Browsing results for The NSM toolkit
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 3, 2018.
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.
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 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 June 17, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1994). Emotion, language, and cultural scripts. In Shinobu Kitayama, & Hazel Rose Markus (Eds.), Emotion and culture: Empirical studies of mutual influence (pp. 133-196). Washington: American Psychological Association.
Abstract:
This chapter explores the relationship between emotion and culture, and between emotion and cognition. It examines the concept of emotion, and argues that it is culture-specific and rooted in the semantics of the English language, as are also the names of specific emotions, such as sadness, joy, anger, or fear. It shows that both the concept of emotion and the language-specific names of particular emotions can be explicated and elucidated in universal semantic primes (NSM).
NSM provides a necessary counterbalance to the uncritical use of English words as conceptual tools in the psychology, philosophy, and sociology of emotions. It offers a suitable basis for description and comparison of not only emotions and emotion concepts but also of cultural attitudes to emotions. Different cultures do indeed encourage different attitudes toward emotions, and these different attitudes are reflected in both the lexicon and the grammar of the languages associated with these cultures.
The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the language-specific character of emotion concepts and grammatical categories; the need for lexical universals as conceptual and descriptive tools; the doctrine of basic emotions and the issue of the discreteness of emotions; and the relationships among emotions, sensations, and feelings. The second part, on cultural scripts (with special reference to the Anglo and Polish cultures), explores attitudes toward emotions characteristic of different cultures (in particular, the Anglo and Polish cultures) and shows how these attitudes can be expressed in the form of cultural scripts formulated by means of universal semantic primes.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 5 (pp. 163-189) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (endearments), (E) emotion, (E) enjoy, (E) Gefühl, (E) Gefühle, (E) sensation, (E) sentiment, (E) sentimento, (E) sentimiento, (S) bad things happen to people, (S) compliments, (S) consideration, (S) emotions, (S) feelings, (S) good things can happen to people, (S) I don't think this, (S) I say what I think, (S) I think this, (S) saying what one thinks, (S) self-analysis, (S) self-control, (S) spontaneity, (S) tact, (S) verbal and non-verbal communication, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on May 22, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1994). ‘Cultural scripts’: A new approach to the study of cross-cultural communication. In Martin Pütz (Ed.), Language contact and language conflict (pp. 69-87). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/z.71.04wei [sic]
According to Edward Hall, writing in 1983, one element lacking in the cross-cultural field was the existence of adequate models that enable us to gain more insight into the processes going on inside people while they are thinking and communicating. It is the purpose of the present paper to develop and validate a model of the kind that Hall is calling for. The model developed here, which can be called the “cultural script model”, offers a framework within which both the differences in the ways of communicating and the underlying differences in the ways of thinking can be fruitfully and rigorously explored. It is shown how cultural scripts can be stated and how they can be justified; this is done with particular reference to Anglo, Japanese, and Polish cultural norms.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) [tag questions], (E) ne ね, (S) affective common ground, (S) agreement, (S) disagreement, (S) frankness, (S) free speech, (S) hurtful truth, (S) I don't think the same, (S) I don't think this, (S) I think this, (S) I want to say something bad about you, (S) impulsiveness, (S) it is bad to think this, (S) positive thinking, (S) saying exactly what one thinks, (S) self-expression, (S) sincerity, (S) spontaneity, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 3, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1994). “Cultural scripts”: A semantic approach to cultural analysis and cross-cultural communication. Pragmatics and Language Learning [Monograph Series], 5, 1-24. PDF (open access)
This paper argues that the ways of speaking characteristic of a given speech community cannot be satisfactorily described (let alone explained) in purely behavioral terms. They constitute a behavioral manifestation of a tacit system of “cultural rules” or “cultural scripts”. To understand a society’s ways of speaking, we have to identify and articulate its implicit “cultural scripts”. Furthermore, it is argued that to be able to do this without ethnocentric bias we need a universal, language-independent perspective; this can be attained if the”rules” in question are stated in terms of lexical universals, that is, universal human concepts lexicalized in all languages of the world.
To illustrate these general propositions, the author shows how cultural scripts can be stated and how they can be justified. This is done with particular reference to Japanese, (White) Anglo-American, and Black American cultural norms.
