Hasada, Rie (2001). Meanings of Japanese sound-symbolic emotion words. In Jean Harkins & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 221-258). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.217
It has often been noted that the Japanese language is rich in sound-symbolic words, which form a conspicuous group in the Japanese lexicon. Japanese onomatopoeic words are generally referred to as giongo-gitaigo, and divided into three classes. The first class is phonomimes (giseigo/giongo), which imitate sounds. The second class is phenomimes (gitaigo), which describe appearances, states, conditions of the external world. The third class is psychomimes (gijoogo), which express one’s inner feelings or mental conditions. Phenomimes and psychomimes are often called mimetic words, as opposed to phonomimes which are called (sound-)onomatopoeia.
Japanese everyday conversation is full of these sound-symbolic words. In contrast to the Indo-European languages whose sound-symbolic words are mostly phonomimes (sound-onomatopoeia), Japanese has more mimetic words than sound-onomatopoeic words. It has also been noted that Japanese is rich in psychomimes that describe various emotion/sensation states.
While nonnative speakers of Japanese will certainly face difficulties in acquiring psychomimetic words, they need to master the correct use of them if they wish to communicate effectively with Japanese people. Psychomimetic words play a vital role in Japanese everyday language life, and thus they are an indispensable key for outsiders to understand the Japanese people and culture.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) biku-biku, (E) dokiq, (E) gyoq, (E) haq, (E) hara-hara, (E) hiya-hiya, (E) odo-odo
Hasada, Rie (2002). The “Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM)” method for explicating the meaning of words and expressions: A linguistic approach to the study of emotion. 東京外国語大学留学生日本語教育センタ [Bulletin of Japanese Language Center for International Students, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies], 28, 69-102.
Open access
Abstract:
The focus of this paper is on the application of the NSM method to the study of emotion terminology. The author shows how the NSM approach can solve problems that cannot be solved by other approaches, especially the problems of ‘translation’, ‘definition’, and ‘ethnocentricity’, which have occurred mainly in non-linguistic, psychological, anthropological, or philosophical work.
No new explications are proposed. The paper is essentially a state-of-the-art report on the NSM framework as it was shaping up around the turn of the century.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) angry, (E) liget
Hasada, Rie (2002). ‘Body part’ terms and emotion in Japanese. Pragmatics & Cognition, 10(1), 107-128.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.10.12.06has
Abstract:
This paper uses NSM to examine the use and meaning of the body-part terms or quasi-body-part terms associated with Japanese emotions. The terms analysed are 心 kokoro, 胸 mune, 腹 hara, 気 ki, and 虫 mushi. In Japanese, kokoro is regarded as the seat of emotions. 胸 mune (roughly, ‘chest’) is the place where Japanese believe 心 kokoro is located. 腹 hara (roughly, ‘belly’) can be used to refer to the seat of ‘thinking’, for example in the expression of anger-like feelings that entail a prior cognitive appraisal. The term 気 ki (roughly, ‘breath’) is also used for expressions dealing with emotions, temperament, and behaviour; among these, 気 ki is most frequently used for referring to mental activity. 虫 mushi – literally, a ‘worm’ that exists in the 腹 hara ‘belly’ – is also used for referring to specific emotion expressions.
The data used for analysis are from various sources: published literature both in Japanese and English, newspaper and magazine articles, film scripts, comic books, advertisements, dictionaries, and popular songs.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) hara 腹, (E) ki 気, (E) kokoro 心, (E) mune 胸, (E) mushi 虫
Hasada, Rie (2003). “Cultural script” on Japanese attitude towards emotion. Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Bulletin of Japanese Language Center for International Students, 29, 27-67. PDF (open access)
This paper aims to explicate and define the tacit cultural norms/rules associated with Japanese people’s attitudes towards emotions and the expression of emotion in Japanese culture. It represents these norms/rules in the form of “cultural scripts”, using Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) as a descriptive tool.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (S) attitude towards other people's feelings, (S) crying, (S) restrictions on whom to share one's emotions with, (S) talk about emotions, (S) value of emotions over reason
Hasada, Rie (2006). Cultural scripts: Glimpses into the Japanese emotion world. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Ethnopragmatics: Understanding discourse in cultural context (pp. 171-198). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110911114.171
This work aims to articulate aspects of Japanese people’s attitudes towards emotions in the form of cultural scripts, utilising the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) method developed by Anna Wierzbicka, Cliff Goddard and colleagues. It is the intention of this work to explicate some of the thinking patterns or sociocultural norms relating to typical patterns of Japanese behaviour associated with the expression of emotions. The approach taken for this purpose is the cultural scripts framework based on the universal Natural Semantic Metalanguage. We establish how cultural norms encourage or discourage certain kinds of emotion behaviour in Japan. Although Japanese people can be said to be quite “emotional”, and to put more value on emotion than reason, they often try to suppress not only negative emotions, but also positive emotions. This is because they are very sensitive to the eyes of seken, or to how other people will view and think of their actions. In Japan, keeping harmony with other people often takes precedence over other concerns. Individual emotions are allowed to be expressed when their cultural norms are met. Communicating with Japanese people without knowing these cultural scripts might lead to some misunderstanding for non-Japanese. Therefore, more comprehensive and systematic examination of how Japanese cultural norms of emotions are similar to and different from those in other cultures is indispensable for ensuring successful intercultural communication.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (S) against being regarded as the active agent of crying, (S) cheerfulness, (S) dealing with "emotional problems ", (S) how seken influences peoples' actions, (S) importance of knowing how one is feeling, (S) valuing emotionality over rationality, (S) when it is bad/not bad to be seen crying, (S) when one is expected to display to others what one feels
Hasada, Rie (2008). Two virtuous emotions in Japanese: Nasake/joo and jihi. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.) Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 331-347). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.20has
This study applies the Natural Semantic Metalanguage methodology in order to explicate the meaning of two Japanese “virtuous emotions” which express the idea of ‘wanting good things to happen to other people’. Nasake/joo and jihi have been selected for detailed semantic analysis. Nasake/joo is a very important concept in Japanese society. It refers to one’s consideration or compassion for others. Another “virtuous emotion” word is jihi which has often been used as a complement of joo. However, this chapter shows jihi can be completely distinguished from nasake/joo. The apparent meaning of these two “virtuous emotion” words is spelled out in an NSM framework, which clearly shows their similarities, as
well as their differences.
