Browsing results for The NSM toolkit
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 17, 2021.
Fernández, Susana S. (2016). Possible contributions of ethnopragmatics to second language learning and teaching. In Sten Vikner, Henrik Jørgensen & Elly van Gelderen (Eds.), Let us have articles betwixt us: Papers in historical and comparative linguistics in honour of Johanna L. Wood (pp. 185-206). Aarhus: Aarhus University.
Open access
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible pedagogical application of the theory of Ethnopragmatics in the field of second and foreign language learning and teaching with the purpose of promoting intercultural communicative competence.
Ethnopragmatics can be seen as part of the broad paradigm of Cognitive Linguistics. Unlike other theories of pragmatics, its focus is on examining cultural aspects of language and communication from an insider’s perspective, without relying on universal concepts such as politeness, directness/indirectness, etc. that can be foreign to many cultures. Its main methodological tool is NSM, used in so-called explications but also in cultural scripts that reflect widely shared ways of thinking. The latter can be reformulated into pedagogical scripts that can be used in second language learning and teaching.
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is:
Fernández, Susana S. (2016). Etnopragmatik og interkulturel competence: Didaktiske nytænkninger i fremmedsprogsundervisningen [Ethnopragmatics and intercultural competence: Didactic innovations in foreign language teaching]. Ny forskning i grammatik, 23, 38-54.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) højskole
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on August 17, 2021.
Fernández, Susana S. (2016). Etnopragmatik og interkulturel competence: Didaktiske nytænkninger i fremmedsprogsundervisningen [Ethnopragmatics and intercultural competence: Didactic innovations in foreign language teaching]. Ny forskning i grammatik, 23, 38-54.
Open access
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible pedagogical application of ethnopragmatics in the field of language learning and teaching with the purpose of promoting intercultural communicative competence. Ethnopragmatics examines cultural aspects of language and communication from an insider’s perspective. Its pedagogical potential lies in its consistent attempts to unravel the values, beliefs and norms that underpin the verbal behaviours of a cultural group and to do so without cultural bias.
More information:
Written in Danish. An earlier English version of this paper was published as:
Fernández, Susana S. (2016). Possible contributions of ethnopragmatics to second language learning and teaching. In Sten Vikner, Henrik Jørgensen, & Elly van Gelderen (Eds.), Let us have articles betwixt us: Papers in historical and comparative linguistics in honour of Johanna L. Wood (pp. 185-206). Aarhus: Aarhus University.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (E) højskole, (E) hygge, (S) hygge, (S) personal autonomy, (S) requests
Published on December 16, 2017. Last updated on September 27, 2018.
Mateo Mendaza, Raquel (2016). Old English semantic primes: Events, movement, contact. PhD thesis, Universidad de la Rioja. PDF (open access)
This PhD thesis by publications consists of the author’s three published papers on Old English (2013 on TOUCH, 2016 on HAPPEN, 2016 on MOVE), preceded by an introduction and a summary of results, and followed by conclusions and perspectives for future research. It pursues the research line into the semantic primes of Old English started by Martín Arista and Martín de la Rosa. It aims at defining the criteria for exponent identification in a historical language and at applying to Old English a set of criteria that make reference to morphological, textual, semantic and syntactic aspects and that are ultimately based on markedness theory. The NSM category selected for analysis is Actions, events, movement, contact, which had not been studied in Old English in previous work.
On the descriptive side, the Old English exponents for the semantic primes TOUCH, HAPPEN and MOVE are identified. These exponents correspond, respectively, to the verbs (ge)hrīnan, (ge)limpan and (ge)styrian. The decision to select these rather than any other verbs is based on the fact that, except for some particular cases, they are the candidates that best satisfy the different morphological, textual, semantic and syntactic requirements imposed by the nature of each semantic prime.
Along with the descriptive results, significant advances are made on the methodological side because the three studies in the Old English exponents for these semantic primes contribute to the whole NSM paradigm by designing and implementing a method for indirect searching for prime exponents in historical languages. The indirect methodology proposed for the historical languages is in contrast with the direct method preferred in natural languages, which is based on linguistic analysis carried out by native speakers of the language and, moreover, on the availability of potentially infinite data.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Published on July 26, 2018. Last updated on May 5, 2019.
