Wierzbicka, Anna (1998). *The semantics of illocutionary forces. In Asa Kasher (Ed.), Pragmatics: Critical concepts (pp. 114-169). London: Routledge.
(1998) German – Cultural scripts
Wierzbicka, Anna (1998). German ‘cultural scripts’: Public signs as a key to social attitudes and cultural values. Discourse & Society, 9(2), 241-282.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926598009002006
Abstract:
This paper is based on the following set of assumptions:
- ways of speaking characteristic of a given speech community constitute a manifestation of a tacit system of ‘cultural rules’ or ‘cultural scripts’;
- to understand a society’s ways of speaking, we have to identify and articulate its implicit cultural scripts;
- to be able to do this without ethnocentric bias we need a universal, language-independent perspective; and
- this can be attained if the ‘rules’ in question are stated in terms of lexical universals, that is, universal human concepts lexicalized in all languages of the world.
This paper applies the cultural script approach to German and compares German norms with Anglo norms (that is, norms prevailing in English-speaking societies). The author notes that, in recent decades, great changes have undoubtedly occurred in German ways of speaking and, it can be presumed, in underlying cultural values. For example, the dramatic spread of the use of the “familiar” form of address (du, as opposed to Sie), and the decline in the use of titles (e.g., Herr Müller instead of Prof. Müller) point to significant changes in interpersonal relations, in the direction of more egalitarian informality. At the same time, evidence of contemporary public signs, which are discussed here, suggests that some traditional German values, like the value of social discipline and of Ordnung (order) based on legitimate authority, are far from obsolete. It is shown that, in studying such values, we can rely on concepts more precise and more illuminating than ‘authoritarianism’ or ‘authoritarian personality’, often used in the past in analyses of German culture and society, and that the cultural scripts approach offers a rigorous and efficient tool for studying change and variation, as well as continuity, in social attitudes and cultural values.
Above all, rather than perpetuating stereotypes based on prejudice and lack of understanding, cultural scripts help outsiders grasp the ‘cultural logic’ underlying unfamiliar ways of speaking that may otherwise look like a strange collection of idiosyncracies — or worse.
Translations:
Into Russian:
Chapter 15 (pp. 682-729) of Вежбицкая, Анна (1999), Семантические универсалии и описание языков [Semantic universals and the description of languages]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки русской культуры [Languages of Russian Culture].
Chapter 4 (pp. 159-217) of Вежбицкая, Анна (2001), Сопоставление культур через посредство лексики и прагматики [Comparison of cultures through vocabulary and pragmatics]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки Славянской Культуры [Languages of Slavic Culture].
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(1998) NSM primes and linguistic typology
Wierzbicka, Anna (1998). Anchoring linguistic typology in universal semantic primes. Linguistic Typology, 2(2), 141-194. DOI: 10.1515/lity.1998.2.2.141
In essence, “grammar is one and the same in all languages”, but to establish what this universal grammar really looks like we have to investigate and compare many diverse languages, and for this we need a powerful and universally applicable metalanguage based on empirically established lexico-grammatical universals. The rough and incomplete outline of universal grammar sketched in this paper constitutes both a summary of the results arrived at by theoretical and empirical work over more than three decades (in the so-called “NSM” framework) and a program for further investigations. The author tries to show that it is possible to base investigations of universal grammar and typology on a truly universal, non-technical, non-arbitrary and intuitively intelligible tertium comparationis, and thus give it a secure and reliable foundation.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(1998) German – Emotions
Wierzbicka, Anna (1998). Angst. Culture & Psychology, 4(2), 161-188.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X9800400202
Abstract:
The author examines the meaning, and the cultural history, of the German word Angst (roughly a cross between ‘anxiety’ and ‘fear’ but with a touch of mystery or existential insecurity), which is much more common, and culturally more salient, than the word Furcht (roughly ‘fear’). She shows that from a German point of view ‘Angst’ seems a far more ‘basic’ emotion than ‘fear’, and she investigates the possible roots of the concept of ‘Angst’ in Luther’s language, inner struggles and theology. The author seeks to demonstrate that by studying the semantic system of a language in a rigorous way and within a coherent methodological framework, one can both reveal and document the cultural underpinnings of emotions – even the most elusive and unfathomable ones such as Angst.
