Tag: (S) names

(2004) Cultural scripts, religion, religious understanding

Wierzbicka, Anna (2004). Jewish cultural scripts and the interpretation of the Bible. Journal of Pragmatics, 36(3), 575-599.

DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2003.09.002

Abstract:

When we read texts belonging to other epochs, lands, peoples and traditions, we must approach them in their proper cultural context and with some knowledge of this culture’s ready-made speech forms; in other words, we must try to understand the underlying cultural scripts that shaped the ways of thinking and the ways of speaking reflected in those texts. If these cultural scripts are to be made intelligible to us, they must be explained in terms that the culture alien to us shares with our own. The set of simple and universal human concepts that has been discovered in recent decades through empirical linguistic investigations can play a useful role in this regard; it can serve as a kind of a universal conceptual lingua franca to help minimize miscommunication and build cross-cultural bridges between readers and writers.

Mainstream Anglo culture, with its cherished traditions of rationality and empiricism, and with its emphasis on science and scientific discourse, values consistency, accuracy, logical formulations, absence of contradictions (on any level), absence of exaggeration, dispassionate reasoning, and so on. These are not the values of the culture of Hosea, or the culture of Jesus, just as they are not the values of the culture reflected in the stories of Sholom Aleichem or Isaac Bashevis Singer. For the modern Anglo reader of the Bible, a cross-cultural commentary is not an optional extra, but a necessity. The cultural script model can be an effective tool for the purposes of cross-cultural understanding — in personal interaction, social life, business, politics, literature, and also in religion. In particular, it can be an effective tool for the interpretation of the Bible, as literature and (for believers) as the Word of God.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2015) Natural Semantic Metalanguage

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

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(2009) Cultural scripts

Goddard, Cliff (2009). Cultural scripts. In Gunter Senft, Jan-Ola Östman, & Jef Verschueren (Eds.), Culture and language use (pp. 68-80). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/hoph.2.07god

Previously published as:

Goddard, Cliff (2006). Cultural scripts. In Jan-Ola Östman, & Jef Verschueren (Eds.), Handbook of pragmatics: Vol. 10. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/hop.10.cul2

The term ‘cultural script’ refers to a technique for articulating culture-specific norms, values, and practices in terms which are clear, precise, and accessible to cultural insiders and outsiders alike. This result is possible because cultural scripts are formulated in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) of semantic primes, a highly constrained ‘mini-language’ of simple words and grammatical patterns which evidence suggests have equivalents in all languages. Cultural scripts exist at different levels of generality (high level and lower level; high level scripts are sometimes referred to as master scripts). They may relate to different aspects of thinking, speaking, and behaviour. The cultural scripts approach offers a promising method for describing cultural norms and practices in a way that is free from Anglocentrism and that lends itself to direct practical applications in intercultural communication and education.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2014) The culture of Singapore English [BOOK]

Wong, Jock O. (2014). The culture of Singapore English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139519519

This book provides a fresh approach to Singapore English, by focusing on its cultural connotations. The author, a native Singaporean, explores a range of aspects of this rich variety of English – including address forms, cultural categories, particles, and interjections – and links particular words to particular cultural norms and values. By using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach, which is free from technical terminology, he explains the relationship between meaning and culture with maximal clarity.

An added strength of this study lies in its use of authentic examples and pictures, which offer a fascinating glimpse of Singaporean life. Through comparisons with Anglo English, it also explores some difficulties associated with Standard English and cultural misunderstanding.

Table of contents

  1. English in Singapore
  2. The language of culture and the culture of language
  3. Singlish forms of address
  4. Cultural categories and stereotypes
  5. The discourse of can in Singlish
  6. Expressions of certainty and overstatements
  7. The tonal particles of Singlish
  8. The enigmatic particle lōr
  9. Interjections: aiya and aiyo
  10. Making sense of Singlish

Chapter 3 builds on: The reduplication of Chinese names in Singapore English (2003); Social hierarchy in the ‘speech culture’ of Singapore (2006)
Chapter 4 builds on: Contextualizing aunty in Singaporean English (2006)
Chapter 5 builds on: Cultural scripts, ways of speaking and perceptions of personal autonomy: Anglo English vs. Singapore English (2004)
Chapter 6 builds on: Why you so Singlish one? A semantic and cultural interpretation of the Singapore English particle one (2005); Reduplication of nominal modifiers in Singapore English: A semantic and cultural interpretation (2004); Anglo English and Singapore English tags: Their meanings and cultural significance (2008)
Chapter 7 builds on: The particles of Singapore English: A semantic and cultural interpretation (2004); To speak or not to speak? The ‘a’ particles of Singlish (2001)


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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(2004) Ewe, Fulfulde – Areal cultural scripts

Ameka, Felix K., & Breedveld, Anneke (2004). Areal cultural scripts for social interaction in West African communities. Intercultural Pragmatics, 1(2), 167-187. DOI: 10.1515/iprg.2004.1.2.167

Taboos reflect the values and the ways of thinking of a society. They are recognized as part of the communicative competence of its speakers and are learned in socialization. Some salient taboos are likely to be named in the language of the relevant society, others may not have a name. Interactional taboos can be specific to a cultural linguistic group or they may be shared across different communities that belong to a speech area, i.e. an area in which contiguous cultural linguistic groups share similar communicative practices.

The authors claim that tacit knowledge about taboos and other interactive norms can be captured using the cultural scripts methodology. The term areal cultural script is introduced to refer to scripts that pertain to an entire speech area. The article describes a number of unnamed norms of communicative conduct that are widespread in West Africa, such as the taboos on the use of the left hand in social interaction and on the use of personal names in adult address, and the widespread preference for the use of intermediaries for serious communication. It also examines a named avoidance (yaage) behaviour specific to the Fulbe, a nomadic cattle-herding group spread from West Africa across the Sahel as far as Sudan.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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