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(2021) Japanese — Pronouns

Yee, Timothy Bing Lun & Wong, Jock. (2021).  Japanese first-person singular pronouns revisited: A semantic and cultural interpretation. Journal of Pragmatics, 181(2021), pp 139-161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.05.025

 

Abstract:

Japanese pronouns have been the subject of scrutiny in many studies. The contexts of their use have thus often been discussed. However, although we know from literature that some pronouns are more ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’, or more formal or informal than others, it does not appear that we have reached a deep understanding of their inherent meanings. For example, we do not fully understand, from an insider perspective, why some Japanese first-person singular pronouns are said to be more masculine or feminine than others. We do not know why, for example, ore is said to be strongly masculine whereas atashi is seen as strongly feminine. Above all, we do not know which one of these pronouns is the Japanese exponent of the semantic prime I, i.e., the one that is indefinable. The present study aims to address these research gaps. However, due the constraints of space, it only analyzes the meanings of the six most common first-person singular pronouns: ore, watashi, jibun, boku, atashi, and uchi. It further proposes that the Japanese exponent of the semantic prime I is jibun. The study uses Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) to articulate meaning in terms that are maximally clear and minimally ethnocentric.

 

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Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2020) Humour

Goddard, Cliff. (2020). De-Anglicising humour studies. European Journal of Humour Research 8(4): 48–58

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7592/EJHR2020.8.4.Goddard

 

Abstract:

This Commentary has two main aims. The first is to argue that systematic approaches to “humour” have been hampered and skewed by terminological Anglocentrism, i.e. by reliance on terms and categories which are English-specific, such as ‘amusing’, ‘joking’, ‘serious’, and ‘mock’, and even by the banner term ‘humour’ itself. Though some humour scholars have recognised this problem, I contend that they have under-estimated its severity. Anglocentric terminology not only interferes with effective communication within the field: it affects our research agendas, methodologies, and theoretical framings. Needless to say, humour studies is not alone in facing this predicament, which at its largest can be described as the global Anglicisation of humanities and social science discourse.

While calls to make humour studies more conceptually pluralistic are laudable, they cannot fully succeed while ‘full’ Anglo English remains the dominant scholarly lingua franca. The second aim of this paper is to argue that considerable progress can be made by “de- Anglicising English” from within, using a newly developed approach known as Minimal English. This allows re-thinking and re-framing humour terminology and agendas using a small vocabulary of simple cross-translatable English words, i.e. words which carry with them a minimum of Anglo conceptual baggage. For illustrative purposes, I will discuss how complex terms such as ‘wit, wittiness’ and ‘fantasy/absurd humour’ can be clarified and de- Anglicised using Minimal English.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2020) NSM

Sadow, Lauren & Mullan, Kerry. (2020). A brief introduction to the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. In Kerry Mullan, Bert Peeters, & Lauren Sadow (Eds.), Studies in ethnopragmatics, cultural semantics, and intercultural communication: Vol. 1. Ethnopragmatics and semantic analysis (pp. 35-58). Singapore: Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9983-2_2

 

Abstract:

This introductory chapter to the first of three volumes celebrating the career of Griffith University academic Cliff Goddard recaps the fundamentals of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach, ethnopragmatics and cultural scripts, and Minimal English (Sect. 2.1 to 2.7), then contextualizes and introduces the individual papers (Sect. 2.8).

(2021) Minimal languages – Coronavirus

Goddard, Cliff. (2021). “Minimal language” and COVID-19: How to talk about complex ideas using simple words. 국어문학 [Society of Korean Language and Literature] 77. (2021): 125-144.

 

Abstract:

This paper presents an expanded version of a keynote lecture given to the annual conference of the Society of Korean Language and Literature (국어문학), 18 February 2021.

