Browsing results for Mental predicates

(2019) Dene – NSM primes

Published on January 8, 2019. Last updated on February 20, 2020.

Holden, Josh (2019). Semantic primes in Denesųłiné: In search of some lexical “universals”. International Journal of American Linguistics, 85(1), 75-121.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/700319

Abstract:

This study examines whether the semantic primes of NSM are attested in Denesųłiné (Athabaskan, Northern Canada; aka Dene). It argues that some of them are problematic, including (BE) SOMEWHERE, BAD, MOMENT, FEEL, KIND, and PART. Dene seems not to express partonymy and typonymy via abstract lexical items. This article suggests improvements to NSM in light of the Dene data and reflects on how semantic decomposition approaches like NSM can improve the documentation and analysis of this language.

Rating:


Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner

(2019) NSM Primes — Consciousness

Published on January 15, 2022. Last updated on January 15, 2022.

Wierzbicka, Anna. (2019). From ‘Consciousness’ to ‘I Think, I Feel, I Know’: A Commentary on David Chalmers. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 26(9–10), pp. 257–69

Abstract

David Chalmers appears to assume that we can meaning- fully discuss what goes on in human heads without paying any attention to the words in which we couch our statements. This paper challenges this assumption and argues that the initial problem is that of metalanguage: if we want to say something clear and valid about us humans, we must think about ourselves outside conceptual English created by one particular history and culture and try to think from a global, panhuman point of view. This means that instead of relying on untranslatable English words such as ‘consciousness’ and ‘experi- ence’ we must try to rely on panhuman concepts expressed in cross- translatable words such as THINK, KNOW, and FEEL (Wierzbicka, 2018). The paper argues that after ‘a hundred years of consciousness studies’ it is time to try to say something about us (humans), about how we think and how we differ from cats and bats, in words that are clear, stable, and human rather than parochially English.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners