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(2007) English, French, Polish, Korean – Physical qualities

Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2007). NSM analyses of the semantics of physical qualities: sweet, hot, hard, heavy, rough, sharp in cross-linguistic perspective. Studies in Language, 31(4), 765-800.

DOI: 10.1075/sl.31.4.03god

Abstract:

All languages have words such as English hot and cold, hard and soft, rough and smooth, and heavy and light, which attribute qualities to things. This paper maps out how such descriptors can be analysed in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) framework, in terms of like and other semantic primes configured into a particular “semantic schema”: essentially, touching something with a part of the body, feeling something in that part, knowing something about that thing because of it, and thinking about that thing in a certain way because of it. Far from representing objective properties of things “as such”, it emerges that physical quality concepts refer to embodied human experiences and embodied human sensations. Comparisons with French, Polish and Korean show that the semantics of such words may differ significantly from language to language.

More information:

A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 3 (pp. 55-79) of:

Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The term schema, used in the 2007 version of the text, refers to what has since been called a semantic template.

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(2007) NSM primes

Goddard, Cliff (2007). Semantic primes and conceptual ontology. In Andrea C. Schalley, & Dietmar Zaefferer (Eds.), Ontolinguistics: How ontological status shapes the linguistic coding of concepts (pp. 145-173). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110197792.2.145

The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to language analysis, originated by Anna Wierzbicka, claims to have identified some 65 universal semantic primes. They can be grouped in various ways, using syntactic and/or “thematic” criteria. The present study concentrates on a set of primes which may be termed “substantive”, and which form the foundation of the nominal lexicon. After an introduction in Section 1, Section 2 gives an account of the NSM substantive primes. Section 3 addresses the question of how major divisions within the nominal vocabulary are constructed either exclusively from semantic primes, or from primes in combination with semantic molecules. Concluding remarks form Section 4.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2007) Semantic molecules

Goddard, Cliff (2007). Semantic molecules. In Ilana Mushin, & Mary Laughren (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2006 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. PDF (open access)

This paper explains and explores the concept of semantic molecules in the NSM methodology of semantic analysis. A semantic molecule is a complex lexical meaning that functions as an intermediate unit in the structure of other, more complex concepts. The paper undertakes an overview of different kinds of semantic molecule, showing how they enter into more complex meanings and how they themselves can be explicated. It shows that four levels of “nesting” of molecules within molecules are attested, and it argues that while some molecules, such as ‘hands’ and ‘make’, may well be language-universal, many others are language-specific.


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(2007) English – Mental states

Goddard, Cliff (2007). A “lexicographic portrait” of forgetting. In Mengistu Amberber (Ed.), The language of memory in a crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 119-137). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.21.08god

Abstract:

This study aims to provide a detailed NSM analysis of the English verb forget. It examines its three main clausal complement types (to-complement, e.g. I forgot to lock the door; that-complement, e.g. I forgot that the door was locked; and wh-complement, e.g. I forgot where I put the key), NP-complements, and several more specialized constructions.

The picture that emerges is of a set of interrelated lexicogrammatical constructions, each with a specific meaning, forming a polysemic lexical “family”. Although the study concentrates on English alone, the semantic differences between the various constructions it has identified make it rather clear that one cannot expect a similar range of meanings to map across to apparently similar lexemes in other languages.

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(2007) English, Korean, Malay, Swedish – Mental states

Goddard, Cliff (2007). A culture-neutral metalanguage for mental state concepts. In Andrea C. Schalley, & Drew Khlentzos (Eds.), Mental states: Vol. 2. Language and cognitive structure (pp. 11-35). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.93.04god

Abstract:

In contemporary cognitive science, mental state concepts from diverse cultures are typically described via English-specific words for emotions, cognitive processes, and the like. This is terminological ethnocentrism, which produces inaccurate representations of indigenous meanings. The problem can be overcome by employing a metalanguage of conceptual analysis based on simple meanings such as KNOW, THINK, WANT and FEEL. Cross-linguistic semantic research suggests that these and other semantic primes are shared across all languages and cultures. After summarizing this research, the chapter shows how complex mental state concepts from English, Malay, Swedish, and Korean can be revealingly analysed into terms that are simple, clear and transposable across languages.

