Choesna, Mayla (2017). Kata-kata bermuatan konsep freedom dalam budaya Inggris [Words expressing the concept of freedom in English culture]. Master’s thesis, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta.
Written in Indonesian.
This investigation into the key nouns for the concept of freedom in British English culture deals with usage patterns, meanings and underlying cultural aspects. Data were obtained from dictionaries and on-line corpora. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach is applied jointly with the Componential Analysis framework to investigate the issues.
This study yields several findings. At least 16 nouns are involved: liberty, carte blanche, free will, latitude, leeway, immunity, impunity, exemption, discretion, free speech, sovereignty, independence, autonomy, self-determination, and autarky. They can be grouped into three categories. The freedom to~ category includes liberty, carte blanche, free will, latitude, and leeway; the freedom from~ type includes immunity, impunity, and exemption; and the freedom of~ type includes discretion, free speech, sovereignty, independence, autonomy, self-determination, and autarky. The freedom to~ type has as its central feature “if I want to do something, I can do it”. The freedom from~ type relies on the semantic components “I don’t have to do something” / “many people have to do this”. The freedom of~ category is typically framed as “if I want to do something I can do it/I can do something” / “this something is something like this”. The differences between the various nouns – which can be designated as cultural key words – can be elucidated through the elaboration of their prototypical cognitive scenario as this is the part that developa the understanding of the concepts differently.
The concepts of freedom manifested in the nouns have cultural underpinnings. These are geographically and philosophically motivated. The insularity of the English developed their independence as well as their free spirit. Their philosophical outlook encouraged cultural values such as non-interference, nonimposition, personal autonomy, anti-dogmatism, and tolerance. Other linguistic evidence such as expressions corroborate the claim that freedom is an English cultural value. It can therefore be said that the realized cultural key words are the representation of the English concept of freedom.
