Tag: (S) emotions
Wierzbicka, Anna (1994). Emotion, language, and cultural scripts. In Shinobu Kitayama, & Hazel Rose Markus (Eds.), Emotion and culture: Empirical studies of mutual influence (pp. 133-196). Washington: American Psychological Association.
Abstract:
This chapter explores the relationship between emotion and culture, and between emotion and cognition. It examines the concept of emotion, and argues that it is culture-specific and rooted in the semantics of the English language, as are also the names of specific emotions, such as sadness, joy, anger, or fear. It shows that both the concept of emotion and the language-specific names of particular emotions can be explicated and elucidated in universal semantic primes (NSM).
NSM provides a necessary counterbalance to the uncritical use of English words as conceptual tools in the psychology, philosophy, and sociology of emotions. It offers a suitable basis for description and comparison of not only emotions and emotion concepts but also of cultural attitudes to emotions. Different cultures do indeed encourage different attitudes toward emotions, and these different attitudes are reflected in both the lexicon and the grammar of the languages associated with these cultures.
The chapter is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the language-specific character of emotion concepts and grammatical categories; the need for lexical universals as conceptual and descriptive tools; the doctrine of basic emotions and the issue of the discreteness of emotions; and the relationships among emotions, sensations, and feelings. The second part, on cultural scripts (with special reference to the Anglo and Polish cultures), explores attitudes toward emotions characteristic of different cultures (in particular, the Anglo and Polish cultures) and shows how these attitudes can be expressed in the form of cultural scripts formulated by means of universal semantic primes.
Translations:
Into Polish:
Chapter 5 (pp. 163-189) of Wierzbicka, Anna (1999), Język – umysł – kultura [Language, mind, culture]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) (endearments), (E) emotion, (E) enjoy, (E) Gefühl, (E) Gefühle, (E) sensation, (E) sentiment, (E) sentimento, (E) sentimiento, (S) bad things happen to people, (S) compliments, (S) consideration, (S) emotions, (S) feelings, (S) good things can happen to people, (S) I don't think this, (S) I say what I think, (S) I think this, (S) saying what one thinks, (S) self-analysis, (S) self-control, (S) spontaneity, (S) tact, (S) verbal and non-verbal communication, (T) English
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.
Tagged as: (E) (bare imperative), (E) (tag question), (E) (whimperative), (E) allegedly, (E) apparently, (E) assume, (E) believe, (E) believe (+ clause), (E) believe that, (E) bet, (E) certainly, (E) clearly, (E) conceivably, (E) doubt, (E) evidently, (E) expect, (E) facts, (E) fair, (E) find, (E) force (someone to do somthing), (E) gather (+ clause), (E) get (someone to do something), (E) guess (+ clause), (E) have (someone do something), (E) imagine, (E) indeed, (E) justice, (E) lie, (E) likely, (E) make (someone do something), (E) not fair, (E) obviously, (E) of course, (E) possibly, (E) presumably, (E) presume, (E) presume (+ clause), (E) probable, (E) probably, (E) reasonable, (E) reportedly, (E) sense, (E) suppose (+ clause), (E) supposedly, (E) surely, (E) suspect, (E) take it, (E) think (+ clause), (E) understand, (E) undoubtedly, (E) unreasonable, (S) accuracy, (S) agreement, (S) bare imperatives, (S) critical thinking, (S) demands, (S) directives, (S) emotions, (S) exaggeration, (S) expectations, (S) factuality, (S) good vs. bad, (S) I think vs I know, (S) justification, (S) literal meaning, (S) non-exaggeration, (S) opinions, (S) personal autonomy, (S) pressure, (S) silence, (S) think first, (T) English
Wierzbicka, Anna (2015). Natural semantic metalanguage. In Karen Tracy, Cornelia Ilie, & Todd Sandel (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction (pp. 1076-1092). New York: John Wiley.
