Tag: (E) pleased
Trnavac, Radoslava, & Taboada, Maite. (2020). Positive Appraisal in Online News Comments. In Kerry Mullan, Bert Peeters, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis (pp. 185–206). Singapore: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_10
Abstract
This chapter investigates the linguistic expression of positive evaluation in English and describes a preliminary typology of linguistic devices used for positive evaluation. Using corpus-assisted analysis, we classify some of the resources that play a role in the expression of positive evaluation into phenomena in the lexicogrammar and phenomena that belong in discourse semantics and compare those resources to the ones deployed for negative evaluation (see the work on negative evaluation in Taboada et al. in Corpus Pragmat, 1:57–76, 2017). This general classification of evaluative devices overlaps with the planes of expression in systemic functional linguistics. Our data comes from a collection of opinion articles and the comments associated with them (Kolhatkar et al., in the SFU Opinion and Comments Corpus: A corpus for the analysis of online news comments, under review). We use a set of 1000 comments previously annotated for Appraisal (Martin and White in The language of evaluation. Palgrave, New York, 2005), including labels of Attitude (Affect, Judgement, Appreciation) and polarity (positive, negative, neutral). The central component of the chapter is the analysis of the resources used by commenters to express positive evaluation. We explore whether they make use of rhetorical figures, following up on our work with Cliff Goddard on the use of rhetorical figures in the expression of negative evaluation (Taboada et al. in Corpus Pragmat, 1:57–76, 2017). We then analyse the semantics of evaluative adjectives using the natural semantic metalanguage approach and follow our previous work on templates that capture different types of adjectives and fall into five groups (Goddard et al., in Funct Lang 26, 2019). Although our corpus analysis is limited, and it includes only a specific type of data (online news comments), the phenomena that we discuss are present across different genres of texts. While our previous work has focused on how to express negative evaluation, this chapter seeks to honour Cliff Goddard and his positive influence by studying how positivity is realized in language.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) amazing, (E) comfortable, (E) critical, (E) hilarious, (E) humorous, (E) inspiring, (E) noble, (E) pleased, (E) refreshing, (E) relieved, (E) thankful
Goddard, Cliff (2018). Ten lectures on Natural Semantic Metalanguage: Exploring language, thought and culture using simple, translatable words. Leiden: Brill. DOI: 10.1163/9789004357723
These lively lectures introduce the theory, practice, and application of a versatile, rigorous, and non-Anglocentic approach to cross-linguistic semantics.
Table of contents:
- Preliminary material
- From Leibniz to Wierzbicka: The history and philosophy of NSM
- Semantic primes and their grammar
- Explicating emotion concepts across languages and cultures
- Wonderful, terrific, fabulous: English evaluational adjectives
- Semantic molecules and semantic complexity
- Words as carriers of cultural meaning
- English verb semantics: Verbs of doing and saying
- English verb alternations and constructions
- Applications of NSM: Minimal English, cultural scripts and language teaching
- Retrospect: NSM compared with other approaches to semantic analysis
Chapter 3 discusses selected exponents of primes in Farsi (Persian). Chapter 4 provides an explication of a North-Spanish homesickness word (morriña). Chapter 7 provides an explication of Chinese 孝 xiào ‘filial piety’.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) Alles in Ordnung, (E) ask, (E) at night, (E) believe that, (E) blink, (E) brilliant, (E) build, (E) children, (E) complex, (E) contented, (E) crawl, (E) cut, (E) delighted, (E) delightful, (E) dig, (E) during the day, (E) eat, (E) entertaining, (E) excellent, (E) exciting, (E) great, (E) happy, (E) homesick, (E) impressive, (E) know someone, (E) know that, (E) lykke, (E) memorable, (E) men, (E) morriña, (E) mouth, (E) not fair, (E) order, (E) pleased, (E) pour, (E) powerful, (E) sčitat’ čto считать что, (E) sky, (E) stars, (E) stunning, (E) suggest, (E) sun, (E) swim, (E) tell, (E) terrific, (E) tęsknić, (E) water, (E) women, (E) wonderful, (E) xiào 孝, (E) xìngfú 幸福, (S) expressiveness, (S) feelings, (S) personal autonomy, (S) personal comments, (S) personal remarks, (S) requests, (S) sincerity, (T) Chinese, (T) English, (T) Finnish, (T) semantic molecules
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: (E) amazement, (E) anger, (E) appalled, (E) ashamed, (E) contented, (E) delighted, (E) depressed, (E) despair, (E) disappointment, (E) distressed, (E) embarrassed, (E) excited, (E) frightened, (E) frustration, (E) glücklich, (E) grief, (E) guilt, (E) happy, (E) heureux, (E) humiliated, (E) hurt, (E) indignant, (E) indignation, (E) pleased, (E) pride, (E) relief, (E) remorse, (E) sad, (E) sčastliv, (E) shocked, (E) sorrow, (E) sorry, (E) surprise, (E) triumph, (E) unhappy, (E) upset, (T) English
Wierzbicka, Anna (1992). Talking about emotions: Semantics, culture, and cognition. Cognition and Emotion, 6(3/4), 285-319. DOI: 10.1080/02699939208411073
Translated into Polish as chapter 4 of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1999). Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
The author argues that the so-called “basic emotions”, such as happiness, fear or anger, are in fact cultural artifacts of the English language, just as the Ilongot concept of liger, or the Ifaluk concept of song, are the cultural artifacts of Ilongot and Ifaluk. It is therefore as inappropriate to talk about human emotions in general in terms of happiness, fear, or anger as it would be to talk about them in terms of liget or song. However, this does not mean that we cannot penetrate into the emotional world of speakers of languages other than our own. Nor does it mean that there cannot be any universal human emotions. Universality of emotions is an open issue which requires further investigation. For this further investigation to be fully productive, it has to be undertaken from a universal, language and culture-independent perspective; and it has to be carried out in a universalist framework that is language and culture-independent. The author proposes for this purpose the Natural Semantic Metalanguage based on universal (or near-universal) semantic primitives (or near-primitives), developed over two decades by herself and colleagues, and she argues that the use of this metalanguage facilitates such a perspective and offers such a framework.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) angry, (E) displeased, (E) displeasure, (E) glücklich, (E) grateful, (E) happy, (E) heureux, (E) joy, (E) liget, (E) pleased, (E) remorse, (E) sad, (E) song, (E) tjituru-tjituru, (E) watjilpa, (E) złość
Wierzbicka, Anna, & Harkins, Jean (2001). Introduction. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.) (2001), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 1-34). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880168.1
Abstract:
The purpose of the crosslinguistic studies presented in this volume is to demonstrate how the tools of linguistic analysis can be applied to produce more accurate descriptions of the meanings of emotion words and, more generally, ways of speaking about emotions in different languages. Such analyses of linguistic meaning not only complement findings from other approaches to the study of emotions, but help to resolve methodological problems that arise when these other approaches have to deal with data from different languages. Before proceeding to the language-specific studies, we draw readers’ attention to the relevance of language in the study of human emotions, and give some background to the approaches to analysing language data that are used in these studies.
By presenting detailed semantic descriptions of culturally-situated meanings of culturally salient words used in the “emotion talk” in different cultures, we can offer glimpses into other people’s emotional lives – without
imposing on those lives a perspective derived from the vocabulary and other resources of our own native language. Since the descriptions presented here are phrased in universal, that is, shared, concepts, they can be
both faithful to the perspective of the speaker whose emotions we purport to be talking about, and intelligible to others. (These others include scholars, who often don’t seem to realise that they too are speakers of another
language, with their own spectacles, tinted by their own native language.) We can combine the insiders’ point of view with intelligibility to outsiders.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) delighted, (E) fear, (E) hope, (E) pleased, (T) English
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.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) believe that, (E) duša душа, (E) feel (+ adjective), (E) feel that, (E) hati, (E) hope, (E) love, (E) mind, (E) ná, (E) pleased, (E) się, (E) ter-, (E) think (+ clause), (E) think to (+ verb), (E) to (purposive), (E) tro, (E) worry, (S) freedom of speech, (S) I think vs I know, (S) inhibiting expression of opinions, (S) Philosophy of the Middle Way, (S) thinking
Goddard, Cliff (2014). On “disgust”. In Fabienne Baider, & Georgeta Cislaru (Eds.), Linguistic approaches to emotions in context (pp. 73-97). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: 10.1075/pbns.241.06god
Abstract:
This study relies on the NSM approach to explore conceptualisations of “disgust” in English via semantic analysis of descriptive adjectives (disgusted and disgusting) and interjections (Ugh! and Yuck!). As well as drawing out some subtle meaning differences between these expressions, the exercise establishes that there is no one-to-one mapping between the meanings of descriptive emotion lexemes, on the one hand, and expressive interjections, on the other.
More broadly, the study seeks to advance the semantic study of “disgust-like” concepts in a cross-linguistic perspective, first, by highlighting aspects of meaning that differ between the English expressions and their near-equivalents in other languages, such as German, French and Polish, and second, by proposing a set of touchstone semantic components that can help facilitate cross-linguistic investigation.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) disgusted, (E) disgusting, (E) Fu!, (E) pleased, (E) sad, (E) Ugh!, (E) Yuck!
Bromhead, Helen (2009). The reign of truth and faith: Epistemic expressions in 16th and 17th century English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
This ground-breaking study in the historical semantics and pragmatics of 16th and 17th century English examines the meaning, use and cultural underpinnings of confident- and certain-sounding epistemic expressions, such as forsooth, by my troth and in faith, and first person epistemic phrases, such as I suppose, I ween and I think. It supports the hypothesis that the British Enlightenment and its attendant empiricism brought about a profound epistemic shift in ways of thinking and speaking. In contrast to the modern ethos of empiricism and doubt, the 16th and 17th centuries were dominated by an ethos of truth and faith, which manifests itself (among other ways) in the meanings and usages of epistemic expressions for certainty and confidence.
The study is firmly based on evidence from texts and collocations in the writings of the day and is conducted using the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM).
Reviewed by:
Gladkova, Anna (2012). Intercultural Pragmatics, 9(2), 281-285. DOI: 10.1515/ip-2012-0016
Levisen, Carsten (2012). Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 22(1), 128-129. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1395.2012.01120.x
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) by my faith, (E) by my troth, (E) forsooth, (E) I suppose, (E) I think, (E) I trow, (E) I ween, (E) I wot, (E) in faith, (E) in truth, (E) methinks, (E) pleased, (E) probably, (E) really, (E) suppose, (E) surely, (E) truth, (E) verily
Bardzokas, Chrisovalandis & Dirven, René (1999). Conceptualizations in the domain of ‘happiness’ in English: The value of explications and cultural scripts. RASK (International Journal of Language and Communication), 9-10, 157-188.
Open access
Abstract:
In English, conceptualization within the domain of happiness involves a great many emotion words that may appear as nouns, adjectives or even verbs and that are often very close in meaning to one another. They can therefore be expected to be defined in highly circular ways in most current dictionaries. This paper investigates whether NSM can meet the requirement of describing each of the concepts in the domain of happiness in English in a non-circular and exhaustive way. One of the most remarkable results of the application of the NSM approach to the eleven happiness-related concepts selected is the very clear delimitation of and distinction between four groups of concepts: imminent states of happiness, “doing forms” of happiness, event-like forms of happiness, and transient states of happiness.
Rating:
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
Tagged as: (E) bliss, (E) cheerful, (E) delighted, (E) exultant, (E) glad, (E) happy, (E) jubilant, (E) merry, (E) overjoyed, (E) pleased, (E) thrilled