Tokula, Lillian & Pütz, Martin (2016). Emotion concepts in Igala language (Nigeria): A view from NSM theory. In Gratien G. Atindogbé & Evelyn Fogwe Chibaka (Eds.), Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on African linguistics: Vol. 2 (pp. 948-976). Bamenda (Cameroon): Langaa.
Abstract:
This study highlights the various characteristics of emotion concepts in Igala and shows the areas of overlap among the members of different categories of emotion concepts. The absence of a lexical exponent for FEEL in Igala is shown not to have any relevance to the expression and comprehension of emotive language in Igala, as shown by the side by side explication done simultaneously in both languages for happiness-, love- and fear-like emotions. The authors submit that, contrary to the claims made by the leading developers of the theory, FEEL is not necessary to the semantic explication of emotion concepts universally. They therefore recommend a review of the status of FEEL. In the face of evidence to the contrary from languages such as Igala and Sidaama, its present status as a semantic prime points to (unintended and paradoxical) ethnocentric bias on the part of the developers of the theory – a phenomenon, among others, that motivated the development of the theory in the first place. A re-evaluation of the status of the concept FEEL as a semantic molecule necessary for the semantic explication of emotion concepts in English and some other languages but not as a semantic prime found in ALL languages of the world may be more fitting to the data.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) àyìlò, (E) ɛ̀dɔ̀ ɛ̀bɔ́, (E) òkpò, (E) ufɛ́dɔ̀, (E) ùyɔ̀, (T) Igala
Published on August 22, 2018. Last updated on September 5, 2018.
Tully, Alex (2016). Applications of NSM and Minimal English in second language teaching. Master’s thesis, Australian National University.
This thesis proposes a new approach to second language teaching to adults aiming at developing their “strategic competence”, the ability to use paraphrase to communicate meaning when confronted with gaps in their vocabulary. The importance of this skill has been widely acknowledged, yet in comparison to other aspects of linguistic competence, very little has been published on practical ways to develop it. To do so, this thesis draws the link between the theoretical framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) and its expanded version Minimal English, and practical applications involving the use of paraphrase by both learners and teachers. It argues for explicit teaching of the vocabulary of Minimal English (and its equivalents based on other languages), including contrastive analysis of the “mini-grammar” encapsulated in each NSM prime, and illustrates how this can be done.
By doing this, this new approach wholeheartedly rejects methods such as Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), which are based on the view that a second language (L2) is “acquired” via an unconscious, implicit process similar to the learning of a first language (L1). The empirical studies underpinning CLT have only been replicated when typological similarities between L1 and L2 enable positive transfer of grammatical features. In contrast, the proposed methodology aims to be applicable to all learners, especially those facing large typological L1-L2 typological differences. In light of the large and growing numbers of speakers of Asian languages learning English, this thesis makes an innovative contribution to current language teaching by moving away from methodologies such as CLT, which have not proven themselves useful or popular outside Europe. Rather, this thesis outlines a theoretical framework that avoids assumptions about positive transfer, and is thus more suitable for the global nature of language teaching in the 21st century.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (causative constructions), (E) afraid, (E) chair, (E) crime, (E) promise, (E) unhappy
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 5, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2016). ‘It’s mine!’ Re-thinking the conceptual semantics of “possession” through NSM. Language Sciences, 56, 93-104. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2016.03.002
This study has two main parts. It begins with a conceptual and semantic analysis in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework of what linguists term “true possession” or “ownership”. The requirements of the NSM framework force the analysis to be conducted using very simple expressions that are available not only in English, but (ideally) in all languages. The main proposal is that true possession is anchored in a semantic prime with an egocentric perspective that occurs in a predicative construction, i.e. (IS) MINE. It is argued that expressions like This is mine are semantically irreducible and (very likely) universally expressible across the diversity of the world’s languages.
In the second part of the study, three semantically and grammatically complex “possession verbs” are examined: steal, give, and own. Intricate (but coherent) explications for the English versions of these words are proposed, using (IS) MINE and a range of other semantic components. Though no claim is made that all languages possess precisely these meanings, this study hopes to help pave the way for a lexical semantic typology of “ownership-related” concepts in the languages of the world.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 29, 2018.