The cultural scripts advanced in this paper are formulated in a highly constrained Natural Semantic Metalanguage, based on a small set of lexical universals (or near-universals) and a small set of universal (or near-universal) syntactic patterns. It is argued that the use of this metalanguage allows us to portray and compare culture-specific attitudes, assumptions, and norms from a neutral, culture-independent point of view and to do so in terms of simple formulae that are intuitively self-explanatory while at the same time being rigorous and empirically verifiable.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) enryo 遠慮, (S) advocate stance, (S) agreement, (S) apologies, (S) attitudes to emotion, (S) criticism of others, (S) freedom of expression, (S) imposition of opinions, (S) likes and dislikes, (S) non-advocate stance, (S) open-mindedness, (S) opinions of others, (S) resilience, (S) self-assertive behaviour, (S) speech, (S) spokesman stance, (S) toughness, (S) verbal restraint, (T) English
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 3, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). *Contrastive sociolinguistics and the theory of “cultural scripts”: Chinese vs English. In Marlis Hellinger, & Ulrich Ammon (Eds.), Contrastive sociolinguistics (pp. 313-344). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110811551.313
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Japanese cultural scripts: Cultural psychology and “cultural grammar”. Ethos, 24(3), 527-555.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.1996.24.3.02a00060
Abstract:
To describe a language we need to describe, first of all, its vocabulary and its grammar. The task of describing a culture can be approached in many different ways; one useful and illuminating way of doing so is through linguistics, by describing a society’s ‘key words’ (embodying key cultural concepts) and its ‘cultural grammar’, that is, a set of subconscious rules that shape a people’s ways of thinking, feeling, speaking, and interacting. This paper focuses more specifically on Japanese cultural rules.
Translations:
Into Russian:
Chapter 14 (pp. 653-681) of Вежбицкая, Анна (1999), Семантические универсалии и описание языков [Semantic universals and the description of languages]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки русской культуры [Languages of Russian Culture].
Chapter 3 (pp. 123-158) of Вежбицкая, Анна (2001), Сопоставление культур через посредство лексики и прагматики [Comparison of cultures through vocabulary and pragmatics]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки Славянской Культуры [Languages of Slavic Culture].
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) apologies, (S) bad feelings, (S) compliments, (S) denying responsibility, (S) everyone thinks the same, (S) everyone wants the same, (S) feel good, (S) gifts and favours, (S) group identification, (S) I do it because I want to do it, (S) I don't think the same, (S) I don't think this, (S) I don't want the same, (S) I don't want this, (S) I think the same, (S) I think this, (S) I think very good things about myself, (S) I think you think the same, (S) I want this, (S) other people's bad feelings, (S) other people's wants, (S) personal wants, (S) saying no, (S) self-effacement, (S) self-enhancement, (S) success due to luck, (S) undeservedness
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (1996). Cross-linguistic research on metaphor. Language & Communication, 16(2), 145-151. DOI: 10.1016/0271-5309(96)00003-1
This paper takes issue with the assertion that there is no culture-neutral boundary between what is literal and what is metaphorical, and with the undercurrent of extreme relativism shown in a recent paper published in the same journal. It furthermore makes the point that, to study (and even to identify) the metaphoric systems of other languages, a coherent theory of semantic description is required. It is argued that, despite the enormous semantic differences between languages, there is solid evidence that they share a small set of ‘universal meanings’, which can provide a non-arbitrary and non-ethnocentric vocabulary for cross-linguistic semantics.
The claims contained in this paper are underpinned by discussion of the semantic primes THERE IS and FEEL in Yankunytjatjara.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 10, 2018.
Onishi, Masayuki (1997). The grammar of mental predicates in Japanese. Language Sciences, 19(3), 219-233. DOI: 10.1016/S0388-0001(96)00061-7
The current NSM theory regards six mental predicates – THINK, KNOW, WANT, SEE, HEAR and FEEL – as indefinable semantic universals. This paper examines the syntax of their Japanese exponents (omou, sit-te iru, -tai/hosii, miru, kiku and kimoti). Special attention is paid to the syntax and semantics of major complementation types (S no, S koto and S to) found with the majority of these predicates. It is shown that each primitive predicate has a specific set of syntactic frames in which the primitive meaning is expressed, and that the extended meanings that may be expressed in other syntactic environments are specifiable by reductive paraphrase explications.
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 August 15, 2021.
Hill, Deborah, & Goddard, Cliff (1997). Spatial terms, polysemy and possession in Longgu (Solomon Islands). Language Sciences, 19(3), 263-275. DOI: 10.1016/S0388-0001(96)00064-2
Lexical exponents of the proposed semantic primitives ABOVE, UNDER, INSIDE and ON THE SIDE are identified in Longgu (Solomon Islands). It is argued that the first three of these exponents are polysemous between a semantically primitive relational sense and a secondary topological sense. A number of issues relating to the morphosyntax of the exponents are discussed, including their status as ‘local nouns’, the significance of the fact that their basic syntactic frame employs the same system of person-number agreement suffixes as the inalienable possession construction, and the difference between this basic frame and a rarer ‘associative construction’. There is also a brief discussion of the status of the hypothetical primitive ON in Longgu.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on July 3, 2017. Last updated on February 17, 2019.
