Tag: (E) right

(2017) English – RIGHT (cultural key word)

Moisejeva, Natalija (2017). The semantic analysis of the English cultural key word ‘right’ and its equivalents in Italian and Lithuanian. S.l.: LAP (Lambert Academic Publishing).

The present research paper aims at providing an insight into the nature of the English cultural key word right and its expression in Italian and Lithuanian as well as into the various cultural scripts underlying this concept. The analysis is based on the theory of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) and theories of Cultural Key Words and Cultural Scripts elaborated by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard in the 1990s. They claim that, apart from common words that are clear to everyone, there exist certain culture-specific concepts fully understandable only to the representatives of a specific culture. The main attention of this study is, therefore, focused on revealing the meaning groups underlying the English word right and their expression in Italian and Lithuanian, as well as on formulating cultural scripts underlying each meaning group using semantic primes from the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. The source of the findings is the original version of George Orwell’s 1984 as well as its two translations.

A 2010 article with a similar title, by the same author but more limited in its scope, does not contain any NSM explications. That earlier article is available online [PDF (open access)].

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(1992-93) Theoretical lexicography

Wierzbicka, Anna (1992/93). What are the uses of theoretical lexicography? Dictionaries, 14, 44-78.
Wierzbicka, Anna (1992/93). Replies to discussants. Dictionaries, 14, 139-159.

DOI (main article): 10.1353/dic.1992.0014
DOI (replies): 10.1353/dic.1992.0016

A more recent publication building on the above is chapter 9 (pp. 258-286) of:

Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics: Primes and universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Abstract:

There is more to practical lexicography than getting the meanings right, but trying to get the meanings right is vitally important. If theoretical lexicography couldn’t help in this respect, by providing ideas, principles, criteria, models, and guidelines, one could really doubt its raison d’être. However, theoretical lexicography can indeed offer all these things. Most importantly, it can offer a tool that can by itself remedy a large proportion of the ills of traditional lexicography: a NATURAL LEXICOGRAPHIC METALANGUAGE, derived from the NATURAL SEMANTIC METALANGUAGE, and based on universal semantic primes.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2002) English – Cultural key words: RIGHT, WRONG

Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Right and wrong: From philosophy to everyday discourse. Discourse Studies, 4(2), 225-252. DOI: 10.1177/14614456020040020601

A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 3 (pp. 61-102) of:

Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). English: Meaning and culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

One of the most interesting phenomena in the history of the English language is the remarkable rise of the word right, in its many interrelated senses and uses. This article tries to trace the changes in the meaning and use of this word, as well as the rise of new conversational routines based on right, and raises questions about the cultural underpinnings of these semantic and pragmatic developments. It explores the hypothesis that the “discourse of truth” declined in English over the centuries; that the use of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ as parallel concepts (and opposites) increased; and it notes that the use of right as an adjective increased enormously in relation to the use of true.

Originally, right meant ‘straight’, as in a right line (straight line). Figuratively, perhaps, this right in the sense ‘straight’ was also used in an evaluative sense: ‘good’, with an additional component building on the geometrical image: ‘clearly good’. Spoken of somebody else’s words, right was linked (implicitly or explicitly) with ‘true’. However, in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, right appears to have begun to be used more and more with reference to thinking rather than speaking. The association of right with thinking seems to have spread in parallel with a contrastive use of right and wrong – a trend apparently encouraged by the influence of the Reformation, especially within its Calvinist wing. Another interesting development is that, over the last two centuries or so, the discourse of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ appears to have found a competitor in a discourse of ‘cooperation’ and mutual concessions. Judging by both the frequency and range of its use, the word right flourished in this atmosphere, whereas wrong was increasingly left behind.

This article traces the transition from the Shakespearean response “Right.”, described by the OED as ‘you are right; you speak well’, to the present-day “Right.” of non-committal acknowledgement and it links the developments in semantics and discourse patterns with historical phenomena such as Puritanism, British empiricism, the Enlightenment and the growth of democracy.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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