The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is a minilanguage corresponding, evidence suggests, to the shared core of all languages. This minilanguage has as many versions as there are human languages. For example, there is an English NSM, a Russian NSM, and a Chinese NSM, with matching minilexicons and minigrammars. Each such minilexicon has a set of fewer than 100 words and a very simple grammar. For example, the lexicon of the English NSM includes the words good, bad, big, small, very, someone, and something, and the lexicon of the Russian NSM, the matching Russian words: xorošij, ploxoj, bol’šoj, malen’kij, očen, kto-to, and čto-to, with the same combinatorial possibilities (e.g., very good, očen’ xorošij). The grammar of the English NSM does not include any of the complex, language-specific machinery of full English,with its relative clauses, gerunds, participles, and so on, but it does include for example if clauses — which, evidence suggests, can be found in all languages. Thus, one can say in English (and in NSM English): “if you do this, something bad can happen to you”, and one can say in Russian (and in NSM Russian) the literal equivalent of that English sentence: “esli ty ėto sdelaeš, čto-to ploxoe možet slučit’sja s toboj”.
This encyclopedia entry introduces some of the machinery of NSM, including primes, NSM grammar, semantic molecules, and cultural scripts. It also discusses the role of “NSM English” or “minimal English” in the era of globalization.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) Bog, (E) flaque d'eau, (E) God, (E) hands, (E) legs, (E) long, (E) mana, (E) puddle, (S) addressing adults, (S) bare imperatives, (S) emotions, (S) names, (S) potential mother-in-law, (S) verbal caution, (S) whimperatives, (T) English
Wierzbicka, Anna (2015). Language and cultural scripts. In Farzad Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 339-356). New York: Routledge.
Cultural scripts are representations of cultural norms that are widely held in a given society and are reflected in language. To be faithful to the “insider perspective” and at the same time intelligible to the outsider, these representations are formulated in simple words and phrases that are cross-translatable between English (the main lingua franca of the globalizing world) and any other natural language. This mode of representation was made possible thanks to the outcomes of the decade-long cross-linguistic semantic research conducted within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage programme. Cultural scripts articulate cultural norms, values, and practices using this metalanguage as a medium of description and interpretation.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (S) communion, (S) concern, (S) emotions, (S) I think like this about it, (S) I think like this now, (S) I think something bad about you now, (S) I want to think about it before I say it, (S) mother-in-law, (S) mutual support, (S) potential mother-in-law, (S) relationships, (S) self-expression
Sun, Jaclyn Kayen (2010). Deciphering the Chinese smile: The importance of facial expressions in linguistic communication. Cross-Sections, 6, 105-120.
This paper explores the role of facial expressions in Cantonese people’s communication, with a focus on 笑 siu3 (lit. ‘smiling’, ‘laughing’, ‘grinning’). The communicative implications underlying linguistic communication are discussed with reference to two core cultural values, 和諧關係 wo4 haai4 gwaan1 hai6 or wo6 haai4 gwaan1 hai6 (lit. ‘harmonious relationship’, ‘together relationship’) and 含蓄 ham4 chuk1 (lit. ‘implicit’, ‘contained’, ‘control’), which govern the facial movements of the Chinese. Semantic explications of cultural key words and cultural scripts are generated based on the author’s personal reflections as a native speaker of Cantonese who has resided in Hong Kong for 20 years. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is used as the methodology of this paper so that these cultural values can be captured through an insider perspective, in a language that is culture-independent. The use of NSM in this present study effectively avoids ethnocentrism, while meanings can be spelt out in an undistorted way that can be understood and translated systematically across different languages, serving as a rigorous tool for comparing different cultural norms. It is hoped that this will aid better understanding of the communicative styles involved and so help to facilitate an effective intercultural communication between Chinese speakers and cultural outsiders.
The following Cantonese words are explicated: 臉色 lim5 sik1 ‘complexion, look’; 賠笑 pui4 siu3 ‘compensating smile’; 苦笑 fu2 siu3 ‘bitter smile’
Note: Provided the first line (“many people think like this”) is dropped, the cultural scripts proposed by the author for particular types of smiles are at the same time semantic explications for the phrases used in Cantonese to identify the smiles in question.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) fu2 siu3 苦笑, (E) lim5 sik1 臉色, (E) pui4 siu3 賠笑, (S) communicative styles, (S) conflict, (S) emotions, (S) relationships, (S) smiling
Hasada, Rie (2000). An exploratory study of expression of emotions in Japanese: Towards a semantic interpretation. PhD thesis, Australian National University. PDF (open access)
The present study explores the emotional world of Japanese people. Using the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory, this thesis attempts to explicate the conceptual organization of aspects of Modern Standard Japanese, with a special focus on the lexicon. This thesis also aims to explicate the cultural norms that are related to the emotion words/expressions with the use of culture-independent, universal Natural Semantic Metalanguage. A great amount of data is taken from various sources: TV or radio broadcasting, actual conversation, published literature both in Japanese and English, film scripts, dialogues in magazines, newspaper/magazine articles, comic books, advertisements, letters, dictionaries, and popular songs.
