Browsing results for Minimal …
Published on June 19, 2020. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Sadow, Lauren (2020). Minimal English: Taking NSM ‘out of the lab’. In Lauren Sadow, Bert Peeters, & Kerry Mullan (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond) (pp. 191-212). Singapore: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9979-5_1
Abstract:
Abstract This introductory chapter to the third of three volumes celebrating the career of Griffith University academic Cliff Goddard recaps the fundamentals of the Minimal English offshoot of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach, com- pares the two approaches (Sect. 1.2), then contextualizes and introduces the indi- vidual papers (Sect. 1.3).
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on June 19, 2020. Last updated on August 16, 2021.
Hill, Deborah (2020). From Expensive English to Minimal English. In Lauren Sadow, Bert Peeters, & Kerry Mullan (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond) (pp. 191-212). Singapore: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9979-5_3
Abstract:
Minimal English is a useful tool for improving communication between monolingual English speakers and multilingual Tok Pisin and English speakers in PNG. This chapter reports on the use of Minimal English in an agricultural development project in PNG, arguing that it can help to go ‘under’ the language barriers created by Expensive English, that is, English that is not easily understood by the majority of people in PNG. The chapter demonstrates two ways in which Minimal English can be useful in this multilingual context: (1) semantic explications in Minimal English can distinguish different senses of the same word used by agricultural training facilitators and participants, and (2) words that are important in the local context can be chosen to replace Expensive English words that are less familiar to participants. The chapter argues that Minimal English is a valuable tool in agricultural development training and can be used to improve communication in a multilingual context where English is the language of instruction.
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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) brainstorm first, (E) brainstorm ideas, (E) brainstorm me, (E) case study, (E) story
Published on June 19, 2020. Last updated on November 22, 2020.
Forbes, Alexander (2020). Using Minimal English to model a parental understanding of autism. In Lauren Sadow, Bert Peeters, & Kerry Mullan (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond) (pp. 191-212). Singapore: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9979-5_8
Abstract:
The challenges faced by families of children who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder have been well-studied, as have the impacts on the family of this diagnosis. What a parent prototypically thinks when confronted with the word ‘autism’, however, has not been well-studied. This study reviewed liter- ature and examined multiple texts in order to posit two cognitive models held by the prototypical parent of an autistic child. These cognitive models are expressed in Minimal English, allowing readers to ‘get inside the head’ of a prototypical parent who hears that ‘X has autism’. Two scripts (cognitive models) are provided in this study: one noting perceptions of the autistic person and the other noting perceptions of other parents of autistic children. Script 1 reveals how the prototypical parent of an autistic child perceives an autistic person in relation to other people, including how the autistic person thinks, does things, feels and interacts with other people. It further describes how this prototypical parent assumes others perceive autistic people, and how the prototypical parent may want to do things in a particular way with an autistic person as opposed to non-autistic people. Script 2 reveals how the prototypical parent thinks of the parents of an autistic child, including assumptions of shared experiences, social isolation, and fear for the future. This innovative study breaks ground in the use of Minimal English and offers a new way forward for representing prototypical understandings of concepts.
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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) parental experiences of autism, (S) parents thinking about an autistic child
Published on January 10, 2022. Last updated on January 10, 2022.
Dendenne, Boudjemaa. (2020). Minimal English: The dream of non-Anglocentric international communication. Babel. August 2020, pp 36-41.
Published on June 19, 2020. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Vanhatalo, Ulla & Lindholm, Camilla. (2020). Prevalence of NSM primes in easy-to-read and standard Finnish: Findings from newspaper text corpora. In Lauren Sadow, Bert Peeters, & Kerry Mullan (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond) (pp. 191-212). Singapore: Springer.
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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on November 15, 2019. Last updated on January 10, 2022.
Sadow, Lauren; Peeters, Bert; & Mullan, Kerry (Eds.) (2020). Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond). Singapore: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9979-5
Abstract:
This book is the third in a three-volume set that celebrates the career and achievements of Cliff Goddard, a pioneer of the NSM approach in linguistics. This third volume explores the potential of Minimal English, a recent offshoot of NSM, with special reference to its use in language teaching and intercultural communication.