Goddard, Cliff (1998). Universal semantic primes of space – A lost cause? LAUD Working Papers, Series A, General and Theoretical Papers, 434. PDF (open access)
Reissued in 2007 with divergent page numbering.
In recent years, a new wave of research on language and space has uncovered surprising variation in the linguistic coding of spatial relationships. It is now known that some languages, e.g. Tzeltal, exhibit remarkable lexico-grammatical elaboration of spatial relationships; that in many languages of Africa and Oceania apparently simple spatial relationships such as INSIDE and ABOVE are encoded by means of noun-like words, or by a combination of a preposition and a postposition, each of which may be independently meaningful. It has also been shown that children’s early acquisition of spatial terminology differs markedly between typologically different languages.
In almost all this recent work, the emphasis has been on cross-linguistic variation in spatial semantics. The question then arises whether there any semantic universals of space that are still viable in the light of the attested variation in formal realization and lexico-grammatical elaboration. In particular, what of the semantic primes of space proposed within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework, namely: WHERE/PLACE, HERE, ABOVE, BELOW, INSIDE, ON (ONE) SIDE, NEAR, FAR?
After an introduction, the body of the paper has three sections. The first argues that three languages that exhibit markedly different spatial characteristics to English (Tzeltal, Longgu, Ewe) nevertheless still contain exponents of the NSM spatial primes. The second takes a fresh look at some of the new results on cross-linguistic variation in the acquisition of spatial semantics, with particular reference to Korean. The third surveys the grammaticalization of spatial meaning in a typological perspective, concluding that the items on the NSM inventory of spatial primes are all found as recurrent dimensions of grammaticalized meaning in a range of languages.
The overall conclusion is that NSM’s spatial primes are both viable and necessary for the description of spatial meanings within and across languages.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) move away, (E) move towards, (E) on
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 3, 2018.
Hamid, Hazidi bin Haji Abdul (1999). Communicating meaning across cultures – A framework: analysis and evaluation of the work of Anna Wierzbicka, the critics and cultural scripts for Bahasa Melayu. Master’s thesis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 29, 2018.
Hasada, Rie (2000). An exploratory study of expression of emotions in Japanese: Towards a semantic interpretation. PhD thesis, Australian National University. PDF (open access)
The present study explores the emotional world of Japanese people. Using the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory, this thesis attempts to explicate the conceptual organization of aspects of Modern Standard Japanese, with a special focus on the lexicon. This thesis also aims to explicate the cultural norms that are related to the emotion words/expressions with the use of culture-independent, universal Natural Semantic Metalanguage. A great amount of data is taken from various sources: TV or radio broadcasting, actual conversation, published literature both in Japanese and English, film scripts, dialogues in magazines, newspaper/magazine articles, comic books, advertisements, letters, dictionaries, and popular songs.
The work is organized in the following way. Chapter 1 is the introduction. Chapter 2 consists of a review of the literature on emotions and includes philosophical, anthropological, and psychological approaches. Chapter 3 demonstrates the importance of linguistic study for the research on emotions, and suggests the Natural Semantic Metalanguage as the most appropriate method for achieving the main goals of this thesis. Chapter 4 discusses the grammatical features of emotion expression sentences. Chapter 5 deals with those body parts terms which are related to emotions in Japanese. Chapters 6 to 11 explicate the meanings of various Japanese emotion words and expressions. Chapter 12 focuses on communication of nonverbal emotion in Japanese culture. Chapter 13 examines characteristic Japanese speakers’ attitudes towards emotions. Chapter 14 is the conclusion.
