Haser, Verena (2006). Wierzbicka’s Natural Semantic Metalanguage and cross-cultural understanding. LAUD Working Papers, Series A, General and Theoretical Papers, 659. PDF (open access)
Wierzbicka’s work on semantic primitives (henceforth abbreviated as NSM) presents one of the most intriguing and significant theories in linguistic semantics. Many definitions proposed within this framework are unrivalled for the way they illuminate the meaning of words and allow us to tease apart closely related concepts. NSM theory is not limited to linguistic concerns; accepting Wierzbicka’s general line of thought has important implications for philosophical semantics. Furthermore, her theory is surely of central concern to scholars interested in linguistic psychology.
In this essay I attempt to raise some questions that are prompted by i) a comparison between Wierzbicka’s approach and certain ideas familiar from modern philosophy of language (especially philosophy by Wittgenstein and some major exponents of his work) and ii) a case study that puts to the test Wierzbicka’s definition of game (as proposed in her Semantics: Primes and Universals, 1996). The ultimate goal of this article is to invite some response by adherents of NSM which might provide a detailed answer to some of the issues and objections raised in this article. Being fascinated by some aspects of the NSM project while harbouring some doubts concerning its application and the arguments motivating the approach, I hope that my observations might indirectly offer a modest contribution to the framework.
Sound application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
See also: (E) games
Gladkova, Anna (2015). Grammatical structures in cross-cultural comparisons. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 19(4), 57-68.
Open access
Abstract:
This paper discusses how cultural information is embedded at the level of grammar. It treats grammar as inseparable from semantics and pragmatics. The study is done within the approach known as ethnosyntax. The article provides examples of cultural meaning embedded at the level of syntax relying on examples from Russian and English. In particular, it demonstrates variation in impersonal constructions in Russian (linked up with the cultural themes of ‘irrationality’ and ‘unpredictability’) and causative constructions in English (linked up with the cultural ideas of ‘personal autonomy’ and ‘non-imposition’). It then discusses variation in the use of grammatical structures due to the influence of cultural factors on the basis of ways of wording requests in English and Russian.
The linguistic examples in the discussion are sourced from the Russian National Corpus for Russian and Collins Wordbanks Online for English. The article argues for the importance of culture-sensitive linguistic studies in language teaching.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) rabotaet'sja работаеться, (E) spit'sja спиться, (E) verit'sja вериться, (E) xočet'sja хочеться, (E) živet'sja живеться, (S) non-imposition
François, Jacques (2007). Book review of Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 102(2), 116-125.
Written in French.
This book review includes French translations of some of the explications provided in the chapters by Patrick Farrell and by Mónica Aznárez Mauleón and Ramón González Ruiz.
See also: (E) con franqueza, (E) con honestidad, (E) con sinceridad, (E) francamente, (E) honestamente, (E) nostalgia, (E) saudade, (E) sinceramente
François, Jacques (2017). Review of Bert Peeters (Ed.), Language and cultural values: Adventures in applied ethnolinguistics. Bulletin de la Société de linguistique de Paris, 112(2), 26-32.
Written in French.
See also: (E) lige, (E) Ordnung, (E) tall poppy
Eisold, Lisa (2015). Fernweh as a cultural key word: A cross-cultural linguistic analysis using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). Munich: GRIN.
Seminar paper in cross-cultural linguistics submitted at the University of Newcastle (AUS). Grade: High Distinction, 92%. Commercially available at https://www.grin.com/document/336516
Fernweh functions as a cultural key word for a whole generation of young Germans travelling the world. This short linguistic analysis examines the meanings and connotations of Fernweh, attempting to make the concept accessible to non-German speakers. Work and travel, au pair, semester abroad: more and more young Germans leave their home country to spend up to one year abroad. The more remote a destination, the more appealing the trip. This often leaves the older generations speechless. The young people’s urge to travel can be best described with the key word Fernweh, a feeling that lacks an adequate English translation. The English word wanderlust that can be found in dictionaries fails to account for the complete scope of the feeling of Fernweh as it emphasizes that the longing to travel is only a temporary one. Furthermore, the root lust suggests a strongly positive feeling. Fernweh, in contrast, not only can be triggered and answered in many different ways but also encompasses a high diversity of things someone might be longing for and a high range of feelings connected to this longing.