Goddard, Cliff (2016). Semantic molecules and their role in NSM lexical definitions. Cahiers de lexicologie, 109, 13-34. DOI: 10.15122/isbn.978-2-406-06861-7.p.0013
The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach is well known for its use of reductive paraphrase as a mode of lexical definition (conceptual analysis) and for its claim to have discovered an inventory of irreducible lexical meanings — semantic primes — that are apparently universal in the world’s languages. It is less well known that many NSM definitions rely crucially on semantic molecules, i.e. certain non-primitive meanings that function alongside semantic primes as building blocks in the composition of yet more complex lexical meanings.
This paper considers aspects of the NSM theory of semantic molecules, including: first, the notion of molecules within molecules (e.g. ‘mouth → ‘water’ → ‘drink’); second, the distribution of semantic molecules in the world’s languages: some are universal or near-universal, e.g. ‘hands,’ ‘children,’ ‘water’, others are widespread but not universal, e.g. ‘money’, and still others are specific to particular languages or linguistic/cultural areas; third, the emerging notions of “small molecules” and lexicosyntactic molecules. The paper includes explications for about twenty-five semantic molecules that are posited to be universal or near-universal.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) at night, (E) children, (E) creature, (E) during the day, (E) ears, (E) eyes, (E) face, (E) hands, (E) hard, (E) head, (E) heavy, (E) know that, (E) long, (E) men, (E) mouth, (E) on, (E) round, (E) sky, (E) sun, (E) thin, (E) water, (E) women, (T) English, (T) French, (T) semantic molecules
Published on June 13, 2017. Last updated on September 13, 2018.
Levisen, Carsten & Aragón, Karime (2017). Lexicalization patterns in core vocabulary: A cross-creole study of semantic molecules. In Peter Bakker, Finn Borchsenius, Carsten Levisen & Eeva Sippola (Eds.), Creole studies – Phylogenetic approaches (pp. 315-344). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/z.211.14lev. PDF (open access)
The study of semantic domains is important for creolistics, given the complex label-meaning configuration in creoles vis-à-vis the European lexifiers. Due to lexical semantic creativity in the creolization process as well as subsequent developments and contacts with lexifiers, substrates, and other contact varieties, each domain seems to have its own history, its own configuration.
Comparing creole words in four different semantic domains, the authors contrast the labels and lexicalizations of social concepts, body part terms, environmental concepts and logical concepts. They focus on the following meanings:
‘children’, ‘women’, ‘men’, ‘mother’, ‘father’, ‘wife’, ‘husband’ (social molecules)
‘head’, ‘eyes’, ‘ears’, ‘mouth’, ‘nose’, ‘hands’, ‘legs’ (body part molecules)
‘sun’, ‘sky’, ‘ground, ‘water’, ‘fire’, ‘day’, ‘night’ (environmental molecules)
‘not’, ‘maybe’, ‘can’, ‘because’, ‘if’, ‘very’ and ‘more’ (semantic primes: logical concepts)
Phylogenetic networks are used to compare and contrast lexicalization patterns between domains.
It is shown that the core semantic-conceptual constructs investigated in the study tend to cluster with their lexifiers, but that there are important differences across domains as well: the label-meaning configurations of the social domain stand out as the most diverse, and the environmental domain as the most homogenous.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on June 26, 2017. Last updated on May 23, 2019.
Lantin, Robert G. (2017). Introducing prime reduction as a method for writing cultural scripts and defining abstract concepts. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 4(1), 9-15.
Abstract:
This article proposes a method for writing cultural scripts and defining abstract concepts called ‘prime reduction’. NSM theory is used as a starting point. The theory is sketched out, along with the key notions of ‘semantic primes’ and ‘cultural scripts’. Several examples are then provided to illustrate NSM. With the examples in place, the method of ‘prime reduction’ is introduced and applied to several abstract concepts and cultural values, with particular reference to Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and American English. The claim is that prime reduction helps not only with the task of writing cultural scripts, but can also be used to define abstract concepts in the broader context of EFL learning.
Rating:
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tags: (S) individualism, (S) privacy, (S) serving others, (T) Chinese
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on June 18, 2019.