This lecture has four Parts. Part 1 briefly discusses ‘Critical communication issues in the pandemic era’, focussing on the need to use clear, simple language that everyone can understand. Part 2 explains what “minimal languages” are and how they have emerged from empirical research in linguistics. Part 3 presents and discusses examples of how to write about aspects of COVID-19 using minimal language. Part 4 addresses the implications for education and public policy.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2016) Longgu – Carrying

Hill, Deborah (2016). Bride-price, Baskets, and the Semantic Domain of “Carrying” in a Matrilineal Society. Oceanic Linguistics 55(2): 500-521

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ol.2016.0023

 

Abstract:

The semantic domain of “carrying” is culturally salient in the Oceanic lan- guage, Longgu. Like many Austronesian languages, Longgu has about a dozen lexically specific verbs that refer to modes of carrying things and small children. This paper discusses the semantics of verbs in this domain, paying particular attention to the most culturally significant verb sungia, which is heterosemous with the noun sungi ‘bride-price exchange’ and refers to the manner in which women carry things supported on their head. The paper discusses meaning components, such as manner and motion, of verbs in this domain and highlights the importance of the association between some verbs and material objects. Further, the paper argues that there are grounds for suggesting the gender of the carrier is entailed in the lexical meaning of some verbs. The paper also discusses whether, given there is no generic verb ‘carry’, there is an underlying semantic pattern to this domain, and suggests that it may revolve around the cultural prominence of the verb sungia ‘to carry something [supported] on the head’.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2019) Finnish – Emotions

Vanhatalo, Ulla; Tissari, Heli; Lilja, Taru; Vehkalahti, Kimmo; & Siiroinen, Mari. (2019). “Something bad can now happen to me here”: Meaning components of emotion words. SKY Journal of Linguistics 32 (2019), 145–179

 

Abstract:

This paper reports on how people connect explications of emotion words to the terms they are meant to explicate. We focused on the Finnish counterparts to the following words: anger, disgust, fear, joy, love, sadness, and surprise. Our primary findings show that our participants, who were native speakers of Finnish, made the expected matches between Natural Semantic Metalanguage-based explications and the corresponding emotion words. However, there were significant differences between the emotion words, with the match rate ranging from 93% for ‘love’ to 51% for ‘sadness’. This research also contributes to our understanding of the meaning components of emotion concepts, and it may help people to talk about emotions in depth without using the conventional vocabulary for emotions.

 


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2021) English – Economy

Goddard, Cliff, & Sadow, Lauren. (2021). “It’s the Economy, Stupid”: The Everyday Semantics of a Geopolitical Key Word. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics, 5(2021), 226–238

(Open Access)

 

Abstract:

Despite its Anglo/Euro origins, there can be no doubt that ‘(the) economy’ is a key word in the discourse of global geopolitics. This study explicates the lexical/conceptual semantics of the expression in everyday English, using the NSM approach to meaning description. Unlike most dictionaries, we draw a distinction between two different senses: a “people-focussed”, experience-near sense (‘economy-1’), and a broader, more “educated” concept (‘economy-2’). Both senses can be regarded as folk concepts designating what philosopher Jeremy Bentham termed “fictitious entities” which belong to a certain mental ontology and support certain kinds of discourse. The results shed light on how and why ‘the economy’ has such a totalising power over many discourses: national, international and global.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2021) Spanish, Danish – Language Teaching

Fernández, Susana S. (2021). The Conceptual Semantics of ‘Latin America’: Popular Geopolitics and Spanish Language Teaching in Denmark. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics, 5(2021), 31–54

(Open Access)

 

Abstract:

This article explores how the concept of ‘Latin America’ is constructed in connection with the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language in Denmark, and how it is received and understood by Spanish learners in the country. The paper explores the concept of Latin America from different perspectives: Danish learners, young Latin Americans and through a historical overview, in order to embrace its complexity. The hypothesis is that the conceptualization of ‘Latin America’ in the context of language teaching in Denmark does not do justice to the diversity and richness of the geographical area and its peoples.

 


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2020) Spanish (Latin American) – Discursive constructions

Hein, Jan. (2020). Europeanized Places, Europeanized People: The Discursive Construction of Argentina. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics, 2(2020), 28–45

(Open Access)

 

Abstract:

A remarkable feature of Argentine national discourse is the variety of forms which perpetuate the ideologies of 19th century leaders endorsing the absolute Europeanization of the nascent Argentine nation-state. Among these forms are a number of multiword expressions that construe Argentine places and people as essentially “European”, such as the famous Buenos Aires es la París de Sudamérica (‘Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America’) and Los argentinos descienden de los barcos (‘Argentines descend from the ships’). This paper combines the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach (Goddard & Wierzbicka 2014; Levisen & Waters 2017; Goddard 2018) and Conceptual Blending Theory (Fauconnier 1999; Coulson & Oakley 2000; Fauconnier & Turner 2002) to explore the conceptual architecture of these two expressions and the discourses around which they are organized, offering original insights into the construal of places and people in Argentine postcolonial discourse.

 


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2021) English – Disasters

Bromhead, Helen. (2021). Disaster linguistics, climate change semantics and public discourse studies: a semantically-enhanced discourse study of 2011 Queensland Floods. Language Sciences 85

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2021.101381

 

Abstract:

Natural disasters, such as what are known in English as ‘floods’ and ‘wildfires’, are increasingly a topic of concern due to the climate emergency, and their vocabulary and public discourses hold much to be explored through linguistics. This article inaugurates the examination of public discourse about extreme weather events through semantically- enhanced discourse studies, an approach which is based on Natural Semantic Meta- language (NSM) and developed herein. Taking the example of floods in the particular geographic, cultural and historical environment of the Australian state of Queensland in 2011, this transtextual study draws on a public inquiry into the event and English as spoken in Australia, more broadly, along with media reports, and literature from hu- manities and social sciences. Five case studies of vocabulary and discourse patterns are presented to cast cultural and semantic spotlights on the public discourses. It is demon- strated that this approach can provide high resolution analysis of discourse and bring out cultural and historical factors at play in extreme weather language thereby contributing to disaster linguistics, climate change semantics and public discourse studies.

 


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(2021) Spanish – Aesthetics

Romero-Trillo, Jesús. (2021). The good, the bad… and the ugly? The conceptualization of aesthetics in Spanish. International Journal of Language and Culture 8(1): 147–168

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00039.rom

 

Abstract:

The present article describes the conceptualization of aesthetics in Spanish through the analysis of the two prototypical terms that describe positive and negative sensory appreciation, i.e., “bonito” (beautiful) and “feo” (ugly). Following a mixed-approach methodology combining Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Corpus Pragmatics, the article compares the use of these adjectives in spoken and written language, analyzes their realization in the corpora under analysis, provides the explications that support their poly- semy, and describes their distribution in different contexts. The final part of the paper is devoted to the comparison of the use of these adjectives with their counterparts in English, as evidenced by another paper in this special issue.

 


Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2021) Danish – Aesthetics

Levisen, Carsten. (2021). Pæn, flot, dejlig, and lækker : A lexical anthropology of Danish folk aesthetics.  International Journal of Language and Culture 8(1): 14–34

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00033.lev

 

Abstract:

This paper examines the Danish language of aesthetics from the perspective of four untranslatable adjectives: pæn, flot, dejlig, and lækker. These words are frequent and salient in everyday discourses, and as such they shed light on Danish “folk” conceptions. From the perspective of Lexical Anthropology and NSM Semantics, each of the words are explored and explicated in order to shed light on the ways in which Danish discourse organize positive aesthetic experiences. Sensitive to polysemy, and the variety of lexicogrammatical frames in which the words occur, the paper provides a high-resolution analyses of the “something ADJ frame” which enables discourses of design, food, and art. Based on lexical semantic evidence, the paper locates two themes in Danish discourse: “aesthetic normality” and “ordinary hedonism” which seem to act as cognitive axes around which discourses revolve. The paper argues that words hold the key to understanding the diversity of aesthetic cultures, and that untranslatables in particular, allow for a deep emic understanding of how local configurations of seeing, feeling, touching, and thinking are constituted.

 


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(2021) English – Aesthetics

Gladkova, Anna, & Romero-Trillo, Jesús. (2021). Is ugliness in the mind of the beholder? The conceptualization of ‘ugly’ in English. International Journal of Language and Culture 8(1): 106–127

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00037.gla

 

Abstract:

The paper explores the meaning and use of ugly in English. The study is based on corpus data from Cobuild Wordbanks Online and investigates the polysemy and the spheres of application of the concept. Through corpus analysis methodology, we investigate the most common collocations and the pragmatic and contextual uses of the term. Based on this analysis, our study proposes semantic explications of ugly in universal human concepts within the theoretical framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). We also analyze the most common collocations with the word ugly and clas- sify them into several meaning-based categories. A comparison between beautiful and ugly reveals that they are not identical in their distribution, which suggests different cognitive salience of the concepts. We also note the special role of ‘people’ and ‘nature’ in conceptualization and use of beautiful and that of ‘human actions’ in ugly.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2021) Russian – Aesthetics