See also: (E) Fernweh
Ketut Alit Suputra, Gusti; Budirasa, Made; Dhanawaty Ni Made; & Putu Putra, A. A. (2016). The meanings of the Balinese ‘to eat’: A study of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). e-Journal of Linguistics, 10(2), 153–167. PDF (open access)
This study discusses the meaning of a number of verbs referring to the act of eating in Balinese, showing each has its own distinctive features. The verbs are ngrayunang, ngajeng, daar, nunas, nede, ngamah, nidik, nyaplok, caklok, ngleklek, and nyanggol. The study relies on oral (primary) and written (secondary) data. The method used in data collection was observation and conversation. Results of the data analysis are presented by using formal and informal methods.
Crude application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
See also: (E) caklok, (E) daar, (E) nede, (E) ngajeng, (E) ngamah, (E) ngleklek, (E) ngrayunang, (E) nidik, (E) nunas, (E) nyanggol, (E) nyaplok
Wierzbicka, Anna (2018). Speaking about God in universal words, thinking about God outside English. In Paul Chilton, & Monika Kopytowska (Eds.), Religion, language, and the human mind (pp. 19-51). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190636647.003.0002
Abstract:
This chapter argues that vocabulary that is not intelligible to many “ordinary speakers” and not translatable into most languages of the world imprisons its users in a conceptual space defined by culture-specific English words and prevents genuine cross-cultural dialogue about God and religion. It seeks to demonstrate that it is possible to speak about God without relying on such complex and culturally shaped concepts and to think about God and religion afresh, in a new conceptual language based on the lexical and grammatical common core of all languages. As a result of a program of cross-linguistic investigations, researchers believe that we now have a very good idea of what the shared lexical and grammatical core of all languages looks like and believe that different language-specific versions of this common core can function as minimal languages and be used for furthering understanding across cultures without bias.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Goddard, Cliff (1994). The meaning of lah: Understanding “emphasis” in Malay (Bahasa Melayu). Oceanic Linguistics, 33(1), 145-165. DOI: 10.2307/3623004
The meaning of the illocutionary particle lah, a salient feature of Colloquial Malay, as well as of Malaysian and Singapore English, has proved notoriously difficult to pinpoint. For instance, with declaratives it may convey either “light-heartedness” or an “ill-tempered” effect, and it may either “soften” or “harden” a request. In this article, the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach of Anna Wierzbicka is applied to the analysis of lah. This involves developing a translatable reductive paraphrase explication. According to the proposed explication, which is the length of a short paragraph, lah offers an explanation of the speaker’s illocutionary purpose, which is roughly to correct or preempt a misapprehension or misunderstanding of some kind. The explication is shown to be flexible enough to predict the diverse effects that lah itself may convey in combination with other elements of an utterance, once Malay cultural norms of verbal interaction are taken into account.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) lah
Martín Arista, Javier (2018). The semantic poles of Old English: Toward the 3D representation of complex polysemy. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 33(1), 96-111. DOI: 10.1093/llc/fqx004
This article, which attempts to explain some aspects of verbal polysemy in Old English, develops its main claims with reference to NSM primes belonging to different categories (mental predicates, speech, actions/events/movement/contact, location/existence/possession/specification, life and death). It does not proceed to the identification of potential exponents, except in the case of the prime TRUE.
No rating is applied, since there is no engagement with NSM as a tool for semantic explication.
