Tag: (E) hati

(2017) Indonesian – Cultural key words

Gusmeldi, Ridha Fitryani (2017). Indonesian cultural keyword hati and its English translation. Master’s thesis, Australian National University.

Hati, regarded by Indonesian speakers as the central controller of psychological functioning, is a cultural key word that is very difficult to translate into other languages. Due to this fact, selecting equivalent words for target texts, as well as understanding the concept of hati itself, is highly challenging. However, without a good understanding of this cultural key word, cultural and linguistic misunderstandings of hati-related terms are bound to emerge in translation.

This thesis investigates the meanings and English translations of hati-related terms in Bahasa Indonesia. Hati-related terms are grouped into several categories: feeling, moral judgement, thinking, religion, and physical meaning.  The eleven highest frequency terms including hati are explicated using semantic primes. The terms are dalam hati, sepenuh hati, sakit hati, patah hati, senang hati, besar hati, menarik hati, baik hati, rendah hati and sesuka hati.

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

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(2003) Mental states / NSM primes

Goddard, Cliff (2003). Thinking across languages and cultures: Six dimensions of variation. Cognitive Linguistics, 14(2-3), 109-140.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cogl.2003.005

Abstract:

This article is an exercise in typological semantics. It adopts the principles of the NSM approach to survey cross-linguistic variation in ways of talking about ‘thinking’. It begins by summarizing research indicating that there is a universal semantic prime THINK that can provide a stable reference point for cross-linguistic comparison. Six different dimensions of variability are then canvassed: different patterns of lexical polysemy, different degrees and modes of lexical elaboration, different ethno-theories of the person, different ways in which think-related meanings can be encoded morphosyntactically, different cultural scripts that may encourage or discourage particular ways of thinking, and differing patterns of usage in discourse.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2007) English, Korean, Malay, Swedish – Mental states

Goddard, Cliff (2007). A culture-neutral metalanguage for mental state concepts. In Andrea C. Schalley, & Drew Khlentzos (Eds.), Mental states: Vol. 2. Language and cognitive structure (pp. 11-35). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.93.04god

Abstract:

In contemporary cognitive science, mental state concepts from diverse cultures are typically described via English-specific words for emotions, cognitive processes, and the like. This is terminological ethnocentrism, which produces inaccurate representations of indigenous meanings. The problem can be overcome by employing a metalanguage of conceptual analysis based on simple meanings such as KNOW, THINK, WANT and FEEL. Cross-linguistic semantic research suggests that these and other semantic primes are shared across all languages and cultures. After summarizing this research, the chapter shows how complex mental state concepts from English, Malay, Swedish, and Korean can be revealingly analysed into terms that are simple, clear and transposable across languages.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2008) English, Malay – Ethnopsychology and personhood

Goddard, Cliff (2008). Contrastive semantics and cultural psychology: English heart vs. Malay hati. In Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, & Susanne Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body, and language: Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 75-102). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199109.2.75

Abstract:

This is a contrastive NSM analysis of two ethnopsychological constructs (English heart, Malay hati). Rejecting the use of English-specific metaterminology, such as mind, cognition, affect, etc., as both ethnocentric and inaccurate, the study seeks to articulate the conceptual content of the words under investigation in terms of simple universal concepts such as FEEL, THINK, WANT, KNOW, PEOPLE, SOMEONE, PART, BODY, HAPPEN, GOOD and BAD.

For both words, the physical body-part meaning is first explicated, and then the ethnopsychological sense or senses (it is claimed that English heart has two distinct ethnopsychological senses). The chapter also reviews the phraseology associated with each word, and in the case of English heart, proposes explications for a number of prominent collocations: a broken heart, listening to your heart, losing heart and having your heart in it.

The concluding discussion makes some suggestions about experiential/semantic principles whereby body parts can come to be associated with cultural models of feeling, thinking, wanting and knowing. At a theoretical level, the study seeks to draw links between culturally informed cognitive semantics, on the one hand, and the field of cultural psychology, on the other.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2014) Old Norse-Icelandic, Old English – Ethnopsychology and personhood

Mackenzie, Colin Peter (2014). Vernacular psychologies in Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Open access

Abstract:

This thesis examines the vernacular psychology presented in Old Norse-Icelandic texts. It focuses on the concept ‘hugr’, generally rendered in English as ‘mind, soul, spirit’, and explores the conceptual relationships between emotion, cognition and the body. It argues that despite broad similarities, Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English vernacular psychology differ more than has previously been acknowledged. Furthermore, it shows that the psychology of Old Norse-Icelandic has less in common with its circumpolar neighbours than proposed by advocates of Old Norse-Icelandic shamanism.

The thesis offers a fresh interpretation of Old Norse-Icelandic psychology that does not rely on cross-cultural evidence from other Germanic or circumpolar traditions. It argues that emotion and cognition were not conceived of ‘hydraulically’ as was the case in Old English, and that ‘hugr’ was not thought to leave the body either in animal form or as a person’s breath. Old Norse-Icelandic psychology differs from the Old English tradition; it is argued that the Old English psychological model is a specific elaboration of the shared psychological inheritance of Germanic whose origins require further study. These differences between the two languages have implications for the study of psychological concepts in Proto-Germanic: there are fewer semantic components that can be reliably reconstructed for the common ancestor of the North and West Germanic languages.

As a whole, the thesis applies insights from cross-cultural linguistics and psychology to show how Old Norse-Icelandic psychological concepts differ not only from contemporary Germanic and circumpolar traditions but also from the present-day English concepts used to describe them.

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

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