Tag: (E) (diminutives)

(2013) Ethnosyntax

Gladkova, Anna (2013). Grammar and the influence of society and culture. In Carol A. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics (pp. 2355-2362). Oxford: Blackwell.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0471

Abstract:

Language is highly sensitive to cultural and societal processes. Grammatically elaborated areas of a language commonly embed meanings or ideas that are particularly salient in the collective psyche of a people. Knowledge of these meanings or ideas can equip cultural outsiders with more effective and successful tools of communication with the representatives of the culture.

This encyclopedia entry provides some examples of studies illustrating the cultural significance of grammar within the approach of ethnosyntax. These investigations are of particular importance to applied linguistics in general and language teaching in particular. The proposed explications (referred to as formulas) can be applied in language teaching to explain meanings and use of grammatical constructions. The use of universal human concepts makes it possible to translate these explications into any language without any change in meaning.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2015) Ethnosyntax

Gladkova, Anna (2015). Ethnosyntax. In Farzad Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 33-50). New York: Routledge.

Abstract:

The author provides an account of research on ethnosyntax, the study of how syntax, including morphology, encodes culture. Maintaining that the theoretical foundations of ethnosyntax were laid by Sapir and Whorf, she makes a distinction between a narrow and a broad sense of ethnosyntax. Ethnosyntax in the narrow sense explores cultural meanings of particular grammatical structures, whereas ethnosyntax in the broad sense examines how pragmatic and cultural norms influence the choice of grammatical structures. Several examples are provided for each approach. As an example of morpho-syntax encoding cultural meaning, the author presents the case of Russian, where address forms often reveal attitudes of endearment and intimacy encoded by a diminutive. As an example of the second broader sense, she compares request speech acts in Russian and English, and examines how these languages employ different grammatical structures to perform the same speech act and how this usage is compatible with broader cultural norms.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2006) Spanish, Italian – Diminutives

Bartens, Angela, & Sandström, Niclas (2006). Towards a description of Spanish and Italian diminutives within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage framework. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 331-360). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.20bar

This paper uses the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to describe Spanish and Italian diminutives, which are able to express a number of diverse emotional nuances ranging from the “affectionate” to the pejorative. Different dialects of Spanish are checked to gain a better insight into areal variation. The authors also investigate the status of the diminutive as a grammatical and/or lexical category, they attempt to establish whether diminutive formation instantiates derivation or composition, and they examine its relationship to reduplication and to the absolute superlative.


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

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(2007) Italian – Diminutives

Bartens, Angela, & Sandström, Niclas (2007). Italian diminutives in the light of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. In Juhani Härmä, Eva Havu, Mervi Helkkula, Meri Larjavaara, Mari Lehtinen, & Ulla Tuomarla (Eds.), SILF 2005. Actes du XXIXe Colloque International de Linguistique Fonctionnelle (pp. 31-36). Helsinki: Département des langues romanes de l’Université de Helsinki.

In a previous study (Bartens & Sandström 2006), the authors formulated a number of categories into which the usage of the diminutive in both Italian and Spanish seems to fall. Since the diminutive does not constitute a part of the semantic core, it was supposed to be explicable in terms of NSM. Based on our results, it is suggested that, although culturally seemingly central to both of these Mediterranean cultures, the usages of the diminutive are more diffuse and detailed in Spanish than they are in Italian. By using the semantic primes that operate in the NSM theory, we aim at explicating the various uses of the Italian diminutive.


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

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