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(2008) Universal human concepts

Goddard, Cliff, & Anna Wierzbicka (2008). Universal human concepts as a basis for contrastive linguistic semantics. In María de los Ángeles Gómez González, J. Lachlan Mackenzie, & Elsa M. González Álvarez (Eds.), Current trends in contrastive linguistics: Functional and cognitive  perspectives (pp. 205-226). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/sfsl.60.13god

This study sets out to demonstrate that the NSM metalanguage of semantic primes provides a stable language-neutral medium for fine-grained contrastive semantic analysis, in both the lexical and grammatical domains. The lexical examples are drawn from “yearning-missing” words in English, Polish, Russian and Spanish, while the grammatical examples contrast the Spanish diminutive with the hypocoristic “diminutive” of Australian English. We show that the technique of explication (reductive paraphrase) into semantic primes makes it possible to pin down subtle meaning differences which cannot be captured using normal translation or grammatical labels. Explications for the Polish, Russian and Spanish examples are presented both in English and in the language concerned, thus establishing that the metalanguage being used is transposable across languages.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2008) NSM primes (“Specificational BE”, “abstract THIS/IT”)

Goddard, Cliff, & Wierzbicka, Anna (2008). New semantic primes and new syntactic frames: “Specificational BE” and “abstract THIS/IT”. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 35-57). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.06god

In section 1, we propose a “new” semantic prime — specificational BE — and show how it can be used to analyse some classic problems in the semantics of naming and reference. In section 2, we explore a newly recognised syntactic option of the prime THIS, here termed “abstract THIS/IT”. Both the new possibilities are involved in the semantics of specificational and focus constructions of English. These are the topic of section 3.

(2008) English, Swedish – ‘Think’

Goddard, Cliff, & Karlsson, Susanna (2008). Re-thinking THINK in contrastive perspective: Swedish vs. English. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 225-240). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.14god

This chapter builds on:

Goddard, Cliff, & Karlsson, Susanna (2004). Re-thinking THINK: Contrastive semantics of Swedish and English. In Christo Moskovsky (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2003 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2003.html

Swedish and English differ in interesting ways in relation to how they express the semantic prime THINK and related concepts. At first, it is not even obvious that there is a good Swedish exponent of THINK, because many uses of English think correspond not with Swedish tänka ‘think’, but with either tro (roughly) ‘be of the opinion that’ or tycka (very roughly) ‘feel that’. It is shown that, in fact, English think and Swedish tänka are precise semantic equivalents in canonical NSM contexts, and that tro and tycka, termed “epistemic verbs”, can be explicated in terms of the semantic prime THINK (TÄNKA) and other elements. Similarly, English think has certain complex, i.e. non-primitive uses, namely the “opinion” frame (e.g. She thinks that – –) and the conversational formula I think, and these English-specific constructions can be explicated. All the explications are presented in parallel English and Swedish versions. The contrastive exercise makes it clear that in universal grammar THINK can take a propositional complement (i.e. ‘think that – –’) only when it depicts an “occurrent thought” anchored to a particular time.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2008) NSM – Systematic table of semantic elements

Goddard, Cliff (2008). Towards a systematic table of semantic elements. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 59-81. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.07god

Semantic primes can be seen to fall into natural groups according to their grammatical properties and functional affiliations. This chapter explores ways in which these groupings, properties and affiliations can be systematised and displayed in tabular form, by analogy with the Periodic Table of chemical elements. It begins by reviewing the current “thematic” grouping of primes, observing that some of the categories, e.g. “time”, “space”, “logical elements”, contain elements of syntactically heterogeneous kinds. It then works in turn through different sections of the prime inventory, exploring tabular layouts which better display alignments such as deictic character, similar valency and complementation properties, the possibility of scalar modification, and so on. Non-compositional semantic relationships, as evidenced by cross-linguistically recurrent patterns of polysemy, are also taken into account to some extent. While incomplete in some respects, the investigation brings to light a number of findings about the structure and internal dynamics of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage.

(2008) NSM (State of the art)

Goddard, Cliff (2008). Natural Semantic Metalanguage: The state of the art. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 1-34). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.05god

(2008) English, Malay – Ethnopsychology and personhood

Goddard, Cliff (2008). Contrastive semantics and cultural psychology: English heart vs. Malay hati. In Farzad Sharifian, René Dirven, Ning Yu, & Susanne Niemeier (Eds.), Culture, body, and language: Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages (pp. 75-102). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199109.2.75

Abstract:

This is a contrastive NSM analysis of two ethnopsychological constructs (English heart, Malay hati). Rejecting the use of English-specific metaterminology, such as mind, cognition, affect, etc., as both ethnocentric and inaccurate, the study seeks to articulate the conceptual content of the words under investigation in terms of simple universal concepts such as FEEL, THINK, WANT, KNOW, PEOPLE, SOMEONE, PART, BODY, HAPPEN, GOOD and BAD.

For both words, the physical body-part meaning is first explicated, and then the ethnopsychological sense or senses (it is claimed that English heart has two distinct ethnopsychological senses). The chapter also reviews the phraseology associated with each word, and in the case of English heart, proposes explications for a number of prominent collocations: a broken heart, listening to your heart, losing heart and having your heart in it.

The concluding discussion makes some suggestions about experiential/semantic principles whereby body parts can come to be associated with cultural models of feeling, thinking, wanting and knowing. At a theoretical level, the study seeks to draw links between culturally informed cognitive semantics, on the one hand, and the field of cultural psychology, on the other.

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(2008) Cross-linguistic semantics [BOOK]

Goddard, Cliff (Ed.) (2008). Cross-linguistic semantics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.102

Abstract:

Cross-linguistic semantics is central to the linguistic quest to understand the nature of human language. This set of studies explores and demonstrates cross-linguistic semantics as practised in the NSM framework.

The opening chapters give a state-of-the-art overview of the NSM model, propose several theoretical innovations and advance a number of original analyses in connection with names and naming, clefts and other specificational sentences, and discourse anaphora. Subsequent chapters describe and analyse diverse phenomena in ten languages from multiple families, geographical locations, and cultural settings around the globe. Three substantial studies document how the metalanguage of NSM semantic primes can be realized in languages of widely differing types: Amharic (Ethiopia), Korean, and East Cree. Each constitutes a lexicogrammatical portrait in miniature of the language concerned. Other chapters probe topics such as inalienable possession in Koromu (Papua New Guinea), epistemic verbs in Swedish, hyperpolysemy in Bunuba (Australia), the expression of ‘momentariness’ in Berber, ethnogeometry in Makasai (East Timor), value concepts in Russian, and “virtuous emotions” in Japanese.

Table of contents:

I. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory

1. Natural Semantic Metalanguage: The state of the art (Cliff Goddard)
2. New semantic primes and new syntactic frames: “Specificational BE” and “abstract THIS/IT” (Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka)
3. Towards a systematic table of semantic elements (Cliff Goddard)

II. Whole metalanguage studies

4. Semantic primes in Amharic (Mengistu Amberber)
5. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage of Korean (Kyung-Joo Yoon)
6. Semantic primes and their grammar in a polysynthetic language: East Cree (Marie-Odile Junker)

III. Problems in semantic metalanguage

7. Hyperpolysemy in Bunuba, a polysynthetic language of the Kimberley, Western Australia (Emily Knight)
8. Re-thinking THINK in contrastive perspective: Swedish vs. English (Cliff Goddard, & Susanna Karlsson)
9. Identification and syntax of semantic prime MOMENT in Tarifyt Berber (Noureddine Elouazizi, & Radoslava Trnavac)

IV. Semantic studies across languages

10. The ethnogeometry of Makasai (East Timor) (Anna Brotherson)
11. The semantics of “inalienable possession” in Koromu (PNG) (Carol Priestley)
12. Tolerance: New and traditional values in Russian in comparison with English (Anna Gladkova)
13. Two “virtuous emotions” in Japanese: Nasake/joo and jihi (Rie Hasada)

Each chapter has a separate entry, where more information is provided.

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Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2009) English, Polish, Japanese – ‘Cut’, ‘chop’

Goddard, Cliff, & Wierzbicka, Anna (2009). Contrastive semantics of physical activity verbs: ‘Cutting’ and ‘chopping’ in English, Polish, and Japanese. Language Sciences, 31, 60-96. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2007.10.002

This study explores the contrastive lexical semantics of verbs comparable to ‘cut’ and ‘chop’ in three languages (English, Polish, and Japanese), using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) technique of semantic analysis. It proposes a six-part semantic template, and argues that this template can serve as a basis for a lexical typology of complex physical activity verbs in general. At the same time, it argues that language-specific aspects of the semantics are often culturally motivated. Nine verbs are examined (English cut, chop, slice, Polish ciąć ‘‘cut’’, krajać ‘‘cut/slice’’, obcinać ‘‘cut around’’, rąbać ‘‘chop’’, Japanese kiru ‘‘cut’’, kizamu ‘‘chop’’), and NSM explications are proposed for each one based on its range of use in natural contexts, thus capturing the semantic similarities and differences in fine-grained detail.

Contrastive semantics; Lexical semantics; Physical activity verbs; NSM; Lexical typology; Semantic template; Lexicology; Polysemy; Semantics and culture

(2009) English (Australia) – Not taking yourself too seriously

Goddard, Cliff (2009). Not taking yourself too seriously in Australian English: Semantic explications, cultural scripts, corpus evidence. Intercultural Pragmatics, 6(1), 29-53. DOI: 10.1515/IPRG.2009.002

In the mainstream speech culture of Australia (as in the UK, though perhaps more so in Australia), taking yourself too seriously is culturally
proscribed. This study applies the techniques of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) semantics and ethnopragmatics (Goddard 2006b, 2008; Wierzbicka 1996, 2003, 2006a) to this aspect of Australian English speech culture. It first develops a semantic explication for the language-specific expression taking yourself too seriously, thus helping to give access to an ‘‘insider perspective’’ on the practice. Next, it seeks to identify some of the broader communicative norms and social attitudes that are involved, using the method of cultural scripts (Goddard and Wierzbicka 2004). Finally, it investigates the extent to which predictions generated from the analysis can be supported or disconfirmed by contrastive analysis of Australian English corpora as against other English corpora, and by the use of the Google search engine to explore different subdomains of the World Wide Web.

(2009) Numbers and counting

Goddard, Cliff (2009). The conceptual semantics of numbers and counting: An NSM analysis. Functions of Language, 16(2), 193-224. DOI: 10.1075/fol.16.2.02god

This study explores the conceptual semantics of numbers and counting, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) technique of semantic analysis (Wierzbicka 1996; Goddard & Wierzbicka (eds.) 2002). It first argues that the concept of a number in one of its senses (number-1, roughly, “number word”) and the meanings of low number words, such as one, two, and three, can be explicated directly in terms of semantic primes, without reference to any counting procedures or practices. It then argues, however, that the larger numbers, and the productivity of the number sequence, depend on the concept and practice of counting, in the intransitive sense of the verb. Both the intransitive and transitive senses of counting are explicated, and the semantic relationship between them is clarified. Finally, the study moves to the semantics of abstract numbers (number-2), roughly, numbers as represented by numerals, e.g. 5, 15, 27, 36, as opposed to number words. Though some reference is made to cross-linguistic data and cultural variation, the treatment is focused primarily on English.

(2009) English – ‘Communication’, ‘language’

Goddard, Cliff (2009). The ‘communication concept’ and the ‘language concept’ in everyday English. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 29(1), 11-25. DOI: 10.1080/07268600802516350

This paper presents a semantic/conceptual analysis of the concepts of communication and language, as represented in the lexicon of everyday English. Section 1 gives a brief orientation to the method to be employed, the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach originated by Anna Wierzbicka. In the main body of the paper, I propose semantic explications for several senses of the English words communicate, communication and language, supporting these explications by reference to naturally occurring data, and, in the case of polysemy, by reference to distinctive grammatical or phraseological properties of the polysemic meanings. The paper closes with observations on how the differing semantics of the ‘communication concept’ and the ‘language concept’ may contribute to the differing orientations of linguistics and communication studies.

Lexical Semantics; Communication; Language Concept; NSM

(2009) English, Malay – Proverbs

Goddard, Cliff (2009). “Like a crab teaching its young to walk straight”: Proverbiality, semantics, and indexicality in English and Malay. In Gunter Senft, & Ellen B. Basso (Eds.), Ritual communication (pp. 103-125). New York: Berg.