Table of contents:
1. Minimal English: Taking NSM ‘out of the lab’ (Lauren Sadow)
2. Using NSM and “Minimal” Language for intercultural learning (Susana S. Fernández)
3. From Expensive English to Minimal English (Deborah Hill)
4. “There is no sex in the Soviet Union”: From sex to seks (Anna Wierzbicka & Anna Gladkova)
5. When value words cross cultural borders: English tolerant versus Russian tolerantnyj (Anna Gladkova)
6. The confounding Mandarin colour term ‘qīng’: Green, blue, black or all of the above and more? (Jiashu Tao & Jock Wong)
7. Semantic challenges in understanding Global English: Hypothesis, theory, and proof in Singapore English (Jock Wong)
8. Using Minimal English to model a parental understanding of autism (Alexander Forbes)
9. Principles and prototypes of a cultural dictionary of Australian English for learners (Lauren Sadow)
10. Minimal and inverse definitions: A semi-experimental proposal for compiling a Spanish dictionary with semantic primes and molecules (María Auxiliadora Barrios Rodríguez)
11. Prevalence of NSM primes in easy-to-read and standard Finnish: Findings from newspaper text corpora (Ulla Vanhatalo & Camilla Lindholm)
More information:
Each chapter has its own entry, where additional information is provided.
Review:
Gladkova, Anna. (2020). Review of Sadow, Lauren, Bert Peeters, and Kerry Mullan (eds.). 2020. Studies in Ethnopragmatics, Cultural Semantics, and Intercultural Communication: Vol. 3. Minimal English (and beyond). Singapore: Springer. ISBN 978‐981‐329‐978‐8 Russian Journal of Linguistics, 24(4). pp. 1049—1054
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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Bromhead, Helen. (2021). Disaster linguistics, climate change semantics and public discourse studies: a semantically-enhanced discourse study of 2011 Queensland Floods. Language Sciences 85
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2021.101381
Abstract:
Natural disasters, such as what are known in English as ‘floods’ and ‘wildfires’, are increasingly a topic of concern due to the climate emergency, and their vocabulary and public discourses hold much to be explored through linguistics. This article inaugurates the examination of public discourse about extreme weather events through semantically- enhanced discourse studies, an approach which is based on Natural Semantic Meta- language (NSM) and developed herein. Taking the example of floods in the particular geographic, cultural and historical environment of the Australian state of Queensland in 2011, this transtextual study draws on a public inquiry into the event and English as spoken in Australia, more broadly, along with media reports, and literature from hu- manities and social sciences. Five case studies of vocabulary and discourse patterns are presented to cast cultural and semantic spotlights on the public discourses. It is demon- strated that this approach can provide high resolution analysis of discourse and bring out cultural and historical factors at play in extreme weather language thereby contributing to disaster linguistics, climate change semantics and public discourse studies.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) flood, (E) they just got in and..., (S) flood warnings, (S) the Inquiry
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Wierzbicka, Anna. (2021). Seven Essential Messages for the Time of the Coronavirus. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp 319-345
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_12
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Diget, Ida Stevia. (2021). Minimal English for Health: Reader Accessibility in Public Health Communication About COVID-19 in Australia (with Contrastive Reference to Denmark). In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp 281-318.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_11
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Machin, Elita (2021). Minimal English and Revitalisation Education: Assisting Linguists to Explain Grammar in Simple, Everyday Words. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 83-107
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_4
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) adjective, (E) demonstrative, (E) forms of a suffix, (E) forms of a word, (E) noun, (E) pronoun, (E) root and suffix, (E) verb
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Sadow, Lauren (2021). Standard Translatable English: A Minimal English for Teaching and Learning Invisible Culture in Language Classrooms. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 139-169
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_6
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) jocular abuse, (S) softening disagreement with partial agreement
Published on January 10, 2022. Last updated on January 10, 2022.
Wilson, Bart J. and Farese, Gian Marco (2020). What Did Adam Smith Mean? The Semantics of the Opening Key Principles in the ‘Wealth of Nations’. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3616328 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3616328
Abstract:
We present a semantic and textual analysis of the first two chapters of the Wealth of Nations to elucidate the meaning of several of Adam Smith’s key ideas, including “the necessaries and conveniences of life,” “power of exchanging,” and “the division of labour.” Using the methodology of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, we produce semantic explications of some of Adam Smith’s fundamental principles of economics phrased in simple and cross‐translatable words. The extracts from the original text function as textual evidence and conceptual reference for the explications we present. We demonstrate that: (i) by reducing the principles as conceived by Smith to their core meanings, it is possible to resolve some interpretive problems for general readers of economics, and (ii) by producing explications that are clear, cross‐translatable, and free from terminological ethnocentrism, these principles become accessible and maximally intelligible to twenty‐first century readers who are non‐experts in economics and non‐native speakers of English, too. Ultimately, our project re‐humanizes the study of economics by drilling down to the core of what Adam Smith the moral philosopher meant in his most famous book which founded a discipline.
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Hill, Deborah (2021). Balancing the Local with the Universal: Minimal English and Agricultural Training in the Pacific. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 29-51
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_2
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) Family Farm Team
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Leskelä, Leealaura, & Vanhatalo, Ulla (2021). The Hunt for the Simplest Possible Vocabulary: Minimal Finnish Meets Easy Finnish. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 53-82
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_3
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) syrjintä, (T) Finnish, (T) semantic molecules (Finnish)
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Goddard, Cliff. (2021). In Praise of Minimal Languages. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp 1-26.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_1
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (T) English, (T) semantic molecules, (T) Supplementary words
Published on August 19, 2021. Last updated on August 19, 2021.
Goddard, Cliff. (2021). “Minimal language” and COVID-19: How to talk about complex ideas using simple words. 국어문학 [Society of Korean Language and Literature] 77. (2021): 125-144.
Abstract:
This paper presents an expanded version of a keynote lecture given to the annual conference of the Society of Korean Language and Literature (국어문학), 18 February 2021.
This lecture has four Parts. Part 1 briefly discusses ‘Critical communication issues in the pandemic era’, focussing on the need to use clear, simple language that everyone can understand. Part 2 explains what “minimal languages” are and how they have emerged from empirical research in linguistics. Part 3 presents and discusses examples of how to write about aspects of COVID-19 using minimal language. Part 4 addresses the implications for education and public policy.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Goddard, Cliff; Vanhatalo, Ulla; Hane, Amie A.; & Welch, Martha G. (2021). Adapting the Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) into Minimal English and Seven Other Minimal Languages. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 225-254
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_9
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on August 15, 2021. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Bullock, David (2021). Using Minimal English (Minimal Spanish, Etc.) for Non-circular Learners’ Dictionaries. In Goddard, Cliff (ed.). Minimal Languages in Action. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan pp 111-137
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-64077-4_5
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Published on January 15, 2022. Last updated on January 15, 2022.
Goddard, Cliff, and Wierzbicka, Anna. (2021). ‘HEAD’, ‘EYES’, ‘EARS’: Words and meanings as clues to common human thinking, « ‘TÊTE’, ‘YEUX’, ‘OREILLES’ : mots et sens comme indices de la pensée humaine commune », Cahiers de lexicologie, n° 119, 2021 – 2, Lexique et corps humain , p. 125-150
Written in English
Résumé
Y a-t-il une manière de penser le corps partagée par tous ? Nous proposons des explications sémantiques et conceptuelles basées sur la MSN pour trois mots de parties du corps qui pourraient être considérés comme universaux sémantiques en prenant en compte la polysémie et d’autres particularités. L’analyse montre que la compréhension conceptuelle du corps est plus riche qu’on ne le pense, impliquant des relations entre les parties, la position, la taille, les relations spatiales et la fonction
Abstract
Are there any ways of thinking about the body that are shared by people everywhere? We propose NSM semantic-conceptual explications for three body-part words and argue that they are plausible language universals, once polysemy and other complications are taken into account. The analysis shows that conceptual understanding of the body and its parts is much richer than often recognised, involving whole-part relations, position, size, spatial relationships, and functional affordances.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ears, (E) eyes, (E) face, (E) head, (E) oídos
Published on August 21, 2023. Last updated on August 21, 2023.
Diget, Ida Stevia. (2022) “The Minimal Language Approach: Foundations, Contributions, and Practice.” Scandinavian Studies in Language 13.1: 39-52. https://tidsskrift.dk/sss/article/view/135070
No abstract available
