Browsing results for Main Authors
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1987). Kinship semantics: Lexical universals as a key to psychological reality. Anthropological Linguistics, 29(2), 131-156.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/30027968
Abstract:
Is it possible to discover the psychologically real meaning of kinship terms? Some maintain that it is not, because of the non-uniqueness of possible semantic analyses. Others argue that any search for psychological reality is threatened by an almost unavoidable ethnocentrism, resulting from the use of ‘ethnographer’s English’, or any language other than that of the informants. The present paper argues that both these problems can be overcome if semantic analysis is carried out in terms of lexical universals.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Chapter 9 (pp. 329-354) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1992), Semantics, culture, and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1987). The semantics of modality. Folia Linguistica, 21(1), 25-43. DOI: 10.1515/flin.1987.21.1.25
No abstract available.
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 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). Emotions across culture: Similarities and differences. American Anthropologist, 90(4), 982-983. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1988.90.4.02a00260
A reply to Konstantin Kolenda’s rejoinder to the 1986 AA paper on human emotions (vol. 88, pp. 584-594). No abstract available.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on October 19, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (1988). Review of Zoltán Kövecses, Metaphors of anger, pride and love: A lexical approach to the structure of concepts. Lingua, 77(1), 90-98. DOI: 10.1016/0024-3841(89)90041-7
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) angry, (E) proud
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). *Boys will be boys: A rejoinder to Bruce Fraser. Journal of Pragmatics, 12, 221-224.
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Ameka, Felix K. (1988). The grammatical coding of the terminal viewpoint of situations in Ewe: A semantic perspective. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 8(2), 185-217. DOI: 10.1080/07268608808599397
This paper investigates the expression of the terminal viewpoint of situations in Ewe (West Africa) by means of aspectual verbal modifiers. The analytic task of the study is to explore the subtle semantic differences encoded by three forms within the semantic space of the “end-point” of situations. It is argued that vɔ signifies that something has happened or has been done completely. When it is used without triplication in certain contexts and with triplication in others, it indicates that a situation is about to be completed. By contrast, sé indicates that a situation has been terminated and is incomplete, while kpɔ symbolizes the existential status of situations. To emphasize the non-manifest status of situations, kpɔ may be triplicated.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) kpɔ, (E) sé, (E) vɔ
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on March 14, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). The semantics and lexicography of ‘natural kinds’. In Karl Hyldgaard-Jensen, & Arne Zettersten (Eds.), Symposium on Lexicography III (pp. 155-182). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer.
Abstract:
The views advanced in the present paper can be summarized as follows:
- The names of animals (and of other ‘natural kinds’) can, and should, be defined.
- In defining such words (as any other words), scientific knowledge should be distinguished from meaning; the place for scientific knowledge is in an encyclopedia, the place for meaning is in a dictionary.
- In defining words for animals, the lexicographer should aim at capturing the ‘folk concept’. This means that the cultural stereotypes are just as important for a good definition as ‘objective’ information concerning the appearance or behaviour of the animal in question.
- Definitions should be couched in simple and generally understandable terms. The defining vocabulary should be very restricted and should be standardized; it should also be maximally culture-free and based, as far as possible, on lexical universals.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) cat, (E) tiger
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). Semantic primitives: A rejoinder to Murray and Button. American Anthropologist, 90, 686-689. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1988.90.3.02a00140
No abstract available.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). Review of Jef Verschueren, What people say they do with words. Language in Society, 17, 108-113. DOI: 10.1017/s004740450001263x
Includes some self-criticism of explications proposed in the earlier days (e.g. Semantic primitives, 1972).
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). Review of Nessa Wolfson and Joan Manes (Eds.), Language of inequality. Language in Society, 17, 99-146.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). The semantics of grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.18
Abstract:
This book presents a radically semantic approach to syntax and morphology. It offers a methodology that makes it possible to demonstrate, on an empirical basis, that syntax is neither autonomous nor arbitrary, but that it follows from semantics. It is shown that every grammatical construction encodes a certain semantic structure, which can be revealed and rigorously stated, so that the meanings encoded in grammar can be compared in a precise and illuminating way, within one language and across language boundaries. The author develops a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primes) and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language. She thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations.
Analysing data from a number of different languages, the author also explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She demonstrates that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.
Table of contents:
I. The semantics of syntax
1. The semantics of English complementation in a cross-linguistic perspective
2. Ethno-syntax and the philosophy of grammar
3. The semantics of causative constructions in a cross-linguistic perspective
4. The Japanese ‘adversative’ passive in a typological context (Are grammatical categories vague or multiply polysemous?)