Wierzbicka, Anna (2018). Emotions of Jesus. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 22(1), 38-53.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22363/2312-9182-2018-22-1-38-53 / Open access
Abstract:
The idea that we can pinpoint what Jesus meant with one word, from a particular language (be it Russian, English, Greek or Aramaic), is simplistic. To fully understand Jesus’ teaching about ‘anger’ in a precise and unbiased way, we need to go beyond single words of this or that language; we need to try to articulate it through simple sentences couched in universal words. In addition, what applies to Jesus’ teaching about emotions also applies to Jesus’ ’emotional practice’. What did he feel when he saw someone doing something very bad, or someone to whom something very bad was happening?
NSM allows us to replace crude formulations such as “Did Jesus feel angry?” or “What did Jesus teach about anger?” with questions that are far more fine-grained, and that enable us to reach far more fine-grained and meaningful answers.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) adēmonein αδημονείν, (E) aganakteo αγανακτέο, (E) ekthambeisthai εκθαμβεισθαι
Habib, Sandy (2017). Dying for a cause other than God: Exploring the non-religious meanings of martyr and shahīd. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 37(3), 314-327.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2017.1298395
Abstract:
This paper looks into the non-religious meanings of English martyr and its near Arabic equivalent شهيد shahīd. It compares and contrasts them and provides an explication of each, using NSM. Both concepts refer to a person who was killed. Both are hailed for sacrificing their lives. To be called a martyr, a person has to have been killed for adhering and fighting for a higher cause, such as peace, the environment or their country; this person can be from any country and of any ethnicity. To be called شهيد shahīd, on the other hand, a person must have been killed on political grounds only and has to have been an Arab living in an Arab country.
The two explications are built out of mostly simple and universal words. This means that they are easy to comprehend and translatable into any language. Their translatability grants cultural outsiders access to their exact meaning.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) martyr, (E) shahīd شهيد
Gusmeldi, Ridha Fitryani (2017). Indonesian cultural keyword hati and its English translation. Master’s thesis, Australian National University.
Hati, regarded by Indonesian speakers as the central controller of psychological functioning, is a cultural key word that is very difficult to translate into other languages. Due to this fact, selecting equivalent words for target texts, as well as understanding the concept of hati itself, is highly challenging. However, without a good understanding of this cultural key word, cultural and linguistic misunderstandings of hati-related terms are bound to emerge in translation.
This thesis investigates the meanings and English translations of hati-related terms in Bahasa Indonesia. Hati-related terms are grouped into several categories: feeling, moral judgement, thinking, religion, and physical meaning. The eleven highest frequency terms including hati are explicated using semantic primes. The terms are dalam hati, sepenuh hati, sakit hati, patah hati, senang hati, besar hati, menarik hati, baik hati, rendah hati and sesuka hati.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) baik hati, (E) besar hati, (E) dalam hati, (E) hati, (E) menarik hati, (E) patah hati, (E) rendah hati, (E) sakit hati, (E) senang hati, (E) sepenuh hati, (E) sesuka hati, (T) Malay
Goddard, Cliff (2018). Ten lectures on Natural Semantic Metalanguage: Exploring language, thought and culture using simple, translatable words. Leiden: Brill. DOI: 10.1163/9789004357723
These lively lectures introduce the theory, practice, and application of a versatile, rigorous, and non-Anglocentic approach to cross-linguistic semantics.