Translations:
Into Russian:
Chapter 12 (pp. 547-610) of Вежбицкая, Анна (1999), Семантические универсалии и описание языков [Semantic universals and the description of languages]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки русской культуры [Languages of Russian Culture].
Chapter 2 (pp. 44-122) of Вежбицкая, Анна (2001), Сопоставление культур через посредство лексики и прагматики [Comparison of cultures through vocabulary and pragmatics]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки Славянской Культуры [Languages of Slavic Culture].
More information:
A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 3 (pp. 123-167) of:
Wierzbicka, Anna (1999). Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(1998) Russian – Emotions
Wierzbicka, Anna (1998). “Sadness” and “anger” in Russian: The non-universality of the so-called “basic human emotions”. In Angeliki Athanasiadou, & Elzbieta Tabakowska (Eds.), Speaking of emotions: Conceptualisation and expression (pp. 3-28). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110806007.3
Abstract:
The English words sad and angry (or sadness and anger) do not have exact equivalents in Russian, just as the Russian words грусть grust’, печаль pečal’, and сердиться serdit’sja do not have exact equivalents in English. How, then, are we to understand claims that ‘sadness’ or ‘anger’ are universal human emotions?
Emotions cannot be identified without words, and words always belong to particular cultures and carry with them a culture-specific perspective. The only words that are, in a sense, culture-independent are lexical universals, realized in English as good and bad, want, know, feel, think, and say, and so on. Any innate and universal cognitive scenarios that play a special role in human emotional lives all over the world would have to be identified via such lexical universals, not via culture-specific words such as sadness or anger. It may be true that ‘sadness’ and ‘anger’ are universally found in all cultures; but they are found there by native speakers of English. Observers looking at these cultures from a different cultural perspective will probably find something else.
Translations:
Into Russian:
Chapter 10 (pp. 503-525) of Вежбицкая, Анна (1999), Семантические универсалии и описание языков [Semantic universals and the description of languages]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки Русской Культуры [Languages of Russian Culture].
Chapter 1 (pp. 15-43) of Вежбицкая, Анна (2001), Сопоставление культур через посредство лексики и прагматики [Comparison of cultures through vocabulary and pragmatics]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки Славянской Культуры [Languages of Slavic Culture].
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2000) Grammatical categories
Wierzbicka, Anna (2000). Lexical prototypes as a universal basis for cross-linguistic identification of “parts of speech”. In Petra M. Vogel, & Bernard Comrie (Eds.), Approaches to the typology of word classes (pp. 285-318). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110806120.285
Abstract:
According to the hypothesis outlined in this paper, so-called ‘parts of speech’ can be defined and compared across languages on the basis of certain universal exemplars. It is interesting to note, however, that the approach based on exemplars can be combined, to some extent, with considerations based on universal syntax — that is, on combinatorial and substitutional properties of classes based on lexical universals. On the basis of the present cursory examination of the traditional parts of speech, and of some of their modern extensions, it is hypothesized that word classes with a wider typological significance can always be expected to have some universal syntactic properties. The most important point, however, is that to be an effective tool in the description and comparison of languages, the metalanguage of linguistics must be based on empirically established linguistic universals; this applies to parts of speech as much as to any other aspect of linguistic typology and linguistic description.
Translations:
Into Russian:
Chapter 4 (pp. 134-170) of Вежбицкая, Анна (1999), Семантические универсалии и описание языков [Semantic universals and the description of languages]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки русской культуры [Languages of Russian Culture].
Chapter 7 (pp. 216-254) of Вежбицкая, Анна (2011), Семантические универсалии и базисные концепты [Semantic universals and basic concepts]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки славянских культуры [Languages of Slavic Culture].