5. Why can you have a drink when you can’t *have an eat?
6. The semantics of ‘internal dative’ in English
II. The semantics of morphology
7. The meaning of a case: a study of the Polish dative
8. The semantics of case marking
9. What’s in a noun? (Or: How do nouns differ in meaning from adjectives?)
10. Oats and wheat: mass nouns, iconicity, and human categorization
More information:
Chapter 2 builds on: Ethno-syntax and the philosophy of grammar (1979)
Chapter 4 builds on: Are grammatical categories vague or polysemous? The Japanese ‘adversative’ passive in a typological context (1979)
Chapter 5 builds on: Why can you have a drink when you can’t *have an eat? (1982)
Chapter 6 builds on: The semantics of ‘internal dative’ in English (1986)
Chapter 7 builds on: The meaning of a case: A study of the Polish dative (1986)
Chapter 8 builds on: The semantics of case marking (1983)
Chapter 9 builds on: What’s in a noun? (Or: How do nouns differ in meaning from adjectives?) (1986)
Chapter 10 builds on: Oats and wheat: The fallacy of arbitrariness (1985)
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags listed below are in addition to those listed at the end of the entries for the earlier work on which this book builds.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Prototypes in semantics and pragmatics: Explicating attitudinal meanings in terms of prototypes. Linguistics, 27(4), 731-769.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1989.27.4.731
Abstract:
This paper shows how pragmatic meanings encoded in different forms of address (such as titles, ‘polite’ pronouns, and personal names, including their expressive derivates) can be portrayed in a rigorous and illuminating way in NSM, and that such explications allow us to make the similarities and the differences between different pragmatic categories clear and explicit – both within a language and across language and culture boundaries.
It is argued that abstract features such as ‘solidarity’, ‘familiarity’, ‘(in)formality’, ‘distance’, ‘intimacy’, and so on do not provide adequate tools for the description and comparison of pragmatic meanings, because they are not self-explanatory and because they do not have any constant, language-independent value. (For example, the ‘distance’ implied by the English title Mr. is different from that implied by the French title Monsieur; and the ‘familiarity’ implied by Russian forms such as Misa or Vanja is quite different from that implied by English forms such as Mike or John.)
It is shown that many pragmatic meanings have a prototypical semantic structure: they present emotions and attitudes in terms of certain prototypical human relationships, rather than in terms of fully specified mental states and social relations. In particular, social and existential categories, such as children, women, and men, or people one knows well and people one does not know, provide important signposts in the universe of human relations encoded in language. The exact role such prototypes play in different pragmatic categories can be shown in a precise and illuminating way in verbal explications constructed in the proposed metalanguage.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 2 (pp. 49-81) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
More information:
More recent publications building on this one are:
Chapters 7 and 8 (pp. 225-307, 309-325) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1992), Semantics, culture, and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (personal names), (E) Father, (E) given names, (E) madame, (E) mademoiselle, (E) miss, (E) monsieur, (E) Mr, (E) Mrs, (E) Ms, (E) nicknames, (E) Pan, (E) Pani, (E) Professor, (E) red, (E) salty, (E) Sir, (E) uncle, (E) vous, (E) vy, (E) woman, (E) wy
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). *Baudouin de Courtenay and the theory of linguistic relativity. In Janusz Rieger, Mieczysław Szymczak, & Stanisław Urbańczyk (Eds.), Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay a lingwistyka światowa. Wroclaw: Ossolineum. 51-57.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 17, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Soul and mind: Linguistic evidence for ethnopsychology and cultural history. American Anthropologist, 91(1), 41-58.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1989.91.1.02a00030
Abstract:
The Russian word duša ‘soul’ has a much wider scope of use than the English word soul and embodies a different folk psychology (fully congruent with what has been described as the Russian “national character”). The English word mind stands for an Anglo-Saxon folk category that has been reified as an objective category of thought. The decline and fall of the concept soul and the ascendancy of mind in English are linked with changes in the cultural history and in the prevailing Western ethnophilosophy.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 14 (pp. 522-544) 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 1 (pp. 31-63) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1992), Semantics, culture, and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) duša душа, (E) mind, (E) soul
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (1989). Issues in Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Quaderni di semantica, 10(1), 51-64.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2020.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Semantic primitives and lexical universals. Quaderni di semantica, 10(1), 103-121.
Abstract:
Language is a tool for expressing meanings. The meanings we express constitute complex and culture-specific configurations of a restricted number of elementary concepts – conceptual building blocks. To be able to decode meanings with precision, to state them, to compare them across language boundaries, to study their growing complexity in child language, and so on, we must know what these elementary units are. To discover them, we must proceed by trial and error. A revealing semantic description is impossible without a well justified set of semantic prim(itiv)es. But a set of well justified prim(itiv)es cannot be found by mere theorizing. It can only be found on the basis of large scale lexicographic research.
More information:
This paper is best read in conjunction with the companion paper published by the same author in the same journal (Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Semantic primitives – The expanding set. Quaderni di semantica, 10(2), 309-332).
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) good, (E) hungry, (E) mother, (E) part
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2020.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Semantic primitives – The expanding set. Quaderni di semantica, 10(2), 309-332.
Abstract:
The set of hypothetical semantic prim(itiv)es proposed in earlier works is shown to be in need of considerable expansion. This outcome is due primarily to the work of Cliff Goddard. The present paper surveys a set of 28 elements, including – in addition to survivals from earlier sets – several elements proposed by Goddard, and some by Andrzej Bogusławski.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) angry, (E) become, (E) go, (E) soul, (E) To'!, (E) tu, (E) who
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1989). Russian personal names: The semantics of expressive derivation. Folia Slavica, 9, 314-354.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (1989). The goals and limits of semantic representation. Quaderni di semantica, 10(2), 297-308.