The work is organized in the following way. Chapter 1 is the introduction. Chapter 2 consists of a review of the literature on emotions and includes philosophical, anthropological, and psychological approaches. Chapter 3 demonstrates the importance of linguistic study for the research on emotions, and suggests the Natural Semantic Metalanguage as the most appropriate method for achieving the main goals of this thesis. Chapter 4 discusses the grammatical features of emotion expression sentences. Chapter 5 deals with those body parts terms which are related to emotions in Japanese. Chapters 6 to 11 explicate the meanings of various Japanese emotion words and expressions. Chapter 12 focuses on communication of nonverbal emotion in Japanese culture. Chapter 13 examines characteristic Japanese speakers’ attitudes towards emotions. Chapter 14 is the conclusion.
Wherever possible, the thesis seeks to probe into culturally-based aspects of the conceptual structure of emotion words/expressions, by drawing on a variety of anthropological, psychological, and sociological studies of Japanese society.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) (non-verbal communication), (E) ai 愛, (E) aishi 愛し, (E) aisuru 愛する, (E) akogareru 憧れる, (E) atama ni kuru 頭にき, (E) atama o kaku, (E) aware, (E) haji 恥, (E) hara ga tatsu 腹が立っ, (E) hara o tateru 腹を立てる, (E) hara 腹, (E) hazukashii 恥ずかしい, (E) horeru 惚れる, (E) ijirashii いじらしい, (E) itooshii いとおしい, (E) itoshii 愛しい, (E) jihi, (E) joo, (E) kanashii 悲しい, (E) kawaisoo かわいそう, (E) kenage 健気, (E) ki 気, (E) kinodoku 気の毒, (E) koi 恋, (E) koishii 恋しい, (E) koisuru 恋する, (E) kokoro 心, (E) kowai 怖い, (E) kuyashii 悔しい, (E) mune 胸, (E) mushi 虫, (E) nasake 情け, (E) nasakenai 情けない, (E) natsukashii 懐かしい, (E) omoiyari 思いやり, (E) osoreru 恐れる, (E) osoroshii 恐ろしい, (E) sabishii 寂しい, (E) setsunai 切ない, (E) shiawase 幸せ, (E) suki 好き, (E) tanoshii 楽しい, (E) tere-warai 照れ笑い, (E) terekusai 照れくさい, (E) tsurai 辛い, (E) uchooten 有頂天, (E) ureshii 嬉しい, (E) wabishii わびしい, (E) zoq, (S) affection, (S) emotions
Gladkova, Anna (2015). Ethnosyntax. In Farzad Sharifian (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and culture (pp. 33-50). New York: Routledge.
Abstract:
The author provides an account of research on ethnosyntax, the study of how syntax, including morphology, encodes culture. Maintaining that the theoretical foundations of ethnosyntax were laid by Sapir and Whorf, she makes a distinction between a narrow and a broad sense of ethnosyntax. Ethnosyntax in the narrow sense explores cultural meanings of particular grammatical structures, whereas ethnosyntax in the broad sense examines how pragmatic and cultural norms influence the choice of grammatical structures. Several examples are provided for each approach. As an example of morpho-syntax encoding cultural meaning, the author presents the case of Russian, where address forms often reveal attitudes of endearment and intimacy encoded by a diminutive. As an example of the second broader sense, she compares request speech acts in Russian and English, and examines how these languages employ different grammatical structures to perform the same speech act and how this usage is compatible with broader cultural norms.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tagged as: (E) (diminutives), (E) rabotaet'sja работаеться, (E) spit'sja спиться, (E) verit'sja вериться, (E) xočet'sja хочеться, (S) emotions, (S) non-imposition