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(1999) Linguistic typology
Wierzbicka, Anna (1999). *A semantic basis for linguistic typology. In Yakov G. Testelets, & Ekaterina V. Rakhilina (Eds.), Festschrift for A. A. Kibrik (pp. 26-35). Moscow: Jazyki Russkoj Kul’tury.
(1999) Religion, religious understanding
Wierzbicka, Anna (1999). What did Jesus mean? The Lord’s Prayer translated into universal human concepts. In Ralph Bisschops, & James Francis (Eds.), Metaphor, canon and community: Jewish, Christian and Islamic approaches (pp. 180-216). Canterbury: Peter Lang.
Abstract:
The aim of this paper is not to suggest that Bible translators around the globe should henceforth start translating the Lord’s Prayer into universal concepts, avoiding culture-specific images and metaphorical terms such as father, kingdom, or bread. Images and terms of this kind are part and parcel of Jesus’ teaching, and some equivalents for them must be forged in any language into which the Gospels are translated.
The intended meaning of these images and terms, however, can be further elucidated in a language so simple that even a child can understand it, and based on concepts that are universally available. It is also important to recognize that behind the use of imagery and metaphor lie very specific messages – messages that can be reconstructed in a largely non-metaphorical language, and in any case without any metaphors that are not universal.
More information:
An earlier version of this chapter was published in 1995 and reissued in 2011 (with different pagination) in the LAUD Working Papers, Series A, General and Theoretical Papers, 360.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(1999) Emotions across languages and cultures [BOOK]
Wierzbicka, Anna (1999). Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Abstract:
This ground-breaking book brings psychological, anthropological and linguistic insights to bear on our understanding of the way emotions are expressed and experienced in different cultures, languages and culturally shaped social relations. The expression of emotion in the face, body and modes of speech are all explored. The author shows how the bodily expression of emotion varies across cultures and challenges traditional approaches to the study of facial expressions. As well as offering a new perspective on human emotions based on the analysis of language and ways of talking about emotion, this fascinating and controversial book attempts to identify universals of human emotion by analysing empirical evidence from different languages and cultures.
Table of contents:
- Introduction: feelings, languages, and cultures
- Defining emotion concepts: discovering ‘‘cognitive scenarios’’
- A case study of emotion in culture: German Angst
- Reading human faces
- Russian emotional expression
- Comparing emotional norms across languages and cultures: Polish vs. Anglo-American
- Emotional universals
More information:
Chapter 3 builds on: Angst (1998)
Chapter 4 builds on: Reading human faces: Emotion components and universal semantics (1993)
Chapter 5 builds on: Russian emotional expression (1998)
Various parts of other chapters build on: Emotion, language, and ‘‘cultural scripts’’ (1994)
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
The list of tags below is incomplete. It will be updated in due course.
(2000) Religion, religious understanding
Wierzbicka, Anna (2000). The salt of the earth: Explaining the meaning of some of Jesus’ sayings in the Sermon on the Mount. In L. L. Iomdin, & L. P. Krysin (Eds.), Slovo v tekste i v slovare. Sbornik statej k semidesjatiletiju akademika J. D. Apresjana (pp. 61-76). Moscow: Jazyki Russkoj Kul’tury.
Contribution to a festschrift honouring J. D. Apresjan.
(2000) Facial expressions
Wierzbicka, Anna (2000). The semantics of human facial expressions. Pragmatics and Cognition, 8(1), 142-183. DOI: 10.1075/pc.8.1.08wie
This paper points out that a major shift of paradigm is currently going on in the study of the human face and it seeks to articulate and to develop the fundamental assumptions underlying this shift. The main theses of the paper are: 1) Facial expressions can convey meanings comparable to the meanings of verbal utterances. 2) Semantic analysis (whether of verbal utterances or of facial expressions) must distinguish between the context-independent invariant and its contextual interpretations. 3) Certain components of facial behavior (“facial gestures”) do have constant context-independent meanings. 4) The meanings of facial components and configurations of components have an inherent first-person and present tense orientation. 5) The basis for the interpretation of facial gestures is, above all, experiential. 6) The meanings of some facial expressions are universally intelligible and can be interpreted without reference to any local conventions. 7) To be fruitful, the semantic analysis of facial expressions needs a methodology. This can be derived from the methodological experience of linguistic semantics. The author illustrates and supports these theses by analyzing a range of universally interpretable facial expressions such as the following ones: “brow furrowed” (i.e. eyebrows drawn together); eyebrows raised; eyes wide open; corners of the mouth raised; corners of the mouth lowered; mouth open (while not speaking); lips pressed together; upper lip and nose “raised” (and, consequently, nose wrinkled).