Wherever possible, the thesis seeks to probe into culturally-based aspects of the conceptual structure of emotion words/expressions, by drawing on a variety of anthropological, psychological, and sociological studies of Japanese society.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (non-verbal communication), (E) ai 愛, (E) aishi 愛し, (E) aisuru 愛する, (E) akogareru 憧れる, (E) atama ni kuru 頭にき, (E) atama o kaku, (E) aware, (E) haji 恥, (E) hara ga tatsu 腹が立っ, (E) hara o tateru 腹を立てる, (E) hara 腹, (E) hazukashii 恥ずかしい, (E) horeru 惚れる, (E) ijirashii いじらしい, (E) itooshii いとおしい, (E) itoshii 愛しい, (E) jihi, (E) joo, (E) kanashii 悲しい, (E) kawaisoo かわいそう, (E) kenage 健気, (E) ki 気, (E) kinodoku 気の毒, (E) koi 恋, (E) koishii 恋しい, (E) koisuru 恋する, (E) kokoro 心, (E) kowai 怖い, (E) kuyashii 悔しい, (E) mune 胸, (E) mushi 虫, (E) nasake 情け, (E) nasakenai 情けない, (E) natsukashii 懐かしい, (E) omoiyari 思いやり, (E) osoreru 恐れる, (E) osoroshii 恐ろしい, (E) sabishii 寂しい, (E) setsunai 切ない, (E) shiawase 幸せ, (E) suki 好き, (E) tanoshii 楽しい, (E) tere-warai 照れ笑い, (E) terekusai 照れくさい, (E) tsurai 辛い, (E) uchooten 有頂天, (E) ureshii 嬉しい, (E) wabishii わびしい, (E) zoq, (S) affection, (S) emotions
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 22, 2019.
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2000). Semantic primes of ‘time’ in Korean. Proceedings of the 34th Annual Linguistics Conference, Seoul National University, Seoul.
Rating:
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 June 22, 2019.
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2000). Semantic primes of ‘time’ in Korean. Proceedings of Modern Grammar Conference, Taeku.
Rating:
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 June 22, 2019.
Yoon, Kyung-Joo (2001). The semantic prime THIS in Korean. In Cynthia Allen (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2001 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2001.html.
Open access
Abstract:
Korean is known to have three different demonstratives, i, ku, and ce, which are used differently according to context. Despite numerous studies on the meaning and function of these three words, it is difficult to find a clear semantic analysis of them in the literature. The main goal is, therefore, to identify the exponent of the prime THIS in Korean and, on this basis, to explore the possibility of explicating the meanings of the remaining demonstratives. Close examination of i, ku, and ce reveals that the exponent of the prime THIS in Korean is i. The remaining demonstratives, ku and ce, are found to be decomposable via the prime i and other semantic primes. The word ku is found to be polysemous, accordingly two different explications are proposed alongside one for the word ce. Two different texts are presented to test the validity of the analysis.
Rating:
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.
Priestley, Carol (2002). Insides and emotion in Koromu. Pragmatics & Cognition, 10(1/2), 243-270. DOI: 10.1075/pc.10.12.11pri
This paper describes several emotion expressions in Koromu, a language of Papua New Guinea. As in other languages, emotions can be expressed by reference to body events and processes. Bodily images are used for common and pertinent emotion expressions in Koromu; the alternative grammatical constructions in which some of these expressions occur enable speakers to express varying emotions while still indicating that there are shared semantic components between the expressions. In addition, as the emotion expressions are examined and their meanings explicated, a number of universal concepts and components of meaning can be observed. A study of these language-specific expressions therefore contributes to a cross-linguistic understanding of the relationship between emotion and the body.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) oru mei hekeni wera, (E) oru mere, (E) oru mere mae, (E) oru mereri, (E) oru meresera
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 16, 2019.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Russian cultural scripts: The theory of cultural scripts and its applications. Ethos, 30(4), 401-432.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2002.30.4.401
Abstract:
Cultural scripts reflect shared cultural understandings. They are representations of cultural norms that are widely held in a given society and that are reflected in language (in culture-specific key words, phrases, conversational routines, and so on). A key methodological principle in the theory underlying this article (a study in ethnopragmatics avant la lettre) is that the proposed cultural scripts must be formulated in NSM. The author argues that cultural scripts formulated in universal human concepts allow us to understand cultural norms and attitudes from within, that is, from the perspective of cultural insiders, while at the same time making them intelligible to outsiders as well.
In this article, the theory of cultural scripts is applied to Russian culture and, in particular, the Russian cultural scripts concerning speech, truth, and interpersonal communication (“obščenie”).
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) govorit' nepravdu, (E) iskrenno, (E) istina, (E) sincerely, (E) truth, (S) bodily contact, (S) commands, (S) depth of feeling, (S) disagreement, (S) emphasis on verbal interaction, (S) freedom of expression, (S) physical closeness, (S) praise, (S) questions, (S) sincerity, (S) truth and untruth
Published on May 10, 2017. Last updated on January 26, 2020.
Amberber, Mengistu (2003). The grammatical encoding of “thinking” in Amharic. Cognitive Linguistics, 14(2/3), 195-219.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.2003.00
Abstract:
The lexical exponents of the conceptual primitives THINK and KNOW in Amharic are assəbə and awwək’ə respectively. The article investigates issues of polysemy involving the two mental predicates and explores their lexical elaboration and morphosyntactic realization. The article also briefly examines constructions based on verbs equivalent to the English term understand.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) understand