Levisen, Carsten (2017). Personhood constructs in language and thought: New evidence from Danish. In Zhengdao Ye (Ed.), The semantics of nouns (pp. 120-146). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198736721.003.0005
Abstract:
This chapter analyses personhood constructs, a particular type of noun whose meanings conceptualize invisible parts of a person. The meaning of personhood constructs originates in cultural discourses, and they can vary considerably across linguistic communities. They are reflective of society’s dominant ethnopsychological ideas, and they co-develop with historical changes in discourse. Drawing on insights from previous studies, a semantic template is developed to account for the differences but also the similarities in personhood constructs. With a detailed case study on Danish personhood constructs, the chapter tests the template on the translation-resistant Danish concept of sind, along with two other Danish nouns: sjæl ‘soul’ and ånd ‘spirit’. The case study provides a model for how personhood constructs can be empirically explored with tools from linguistic semantics.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) ånd, (E) duša душа, (E) maum 몸, (E) mind, (E) sind, (E) sjæl, (S) immortality, (S) spirituality
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 6, 2018.
Jordan, Paul (2017). How to start, carry on and end conversations: Scripts for social situations for people on the autism spectrum. London: Jessica Kingsley.
Do you find it hard to make friends? Do you struggle to know what to say to start a conversation?
In this book, Paul Jordan, who is on the autism spectrum, explains how to make sense of everyday social situations you might encounter at school, university or in other group settings. He reveals how, with the use of just 65 simple words, it is possible to create ‘scripts for thinking’ that break conversations down into small chunks and help you to think of what to say, whether you are speaking to a fellow student, starting a conversation with a new friend, calling out bullies or answering a teacher’s question.
These small words will be a big help for all teenagers and young people with ASD.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) being mindful (or staying in the present), (E) bullying, (S) change conversation topic, (S) consideration for others, (S) coping with the effects of thinking differently from how others think, (S) dealing with frustration, (S) dealing with the unexpected, (S) doing something nice with someone you don't know well, (S) doing things for recreation, (S) end a conversation, (S) escaping from real life, (S) figuring out how animals behave, (S) getting priorities right, (S) identifying relevant information, (S) join in a conversation, (S) keep a conversation going, (S) learning about things my own way, (S) meeting up with someone one hasn't seen for some time, (S) pretending to be another "me", (S) reporting a bully, (S) responding to a bully, (S) start a conversation, (S) taking longer to process information, (S) telling someone how you feel when you are bullied
Published on May 12, 2017. Last updated on September 13, 2018.
Levisen, Carsten; Priestley, Carol; Nicholls, Sophie; & Goldshtein, Yonatan (2017). The semantics of Englishes and Creoles: Pacific and Australian perspectives. In Peter Bakker, Finn Borchsenius, Carsten Levisen & Eeva Sippola (Eds.), Creole studies – Phylogenetic approaches (pp. 345-368). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/z.211.15lev. PDF (open access)
This paper provides a lexical-semantic comparison of a selection of Englishes and English-related creoles in the Australia-Pacific area. Faced with the conundrum of sociolinguistic classificatory practice and its contested categories (“language”, “creole”, “dialect”, “variety” and English(es)”), it attempts to circumvent the problematic of metavocabulary by taking a new, two-pronged approach. Firstly, it relies on semantic primes, comparing and contrasting their lexicalizations (especially those of the prime PEOPLE) across the sample of creoles. Secondly, it uses phylogenetic networks to visualize the results and to form new hypotheses.
The results provide counter-evidence to the claim that Melanesian and Australian creoles are “varieties of English”. The creole sample displays three basic types of relations: “shared-core” types (Australian English vs. New Zealand English); “closely related core” types (Hawai’i Creole vs. Anglo Englishes); and “distantly related core” types (Tok Pisin vs. Anglo English, Kriol vs. Anglo English, or Yumplatok vs. Anglo English). The results are measured against Scandinavian languages to explore the language-dialect question, and against Trinidadian (a Caribbean creole) to explore the extent of lexical-semantic areality. It is concluded that current sociolinguistic metavocabulary is inadequate for representing the complexity of the new ways of speaking in the Australia-Pacific region, and it is suggested a principled areal-semantic investigation of words based on semantic principles is the way to go.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on June 23, 2017. Last updated on November 5, 2021.