(2000) Emotions in the gospels
Wierzbicka, Anna (2000). *Semantics, emotions and the meaning of the gospels. In Teresa Cabré, & Cristina Gelpi (Eds.), Lèxic, corpus i diccionaris (pp.103-121). Barcelona: Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Institut Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada.
(2001) Introduction [to Harkins & Wierzbicka (2001)]
Wierzbicka, Anna, & Harkins, Jean (2001). Introduction. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.) (2001), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 1-34). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880168.1
Abstract:
The purpose of the crosslinguistic studies presented in this volume is to demonstrate how the tools of linguistic analysis can be applied to produce more accurate descriptions of the meanings of emotion words and, more generally, ways of speaking about emotions in different languages. Such analyses of linguistic meaning not only complement findings from other approaches to the study of emotions, but help to resolve methodological problems that arise when these other approaches have to deal with data from different languages. Before proceeding to the language-specific studies, we draw readers’ attention to the relevance of language in the study of human emotions, and give some background to the approaches to analysing language data that are used in these studies.
By presenting detailed semantic descriptions of culturally-situated meanings of culturally salient words used in the “emotion talk” in different cultures, we can offer glimpses into other people’s emotional lives – without
imposing on those lives a perspective derived from the vocabulary and other resources of our own native language. Since the descriptions presented here are phrased in universal, that is, shared, concepts, they can be
both faithful to the perspective of the speaker whose emotions we purport to be talking about, and intelligible to others. (These others include scholars, who often don’t seem to realise that they too are speakers of another
language, with their own spectacles, tinted by their own native language.) We can combine the insiders’ point of view with intelligibility to outsiders.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2001) Polish – Verbal aspect
Wierzbicka, Anna (2001). Universal semantic primitives and the semantics of the Polish aspect. In Viktor S. Chrakovskij, Maciej Grochowski, & Gerd Hentschel (Eds.), Studies on the syntax and semantics of Slavonic languages: Papers in honour of Andrzej Boguslawski on the occasion of his 70th birthday (pp. 429-448). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg.
(2001) Conceptual system
Wierzbicka, Anna (2001). The conceptual system in the human mind. Humboldt Kosmos, 78, 20-21.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2001) Leibniz
Wierzbicka, Anna (2001). Leibnizian linguistics. In István Kenesei, & Robert M. Harnish (Eds.), Perspectives on semantics, pragmatics, and discourse: A festschrift for Ferenc Kiefer (pp. 229-253). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/pbns.90.18wie
The “Natural Semantic Metalanguage” used currently in cross-linguistic investigations is of course not the same thing as Leibniz’s ideal and universal language. But it is an embodiment of the same basic idea. For the set of universal and presumably innate concepts postulated in current NSM work could only be arrived at by trial and error on the basis of intensive explorations of many diverse languages; and yet such explorations could only proceed in the first place on the basis of a hypothetical set of universal concepts postulated prior to any wide-ranging
cross-linguistic investigations.
The “NSM” project has proceeded all along according to the Leibnizian methodology of trial and error: first, a minimal set of hypothetical universal concepts was posited on the basis of speculation andt radition (going back to Aristotle’s Categories). Then it was continually expanded and modified as the empirical basis of the study broadened to include more and more languages, more and more conceptual domains, and more and more aspects of language structure and language use.