My objective is to give a balanced, contrastive treatment of the textual semantics, cultural-historical positioning, and interdiscursivity of proverbs in two widely different speech cultures. In what follows, I look first at contemporary English, addressing the way proverbs, as instances of a language-specific category, can be identified on linguistic evidence. I propose a template in the NSM metalanguage to articulate the semantic framing inherent in the proverb genre (essentially, the semantic content of “proverbiality”) and demonstrate the utility of the approach with a full analysis of several English metaphorical proverbs (“A stitch in time saves nine”) and maxims (“Practice makes perfect”). I discuss aspects of the interdiscursivity of proverbs in English, with particular reference to the ethos of modernity. In the remainder of the chapter, I apply a parallel analysis and discussion to proverbs (peribahasa) in contemporary Malay, including the metaphorical Malay proverb Seperti ketam mengajar anak berjalan betul ‘like a crab teaching its young to walk straight’.

(2010) NSM primes (WANT)

Goddard, Cliff, & Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). ‘Want’ is a lexical and conceptual universal: Reply to Khanina. Studies in Language, 34(1), 108-123. DOI: 10.1075/sl.34.1.04god

The question of whether or not all languages have a word for ‘want’ (as in ‘I know what you want, I want the same’) is far more important than many linguists appear to realize. Having studied and debated this question for many years, we welcome Olesya Khanina’s (2008) paper “How universal is ‘wanting’?”, which, we believe, addresses a question of fundamental importance. Our own view — which we have sought to substantiate in a large number of publications, over many years (cf. Wierzbicka 1972, 1996; Goddard 1991, 2001; Goddard and Wierzbicka eds. 1994, 2002; Peeters ed. 2006) — is that WANT is a universal semantic prime, i.e. an indivisible unit of meaning with a lexical exponent in all languages. In the present article, we argue that although Khanina has produced valuable results about cross-linguistic patterns in the polysemy of exponents of WANT, she has failed to demonstrate her concluding point, namely, “that ‘want’ is not a universal semantic prime in the sense of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage … [and] that the inclusion of WANT in this list [of semantic primes] is indeed false” (p. 848). Briefly, we will argue that Khanina’s conclusion depends, first, on an a priori decision not to recognise the existence of polysemy; and
second, on a misunderstanding of the NSM position on what it means to be a lexical exponent of a semantic prime. We will also argue that ‘wanting’ constitutes an indispensable conceptual building block in human communication and cognition, and in linguistic and psychological theorizing about communication and cognition.

(2010) Semantic analysis

Goddard, Cliff, & Andrea C. Schalley (2010). Semantic analysis. In Nitin Indurkhya, & Fred J. Damerau (Eds.), Handbook of natural language processing: Second edition (pp. 93-120). Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC.

Two important themes form the grounding for the discussion in this chapter. First, there is great value in conducting semantic analysis, as far as possible, in such a way as to reflect the cognitive reality of ordinary speakers. This makes it easier to model the intuitions of native speakers and to simulate their inferencing processes, and it facilitates human–computer interactions via querying processes, and the like. Second, there is concern over to what extent it will be possible to achieve comparability, and, more ambitiously, interoperability, between different systems of semantic description. For both reasons, it is highly desirable if semantic analyses can be conducted in terms of intuitive representations, be it in simple ordinary language or by way of other intuitively accessible representations.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2010) Environmental semantic molecules

Goddard, Cliff (2010). Semantic molecules and semantic complexity (with special reference to “environmental” molecules). Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 8(1), 123-155. DOI: 10.1075/ml.8.1.05god

In the NSM approach to semantic analysis, semantic molecules are a well-defined set of non-primitive lexical meanings in a given language that function as intermediate-level units in the structure of complex meanings in that language. After reviewing existing work on the molecules concept (including the notion of levels of nesting), the paper advances a provisional list of about 180 productive semantic molecules for English, suggesting that a small minority of these (about 25) may be universal. It then turns close attention to a set of potentially universal level-one molecules from the “environmental” domain (‘sky’, ‘ground’, ‘sun’, ‘day’, ‘night’ ‘water’ and ‘fire’), proposing a set of original semantic explications for them. Finally, the paper considers the theoretical implications of the molecule theory for our understanding of semantic complexity, cross-linguistic variation in the structure of the lexicon, and the translatability of semantic  explications.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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