Peeters, Bert (2017). Du bon usage des stéréotypes en cours de FLE: le cas de l’ethnolinguistique appliquée [Making good use of stereotypes in the French foreign language classroom: the case of applied ethnolinguistics]. Dire, 9, 43-60. http://epublications.unilim.fr/revues/dire/816.
Written in French.
The stereotypes envisaged in this paper serve as a starting point for a research protocol aimed at corroborating the reality, in French languaculture, of the cultural value of stance-taking. The protocol adopted here is part of a research paradigm called applied ethnolinguistics, elaborated for use with and by foreign language students whose linguistic competence is sufficiently advanced to enable them to use their language resources to discover, through essentially (but not uniquely) linguistic means, the cultural values typically associated with the languaculture they study. Since the posited values are hypothetical, corroboration will be required. A specific protocol (the one illustrated here) has been set aside for this purpose. The cultural value of stance-taking will be presented in the form of a pedagogical script expressed in minimal French, a descriptive tool based on the French version of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Precautions are taken to ensure that end-users of such scenarios are aware that they are dealing with generalizations (which are unavoidable as languacultures are never homogeneous).
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) freedom of speech, (S) opinions
Published on July 29, 2018. Last updated on June 29, 2019.
Brise, Lillian (2017). Eating regret and seeing contempt: A Cognitive Linguistic approach to the language of emotions in Igala (Nigeria). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/b11354
Abstract:
This book, which deals with emotions and their expression in Igala, a Nigerian minority language with about two million speakers, calls for significant revisions within the NSM framework, its universal lexicon and its universal syntax, especially with respect to the prime FEEL. It challenges the claim that, in its present form, NSM is adequate for the analysis of emotion concepts universally. The challenge is based on the way emotions are conceptualized in Igala as well as on the absence of certain semantic primes that the NSM approach considers necessary for the analysis of emotions.
The author argues that NSM’s rigid claims to universality (of its syntax, for example) hinder the elegant description of emotion concepts in Igala and that the status of FEEL has to be re-evaluated. Igala does not have a generic lexical item that fits into the allegedly universal syntax specifications for FEEL and that lends itself to the explication of both physical and emotional (mental) states. FEEL must therefore possibly be downgraded and accorded the status of a semantic molecule rather than a prime. This would make it a language-specific concept, required for the explication of emotion concepts in some languages (e.g. English) but unnecessary in others (e.g. Igala).
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) àjìlò, (E) áɲó, (E) ɛ̀dɔ̀ dúdú, (E) ɛ̀dɔ̀ ɛ̀bɔ́, (E) ɛ̀dɔ̀ ɛ́kpabíe, (E) ɛ̀dɔ̀ ɛ̀kpabíɛ́, (E) ìhìɛ̀nɛ̀, (E) ìmélí, (E) ìwɔ̀, (E) òkpò, (E) ɔ́la ɟìɟìlì, (E) ufɛ́dɔ̀, (E) ùgɛ́dɔ̀, (E) ùgójì, (E) ùkàtà, (E) ùlàkà, (E) ùwɛ́dɔ̀, (E) ùyɔ̀, (T) Igala
Published on August 15, 2018. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Vanhatalo, Ulla (2017). 65:lla alkusanalla kohti ymmärtämistä. In Sirpa Tarvainen, Soile Loukusa, Terhi Hautala, & Satu Saalasti (Eds.), Yhteinen ymmärrys – havainnoinnista tulkintaan: puheen ja kielen tutkimuksen päivät Helsingissä 30.-31.3.2017 (pp. …-…). Helsinki: Puheen ja kielen tutkimuksen yhdistys [Association of Speech and Language Research).
Written in Finnish.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Published on January 10, 2022. Last updated on January 10, 2022.
Vanhatalo, Ulla, & Tissari, Heli. (2017). Esittelyssä alkusanakieli [Presenting Natural Semantic Metalanguage]. Virittäjä, 121(2), 244–263.
(in Finnish)
Published on May 19, 2019. Last updated on June 25, 2019.