Table of contents:
- Preliminary material
- From Leibniz to Wierzbicka: The history and philosophy of NSM
- Semantic primes and their grammar
- Explicating emotion concepts across languages and cultures
- Wonderful, terrific, fabulous: English evaluational adjectives
- Semantic molecules and semantic complexity
- Words as carriers of cultural meaning
- English verb semantics: Verbs of doing and saying
- English verb alternations and constructions
- Applications of NSM: Minimal English, cultural scripts and language teaching
- Retrospect: NSM compared with other approaches to semantic analysis
Chapter 3 discusses selected exponents of primes in Farsi (Persian). Chapter 4 provides an explication of a North-Spanish homesickness word (morriña). Chapter 7 provides an explication of Chinese 孝 xiào ‘filial piety’.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) Alles in Ordnung, (E) ask, (E) at night, (E) believe that, (E) blink, (E) brilliant, (E) build, (E) children, (E) complex, (E) contented, (E) crawl, (E) cut, (E) delighted, (E) delightful, (E) dig, (E) during the day, (E) eat, (E) entertaining, (E) excellent, (E) exciting, (E) great, (E) happy, (E) homesick, (E) impressive, (E) know someone, (E) know that, (E) lykke, (E) memorable, (E) men, (E) morriña, (E) mouth, (E) not fair, (E) order, (E) pleased, (E) pour, (E) powerful, (E) sčitat’ čto считать что, (E) sky, (E) stars, (E) stunning, (E) suggest, (E) sun, (E) swim, (E) tell, (E) terrific, (E) tęsknić, (E) water, (E) women, (E) wonderful, (E) xiào 孝, (E) xìngfú 幸福, (S) expressiveness, (S) feelings, (S) personal autonomy, (S) personal comments, (S) personal remarks, (S) requests, (S) sincerity, (T) Chinese, (T) English, (T) Finnish, (T) semantic molecules
Stecconi, S. (2010). Per un’analisi di concetti chiave dell’ambito politico secondo il Natural Semantic Metalanguage: un confronto italiano-inglese. MSc thesis, Università Cattolica di Milano.
Farese, Gian Marco (2017-18). The Fundamental Principles of the Italian constitution: A semantic analysis. Quaderni di Semantica, n.s. 3-4, 667-746.
Abstract:
This paper presents a semantic analysis of the so-called “Fundamental Principles”, the first twelve articles of the Italian constitution. The purpose of the paper is to analyse the Italian constitution as a literary text, not a legal text. Thus, the focus of the present analysis is strictly on the linguistic aspects of the Fundamental Principles, not on the juridical ones. The meaning of the key words of these twelve articles is analysed adopting the methodology of the NSM approach, whereas the language and the structure of the text are analysed following the principles of text linguistics. The reader is able to appreciate the Fundamental Principles both in the original version and in a revised English translation.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) dignità, (E) eguaglianza, (E) inderogabile, (E) inviolabile, (E) libertà, (E) nazione, (E) ripudiare, (E) solidarietà, (T) Italian
Arnawa, Nengah (2017). The implementation of Natural Semantic Metalanguage and semantic field in language teaching: A case study. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 8(3), 507-515. DOI: 10.17507/jltr.0803.08
This study presents a model for teaching Balinese words by implementing Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) and semantic field theory. Data were collected before and after the development of the model with certain indicators: the speed in understanding word meaning, the skill in using words in natural sentence structure, and students’ learning creativity. Based on statistical analysis, it was established that the implementation of NSM and semantic field theory was very effective (significant) for the learning of Balinese words in students of grades 1, 2, and 3.
This paper is about language learning. It does not contain any explications or scripts. No rating is provided.
Dziedziul, Paweł (2017). The universal categories of praxeology in light of Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory. Libertarian Papers, 9(2), 249-276.
This article presents a new approach to considering the categories and concepts necessary for praxeology based on the theoretical framework proposed by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard. Natural semantic metalanguage theory can be a comprehensive method for defining the conceptual foundations of human action and of rational discussion in general. Behind the very premise of praxeology lies the basis from which one may infer the universal parts of “human semantics.” Therefore, it is possible to attach a praxeological interpretation to the shape that natural semantic metalanguage theory has taken. Additionally, the linguistic framework proposed by Wierzbicka enables a precise and coherent description of the universal foundation of human cognition that can be transferred to reflections surrounding the study of purposeful human behavior. This contemporary version of the concept of lingua mentalis is not only a useful tool in a discussion of hermeneutics and relativism, but has also undergone considerable empirical testing.