As a result of this process of continual revision, the number of postulated universal concepts has increased from fourteen (seeWierzbicka 1972) to sixty, and three elements from the original set (IMAGINE, WORLD, and DON’T WANT) have been definitely removed from the list. At the same time, the lexical focus of the search (that is, the focus on the “alphabet of human thoughts”) has been replaced by a more broadly-based search for a universal “language of human thoughts”, embracing both a universal lexicon and a universal grammar. Since the universal grammar is conceived in NSM work as a universal combinatorics of the lexically embodied universal concepts, the work on universal grammar constitutes a natural continuation of the work on the universal lexicon.
(2001) Polish – Emotions (PRZYKRO)
Wierzbicka, Anna (2001). A culturally salient Polish emotion: Przykro [pron. ‘pshickro]. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 337-357). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880168.337
Abstract:
The author analyses, on the basis of naturally occurring examples, the Polish word przykro, which, she argues, plays an important role in Polish emotion talk. She compares and contrasts this word with its closest English counterparts, such as hurt, offended, sorry, and sad, and she shows how each of these English words differs in meaning from the Polish key word przykro. To be able to show, clearly and precisely, what these differences are, she uses NSM and, in doing so, seeks to demonstrate the explanatory power of the proposed framework (the “NSM” semantic theory). At the same time, the author shows how language-specific lexical categories such as the Polish word przykro are linked with a culture’s core values. She also shows the cultural implications of the lexical category “hurt” in Anglo culture, and discusses the cultural implications of the absence of a word like przykro in English, and of a word like hurt in Polish.
More information:
Also published as:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2001). A culturally salient Polish emotion: Przykro [‘pshickro]. The International Journal of Group Tensions, 30(1), 3-27. DOI: 10.1023/a:1026697815334
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2001) What did Jesus mean? [BOOK]
Wierzbicka, Anna (2001). What did Jesus mean? Explaining the sermon on the mount and the parables in simple and universal human concepts. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/0195137337.001.0001
Translated into Polish as:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Co mówi Jezus? Objaśnianie przypowieści ewangelicznych w słowach prostych i uniwersalnych. Warszawa: PWN.
This book explores the meaning of Jesus’ key sayings and parables from a radically new perspective – that of simple and universal human concepts, found in all languages. Building on modern biblical criticism in general and the vast literature on the Sermon on the Mount and the parables in particular, the author also brings to the task a close knowledge of recent developments in linguistics, anthropology, and cultural psychology. Her explanations of “what Jesus meant” build on her work as the author of many books on cultural diversity and the universals of language and thought.
(2002) Russian – Cultural scripts
Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Russian cultural scripts: The theory of cultural scripts and its applications. Ethos, 30(4), 401-432.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2002.30.4.401
Abstract:
Cultural scripts reflect shared cultural understandings. They are representations of cultural norms that are widely held in a given society and that are reflected in language (in culture-specific key words, phrases, conversational routines, and so on). A key methodological principle in the theory underlying this article (a study in ethnopragmatics avant la lettre) is that the proposed cultural scripts must be formulated in NSM. The author argues that cultural scripts formulated in universal human concepts allow us to understand cultural norms and attitudes from within, that is, from the perspective of cultural insiders, while at the same time making them intelligible to outsiders as well.
In this article, the theory of cultural scripts is applied to Russian culture and, in particular, the Russian cultural scripts concerning speech, truth, and interpersonal communication (“obščenie”).
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
(2002) English – Cultural key words: REALLY, TRULY
Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Philosophy and discourse: The rise of “really” and the fall of “truly”. Cahiers de praxématique, 38, 85-112. DOI: 10.4000/praxematique.574
Does it matter that speakers of English have started to use more and more the word really and less and less the word truly? Does it matter that the word really has become very widely used in English – much more so than truly ever was? And does it matter that the references to “truth” in conversation appear to have become much less common than they used to be?
This paper argues that these things are indeed highly significant, that really does not mean the same as truly, and that the phenomenal rise of really throws a great deal of light on Anglo culture – both in a historical and comparative perspective.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