Gladkova, Anna, & Larina, Tatiana (2018). Anna Wierzbicka, language, culture and communication. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 22(4), 717-748.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-9182-2018-22-4-717-748 / Open access
Abstract:
This introduction to the second part of a special issue of the Russian Journal of Linguistics marking Anna Wierzbicka’s 80th birthday focuses on her research in the area of language and culture. It surveys some of the fundamental concepts of Wierzbicka’s research program in cultural semantics and ethnopragmatics, in particular cultural key words and cultural scripts, both of which she unpacks using the universal human concepts of NSM. The article also discusses the concept of Minimal Language as a recent development in the NSM program and presents associated research in a variety of fields.
More information:
Simultaneously published in English and Russian. The Russian version follows the English one.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) sud'ba судьба, (S) imposition, (S) non-imposition, (S) personal autonomy, (S) sincerity
Published on September 2, 2018. Last updated on September 4, 2018.
Holden, Josh (2018). Expressing concepts of FEEL, CAN, CAN’T, and PART in Denesųłiné. Working Papers in Dene Languages 2017, 55-72. Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center.
This paper details the author’s attempt to elicit the semantic primes FEEL, CAN, CAN’T, and PART in the First Nations language Denesųłiné (Dene/Athabaskan language family, Northern Canada, with the goal of empirically testing NSM claims and shedding light on the Denesųłiné lexicon. If these primes are not found, it is shown how the concepts are expressed in Denesųłiné.
Although, in the author’s opinion, the findings suggest the need for changes to the current semantic prime inventory, they should not be viewed as discounting the NSM approach. Dene shows many cases where, even though one can posit the existence of an NSM exponent, there are still language-specific differences in denotational range and even meaning. One wonders how exact the correspondence must be, or even whether this exactness can even be verified without a deep, native-like knowledge of both source and metalanguage. Still, semantic primes as a concept may be useful in identifying a core of the lexicon where there is significant overlap in word meanings between languages, without these being true universals that can be elicited in the same core contexts.
The issues of translatability and equivalence raised by the NSM approach are also highly relevant to Dene language documentation, which is virtually always bilingual: a linguist translates words from the source language to English when glossing. The phenomenon of lexical incommensurability, in which a meaning in the studied language has no direct equivalent in the metalanguage language of description, can render any one-word translation culturally specific and therefore inaccurate as a representation of the source language meaning. This is problematic because future heritage learners and researchers will only be able to access the Indigenous lexicon through the prism of a flawed or incomplete English translation. Diligent cross-linguistic semantic analysis of the type that the NSM school proposes can help build a more authentic record of the lexicon. The NSM approach of explicating culture-specific meanings is therefore a valuable tool in language documentation efforts, although more empirical studies will be needed to test the universality of the semantic primes, and future revisions to the NSM inventory may be required in light of their results, and of the Denesųłiné data discussed here.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Published on October 18, 2018. Last updated on August 15, 2021.
Sadow, Lauren (2018). Can cultural scripts be used for teaching interactional norms? Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 41(1), 91-116. DOI: 10.1075/aral.17030.sad
Although improving the teaching of invisible culture is a recognized need in the TESOL sector, no systematic approach has been developed yet for this purpose, in spite of scholarly calls for a more nuanced focus in classrooms and evidence that teachers are willing to apply such an approach. This paper attempts to bridge the gap between theory and pedagogical need by suggesting that the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is a useful tool in ELT through which resources for teachers and learners can be developed. In particular, it discusses the results of a pilot study into using cultural scripts to teach cultural norms, demonstrating how they can be applied to classroom teaching situations, and discussing how materials can be developed from the theories.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (S) disagreement, (S) doing what one wants, (S) saying what one wants
Published on November 19, 2017. Last updated on September 5, 2018.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2018). Talking about the universe in Minimal English: Teaching science through words that children can understand. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Minimal English for a global world: Improved communication using fewer words (pp. 169-200). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-62512-6_8
Science education faces many challenges, not least that of rendering the key propositions into language that children can readily understand. This chapter applies Minimal English to a canonical science education narrative about changing scientific and pre-scientific understandings of the universe. It attempts to capture the key beliefs and mindsets associated with the views of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Galileo, with a look ahead to the possibilities of further advances in scientific thinking about the cosmos.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags: (E) (living) creature, (E) day and night, (E) earth, (E) moon, (E) sky, (E) stars, (E) sun, (T) English, (T) semantic molecules
