Al Jallad, Nader (2010). The concept of “shame” in Arabic: Bilingual dictionaries and the challenge of defining culture-based emotions. Language Design, 12, 31-57. PDF (open access)
This paper aims at providing a theoretical framework for analysing, understanding, and describing the very complex emotion of ‘shame’ in Arabic. The complexity of this emotion is highlighted by problems of translatability, as shown by a survey of how Arabic ‘shame’ words are defined in four English-Arabic and Arabic-English bilingual dictionaries. The comparison of the various definitions highlights the need to define not only the emotion of ‘shame’, but also all other emotions and culture-loaded words in general, by means of universal language- and culture-free formulas. To test the proposed theoretical framework, a Natural Semantic Metalanguage-based system is used to define the ‘shame’ words addressed in this paper.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
