Tag: (E) sense

(2006) English – Meaning and culture [BOOK]

Wierzbicka, Anna (2006). English: Meaning and culture. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174748.001.0001

It is widely accepted that English is the first truly global language and lingua franca. Its dominance has even led to its use and adaptation by local communities for their own purposes and needs. One might see English in this context as being simply a neutral, universal vehicle for the expression of local thoughts and ideas. In fact, English words and phrases have embedded in them a wealth of cultural baggage that is invisible to most native speakers.

Anna Wierzbicka, a distinguished linguist known for her theories of semantics, has written the first book that connects the English language with what she terms “Anglo” culture. Wierzbicka points out that language and culture are not just interconnected, but inseparable. This is evident to non-speakers trying to learn puzzling English expressions. She uses original research to investigate the “universe of meaning” within the English language (both grammar and vocabulary) and places it in historical and geographical perspective. For example, she looks at the history of the terms “right” and “wrong” and how with the influence of the Reformation “right” came to mean “correct.” She examines the ideas of “fairness” and “reasonableness” and shows that, far from being cultural universals, they are in fact unique creations of modern English.

Table of contents

PART I MEANING, HISTORY, AND CULTURE

1. English as a cultural universe
2. Anglo cultural scripts seen through Middle Eastern eyes

PART II ENGLISH WORDS

3. The story of RIGHT and WRONG and its cultural implications
4. Being REASONABLE: A key Anglo value and its cultural roots
5. Being FAIR: Another key Anglo value and its cultural underpinnings

PART III ANGLO CULTURE REFLECTED IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

6. The English causatives: Causation and interpersonal relations
7. I THINK: The rise of epistemic phrases in Modern English
8. PROBABLY: English epistemic adverbs and their cultural significance

PART IV CONCLUSION

9. The “cultural baggage” of English and its significance in the world at large

Chapter 3 builds on: Right and wrong: From philosophy to everyday discourse” (2002)
Chapter 6 builds on: English causative constructions in an ethnosyntactic perspective: Focusing on LET (2002)


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

Tags listed below are in addition to those listed at the end of the entries for the earlier work on which this book builds.

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(2009) English – SENSE

Wierzbicka, Anna (2009). Exploring English phraseology with two tools: NSM semantic methodology and Google. Journal of English Linguistics, 37(2), 101-129. DOI: 10.1177/0075424209334338

A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 10 (pp. 395-406) of:

Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). Experience, evidence, and sense: The hidden cultural legacy of English. New York: Oxford University Press.

The study of phraseology, which not long ago was often dismissed as a linguistic activity of only minor interest, has now come into its own and is an increasingly popular and diversified field, with many different approaches and foci of interest. Significantly, regardless of their particular focus and goals, more and more writers adopt corpus-based approaches to phraseological phenomena. This article arises from a larger study of various phraseological networks based on the English cultural key word sense (as in, e.g., a sense of humour, a sense of direction and a sense of relief), and it explores some types of sense-based collocations with two tools: the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) semantic methodology and Google. The article argues that the use of corpora and the Web combined with the use of NSM methodology opens new perspectives for the semantic and cultural study of English phraseology.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2010) Experience, evidence, & sense [BOOK]

Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). Experience, evidence, and sense: The hidden cultural legacy of English. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195368000.001.0001

This book is based on two ideas: first, that any language – English no less than any other – represents a universe of meaning, shaped by the history and experience of the men and women who have created it; and second, that in any language certain culture-specific words act as linchpins for whole networks of meanings, and that penetrating the meanings of those key words can therefore open our eyes to an entire cultural universe. This book demonstrates that three uniquely English words – evidence, experience, and sense – are exactly such linchpins. Using a rigorous plain language approach to meaning analysis, the book unpackages the dense cultural meanings of these key words, disentangles their multiple meanings, and traces their origins back to the tradition of British empiricism. In so doing the book reveals much about cultural attitudes embedded not only in British and American English, but other global varieties of English.

Table of contents:

Part I Introduction

1. Making the familiar look foreign

Part II Experience and evidence

2. Experience: An English keyword and a key cultural theme
3. Evidence: Words, ideas, and cultural practices

Part III Sense

4. The discourse of sense and the legacy of “British empiricism”
5. A sense of humour, a sense of self, and similar expressions
6. A strong sense, a deep sense, and similar expressions
7. Moral sense
8. Common sense
9. From having sense to making sense

Part IV Phraseology, semantics, and corpus linguistics

10. Investigating English phraseology with two tools: NSM and Google

Chapter 2 builds on: “Experience” in John Searle’s account of the mind: Brain, mind and Anglo culture (2006)
Chapter 7 builds on: Moral sense (2007)
Chapter 10 builds on: Exploring English phraseology with two tools: NSM semantic methodology and Google (2009)


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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