Roberts, Michael (2010). The lexical semantics of social categories: demonyms and occupation words in English. MA thesis, University of New England, Armidale. PDF (open access)
First and foremost, this thesis is an exploration of the lexical semantics of selected English social category words, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). It will explicate two sets of social category words, identify commonalities between the explications, and in turn identify sub-classes based upon the shared semantic structures. A subsidiary goal is to explore the syntactic and phraseological properties of each subclass, using online corpora and journals and newspapers from a variety of sources. The three corpora are the British National Corpus–Brigham Young University, the Corpus of Contemporary American English, and Collins Wordbanks Online. The question of interest is the extent to which the syntactic and phraseological properties of human social category words can be accounted for by their semantic properties. The thesis makes no attempt to focus on any one particular dialect of English. It generally draws on written English from Australian, British and American sources; however, if it becomes apparent that there are strong differences between these dialects, these differences are mentioned.
Alexander, Dennis Colin (2008). Literal, figurative, abstract: A semantic investigation into literal meanings and metaphorical uses of English game and play. PhD thesis, University of New England.
This thesis is an investigation into the semantics of abstract words and figurative language. Prompted in part by the claims of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson that abstract concepts are fleshed out by systems of conceptual metaphors, this investigation finds that there is no semantic deficiency in the meaning of the abstract expressions game and play that necessitates augmentation with metaphorical meaning.
The introduction of the thesis sets the scene for the investigation in the diverse literature on meaning, metaphor, and abstraction. It also describes the main tool of semantic analysis used in the investigation, the Natural Semantic Metalanguage developed by Anna Wierzbicka. The central chapters explicate in detail the literal and figurative meaning respectively of selected senses of game and play based on examples drawn from the Australian Corpus of English and WordBanks. The literal explications are applied to explicate the metaphors business is a game, life is a game, and doing business is playing. A tripartite schema for explications of metaphors is adapted and formalized from one developed by Cliff Goddard. This schema embodies the literal meanings of the topic and vehicle terms and a metaphoric dictum relating them in the specific context of use. Explications in this schema provide a description of, and insight into, the meaning of these and other metaphors. It is argued that this mode of presentation satisfies a range of linguistic and psycholinguistic constraints.
The abstract concepts of game and play are shown to be more than mere skeletons in need of fleshing out by conceptual metaphors. Indeed, in and of themselves game and play act as vehicles (source domains) for metaphors on business, life and doing business. Out of these explications, analyses and discussions emerges a clear and coherent demonstration of the central role of the lexically encoded literal meanings of the topic (target) and vehicle (source) terms in understanding the contextualized meaning of a specific metaphor. While other scholars have tacitly or expressly acknowledged this priority, this thesis represents the first substantial demonstration of this priority using naturally occurring examples and a rigorous method of explication with a constrained metalanguage. It also suggests some accepted psycholinguistic approaches that can be used to test these hypotheses.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) game, (E) play
Wierzbicka, Anna, & Goddard, Cliff (2018). Talking about our bodies and their parts in Warlpiri. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 38(1), 31-62. DOI: 10.1080/07268602.2018.1393862
Linguists generally assume that all languages have some words for parts of the human body such as ‘head’, ‘hands’, ‘mouth’, and ‘legs’, but it is not so widely agreed that speakers of all languages can speak – or even consciously think – of the designata of such words as ‘parts of the body’. NSM researchers have long maintained that PART(S) is a universal semantic prime, i.e., an indefinable meaning expressible by words or phrases in all human languages. However, it has been claimed that the Australian language Warlpiri, for instance, lacks any suitable lexical equivalent of ‘part(s)’. Using data from the Warlpiri English Encyclopedic Dictionary, this study contests this claim, arguing that the relevant sense of ‘part’ exists in Warlpiri as one sense of the polysemous closed-class item yangka (whose main meaning can be stated, roughly, as ‘that one, you know the one’). The study also considers broader issues to do with semantic theory, polysemy and translation.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
