‘anger, hate’), vihata (‘to hate’) and vihainen (‘angry’).


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners