Tag: (E) ashamed

(2020) English, Australian Aboriginal English, Bislama – Shame

Peeters, Bert (2020). Language Makes a Difference: Breaking the Barrier of Shame. Lublin Studies in Modern Language and Literature,  44(1), 27-37.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2020.44.1.27-37 (Open Access)

Abstract:
This paper argues against the reification of shame and the use of Anglocentric jargon to explain what it entails. It shows how the Natural Semantic Metalanguage can be used to define shame and set it apart from related concepts in Australian Aboriginal English and in Bislama, an English creole spoken in Vanuatu.

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

Tagged as: , , ,

(1992) Various languages – Emotion concepts

Wierzbicka, Anna (1992). Defining emotion concepts. Cognitive Science, 16(4), 539-581. DOI: 10.1207/s15516709cog1604_4

This article demonstrates that emotion concepts – including the so-called basic ones, such as anger or sadness – can be defined in terms of universal semantic primitives such as GOOD, BAD, DO, HAPPEN, KNOW, and WANT, in terms of which all areas of meaning, in all languages, can be rigorously and revealingly portrayed.

The definitions proposed here take the form of certain prototypical scripts or scenarios, formulated in terms of thoughts, wants, and feelings. These scripts, however, can be seen as formulas providing rigorous specifications of necessary and sufficient conditions (not for emotions as such, but for emotion concepts), and they do not support the idea that boundaries between emotion concepts are “fuzzy”. On the contrary, the small set of universal semantic primitives employed here (which has emerged from two decades of empirical investigations by the author and colleagues) demonstrates that even apparent synonyms such as sad and unhappy embody different – and fully specifiable – conceptual structures.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

(2011) Korean – Ethnopragmatics

Yoon, Kyung Joo (2011). Understanding cultural values to improve cross-cultural communication: An ethnopragmatic perspective to Korean child rearing practices. 언어연구 [The Journal of Studies in Language], 26(4), 879-899.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18627/jslg.26.4.201102.879 / Open access

Abstract:

Understanding cultural values is crucial for successful cross-cultural communication. Child rearing practices can demonstrate what cultural values a particular cultural group shares and cares about as they are often among the most culture-specific recurrent tasks requiring practical solutions. The present study examines one aspect of Korean child rearing practices that is chosen to be a window through which one can see some core Korean values. Based on linguistic evidence, a Korean cultural script is posited to reveal a Korean way of thinking and doing things. It revolves around the ‘fear of other people’s eyes’ and is somewhat related to other culture-specific concepts of shame.

The descriptive principles used in this study are those of the cultural scripts approach as developed within the NSM framework. The study can contribute to improved cross-cultural communication and to a better understanding between Koreans and cultural outsiders by elucidating an indigenous Korean perspective.

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

Tagged as: , ,

(1990) English – Emotions

Osmond, Meredith (1990). Unravelling the meaning of English emotion terms: Evidence from syntax. MA thesis, Australian National University. PDF (open access)

This thesis examines the meaning of various English terms of emotion , and attempts to show that aspects of their meaning can be related to their syntactic behaviour.


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

(1990) English (Aboriginal) – Emotions (shame, shyness)

Harkins, Jean (1990). Shame and shyness in the Aboriginal classroom: A case for “practical semantics”. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 10(2), 293-306. DOI: 10.1080/07268609008599445

Aboriginal students in many parts of Australia talk about their experiences of difficulty and discomfort in certain fairly common classroom situations, for example when the teacher calls on an individual student to answer a question, or when a student is singled out for either reprimand or praise. The name for this experience, in most varieties of Australian Aboriginal English, is SHAME. The word SHAME is used by Aboriginal speakers in circumstances where non-Aboriginal speakers would not speak of being ashamed. This paper seeks to demonstrate that proper semantic analysis can lead us to a much clearer understanding and statement of the concept underlying the Aboriginal use of this word, and how it differs from related concepts such as ‘being ashamed’, ‘shyness’, and ’embarrassment’. Such semantic information can be of immediate practical use in cross-cultural communication situations such as the classroom.


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

Tagged as: , , ,

(1996) English (Aboriginal), Maori – Emotions (shame)

Harkins, Jean (1996). Linguistic and cultural differences in concepts of shame. In David Parker, Rosamund Dalziell, & Iain Richard Wright (Eds.), Shame and the modern self (pp. 84-96). Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.

Shame is one of a set of ‘social emotions’ that have a strong influence upon the behaviour of individuals in relation to the society in which they live. Emotions of this kind, and related norms of behaviour, are socially constructed within a particular linguistic and cultural context. Serious cross-cultural misunderstanding can result from assuming that emotions, or the behaviour associated with them, will be the same for different cultural groups. For example, shame-like emotions in some contexts can strongly motivate people to conform, but in others they can increase a person’s alienation from and hostility to society. This essay examines shame-like concepts in some languages of Aboriginal Australia and the Pacific, showing how the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) method of analysing emotion words and cultural rules can pinpoint the cognitive and emotive elements contained within culture-specific emotion concepts, and can make some predictions about ‘scripts’ for behaviour associated with these emotions.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

Tagged as: , , ,

(1990) English, Danish – Emotions (shame, embarrassment)

Dineen, Anne (1990). Shame/embarrassment in English and Danish. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 10(2), 217-229. DOI: 10.1080/07268609008599442

The paper discusses one area of the emotion lexicon in Danish and English, namely a set of terms within the domain of ‘shame’/’embarrassment’. This set of terms constitutes a folk taxonomy, the internal relationships between these terms being a matter for empirical investigation. The paper relies on NSM to make semantic relationships explicit and easily comparable. English and Danish terms are discussed in turn, and comparisons are drawn between them.


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , ,