Tag: (E) sčitat’ считать

(2010) English, Chinese, Korean, Russian – Ethnopsychology and personhood / Mental states

Goddard, Cliff (2010). Universals and variation in the lexicon of mental state concepts. In Barbara C. Malt, & Phillip Wolff (Eds.), Words and the mind: How words capture human experience (pp. 72-92). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311129.003.0005

Abstract:

The first two sections of this chapter provide an overview of NSM research and findings, with a particular focus on mental state concepts. The next two sections show how NSM techniques make it possible to reveal complex and culture-specific meanings in detail and in terms that are readily transposable across languages. Examples include emotion terms, epistemic verbs, and ethnopsychological constructs in English, Chinese, Russian, and Korean. The next section discusses the relationship between linguistic meanings (word meanings) and cognition and elucidates the theoretical and methodological implications for cognitive science. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that people’s subjective emotional experience can be shaped or coloured to some extent by the lexical categories of their language.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2007) Russian – Propositional attitudes

Gladkova, Anna (2007). Universal and language-specific aspects of “propositional attitudes”: Russian vs. English. In Andrea C. Schalley & Drew Khlentzos (Eds.), Mental states: Vol. 2. Language and cognitive structure (pp. 61-83). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.93.06gla

In linguistic literature inspired by philosophical tradition, it is often assumed that the key distinction in the area of “propositional attitude” is that between “know” and “believe”. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory of language and thought argues that while know is a universal conceptual prime (KNOW), believe is not. It posits THINK, not believe, as a universal counterpart of KNOW. The Moscow Semantic School posits primitives ЗНАТЬ ZNAT’ (KNOW) and СЧИТАТЬ SČITAT’ (which has no exact English equivalent). This chapter argues that the use of считать sčitat’ and believe as putative primes is unjustified. It supports думать dumat’ as the Russian exponent of the universal conceptual prime THINK and it shows that the use of думать dumat’ as a prime leads to much better results than the use of считать sčitat’.


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

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(2009) Russian – Propositional attitudes: SCITAT’

Гладкова, А. Н. [Gladkova, Anna] (2009). К вопросу о семантическом статусе глагола считать [About the semantic status of the Russian verb scitat’]. Русский язык в научном освещении [Russian language in scientific coverage], 17(1), 201-227.

Written in Russian. No English abstract available.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

The (E) tag listed below is added on the basis of information in the title of this paper, which also proposes other explications.

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(2016) English, Russian – Cultural scripts / Mental states

Gladkova, Anna (2016). Propositional attitudes and cultural scripts. In Alessandro Capone, & Jacob L. Mey (Eds.), Interdisciplinary studies in pragmatics, culture and society (pp. 329-352). Berlin: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12616-6_12

Abstract:

In linguistic literature inspired by work in philosophy, the key concepts for the analysis of ‘propositional attitudes’ include mental states such as ‘belief’, ‘hope’, ‘doubt’ and ‘know’, among others. This literature, and the work on which it is based, ignores cultural and linguistic variation in the conceptualization of mental states that can be labelled as ‘propositional attitudes’. It also overlooks the fact that categorization of mental states, in general, and ‘propositional attitudes’, in particular, is aligned with cultural attitudes and understandings.

This chapter proposes a comparative analysis of selected words reflecting propositional attitudes in English and Russian. The focus is on to believe vs. считать sčitat’ and on belief vs. мнение mnenie, and the analysis is undertaken in terms of universal meanings, using NSM. It is demonstrated that the supremacy of logical concepts in current scientific thinking is not reflected in the architecture of the mental lexicon as it is revealed in universal human concepts. Instead, it is argued that NSM semantic universals can be regarded as more appropriate elements in the analysis of propositional attitudes.

The concepts central to the analysis are KNOW and THINK, which have been shown to have exact semantic equivalents in Russian and English as well as other languages. The chapter shows that the analysed concepts differ in meaning and can be related to culture-specific cognitive styles that can be formulated as cultural scripts.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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