Gladkova, Anna. (2021). “What is beauty?”: Cultural semantics of the Russian folk aesthetics.  International Journal of Language and Culture 8(1): 84–105

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00036.gla

 

Abstract:

The paper studies the semantics of four Russian key terms of aesthetic evaluation: krasivyj ‘beautiful’, prekrasnyj ‘beautiful/fine’, nekrasivyj ’ugly/ plain’ and bezobraznyj ‘ugly/frightful’. It demonstrates different patterns of polysemy of the words and the nuances of meaning. Following the framework of folk aesthetics and cultural semantics, the meanings of the terms in question are represented using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) and are shown to relate to Russian cultural themes. The analysis demonstrates cultural significance of aesthetic value in Russian and its intrinsic link with ethics, morality and politeness.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2021) Aesthetics

Gladkova, Anna, and Romero-Trillo, Jesús. (2021).  The linguistic conceptualization in folk aesthetics: Past, present and future. International Journal of Language and Culture 8(1): 1–13

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00032.int

 

Abstract:

This Special Issue is dedicated to the analysis of the linguistic conceptualization of “beautiful” and “ugly” as the key concepts that are basic to aesthetic appreciation across languages and cultures within the framework of folk aesthetics. For this purpose, we present a collection of original research articles analyzing concepts related to folk aesthetics in seven languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Danish, Persian, and Mandarin Chinese. All studies in this Special Issue focus on words and concepts as representations of culture-specific ways of aesthetic appreciation. Most of the studies are corpus-based, therefore they draw their conclusions on significant linguistic data.

 

 

 

(2021) Chinese (Mandarin) – Aesthetics

Wong, Jock and Or, Marshal. (2021). “Is beauty only skin deep?”: The conceptualization of ‘beauty’ in Mandarin Chinese. International Journal of Language and Culture 8(1): 35–61

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00034.won

 

Abstract:

From a semantic and cultural perspective, one could ask a number of questions regarding the English word ‘beauty’ and the adjectival form ‘beautiful’ when they are used to refer to visual aspects of people. Given that scholars and professionals in the beauty industry frequently use the words to describe people from various cultures, should we assume that each of them embodies a semantic and cultural universal? Given that plastic surgeons and beauticians improve the physical appearance of people, especially women, why do they not use the word ‘pretty’ to promote their services instead? After all, the phrase ‘pretty woman’ is also the title of a popular song first recorded by Roy Orbison in 1964 and later the name of a hugely successful 1990 movie. Why are beauty salons so called? Why are they not called prettiness salons instead? This paper attempts to address such questions by studying the meanings of two Mandarin Chinese words: mĕi/měilì 美/美 丽 (roughly, ‘beautiful’) and piàoliàng 漂亮  (roughly, ‘pretty’). The words are polysemous and this paper focuses on the meanings that are relevant to the pur- poses of describing women. It tries to explain the conceptual difference between a woman who is mĕi/měilì and one who is piàoliàng. Hopefully, the findings will shed light on some of the semantic distinctions that are impor- tant to Mandarin Chinese speakers and thus the questions raised above.

 


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

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(2021) Aesthetics

Gladkova, Anna, & Romero-Trillo, Jesús (eds.). (2021). The Conceptualization of ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Ugly’ across Languages and Cultures. Special issue of the International Journal of Language and Culture 8:1

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.8.1

 

Contents (NSM articles only):

The linguistic conceptualization in folk aesthetics: Past, present and future. Anna Gladkova and Jesús Romero-Trillo | pp. 1–13
Pæn, flot, dejlig, and lækker : A lexical anthropology of Danish folk aesthetics. Carsten Levisen | pp. 14–34
“Is beauty only skin deep?”: The conceptualization of ‘beauty’ in Mandarin Chinese. Jock Wong and Marshal Or | pp. 35–61
“What is beauty?”: Cultural semantics of the Russian folk aesthetics. Anna Gladkova | pp. 84–105
Is ugliness in the mind of the beholder? The conceptualization of ‘ugly’ in English. Anna Gladkova and Jesús Romero-Trillo | pp. 106–127
The good, the bad… and the ugly? The conceptualization of aesthetics in Spanish. Jesús Romero-Trillo | pp. 147–168