Harkins, Jean (1986). Semantics and the language learner: Warlpiri particles. Journal of Pragmatics, 10(5), 559-574. DOI: 10.1016/0378-2166(86)90014-7
Particles in Australian Aboriginal languages play a crucial role in conveying complex semantic and pragmatic information, posing some seemingly intractable problems for both the descriptive linguist and the language learner. Looking at some Warlpiri particles used for disclaiming authorship, expressing certainty, casting doubt, limiting an assertion, and suggesting something different, this paper attempts to show how a careful semantic analysis might lead to the formulation of descriptions sufficiently clear and explicit to be of practical use. It is argued that hypotheses as to meaning must be stated explicitly in order that they may be verified, or modified as necessary.
See also: (E) kapi/u, (E) kari, (E) karinganta, (E) kulanganta, (E) marda, (E) murra, (E) nganta, (E) ngarra, (E) ngayi
Harkins, Jean (1990). Shame and shyness in the Aboriginal classroom: A case for “practical semantics”. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 10(2), 293-306. DOI: 10.1080/07268609008599445
Aboriginal students in many parts of Australia talk about their experiences of difficulty and discomfort in certain fairly common classroom situations, for example when the teacher calls on an individual student to answer a question, or when a student is singled out for either reprimand or praise. The name for this experience, in most varieties of Australian Aboriginal English, is SHAME. The word SHAME is used by Aboriginal speakers in circumstances where non-Aboriginal speakers would not speak of being ashamed. This paper seeks to demonstrate that proper semantic analysis can lead us to a much clearer understanding and statement of the concept underlying the Aboriginal use of this word, and how it differs from related concepts such as ‘being ashamed’, ‘shyness’, and ’embarrassment’. Such semantic information can be of immediate practical use in cross-cultural communication situations such as the classroom.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) ashamed, (E) embarrassed, (E) shame, (E) shy
Harkins, Jean & Wilkins, David P. (1994). Mparntwe Arrernte and the search for lexical universals. In Cliff Goddard & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 285-310). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.15har
The set of elements identified here are, at the very least, our best candidates for English-Arrernte lexical translation equivalents, and for elements that will appear in the basic set of propositional structures that comprise NSM definitions. Perhaps more investigation will reveal that they are truly the reflexes of universal properties of mind. Such a goal, however, seems a long way off, and need not detract from the
practical utility of establishing a descriptive metalanguage to facilitate better cross-linguistic semantic comparison.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Harkins, Jean (1995). Desire in language and thought: A study in cross-cultural semantics. PhD thesis, Australian National University. PDF (open access)
This thesis is a semantic-typological study of desiderative constructions in languages of the world. Focussing on both meaning and grammatical structures, it explores how the properties of desiderative expressions in languages of the world reflect universal elements and language-specific configurations of meaning.
Chapter One sets out the nature and scope of the work, explaining the purpose of examining desiderative constructions across languages, and outlining the theoretical context and orientation of the study. Chapter Two presents a typological overview of desiderative expressions in a selection of languages from diverse genetic groups throughout the world, noting cross-linguistic trends in lexical relations and syntactic patterns associated with desiderative constructions. Chapter Three focusses on grammatical properties of desiderative expressions across languages, exploring how the semantics and grammar of different construction types interact with the meanings of individual lexemes to encode a range of desiderative meanings. Chapter Four examines multifunctional grammatical morphemes with desiderative functions, using the principles of NSM analysis to investigate whether they have a single meaning or semantic core, or are truly polysemous. A set of procedures is proposed for specifying how many meanings a grammeme has, and how these relate to its various grammatical functions. Chapter Five compares constructions where a desiderative expression takes a complement clause (as in English I want to dance), and those where a desiderative grammeme occurs within the same clause that represents the wanted event (as in the Kayardild equivalent Ngada wirrka-ju), and explores the interpropositional nature of desiderative meaning. Chapter Six pursues the question of WANT as a semantic and lexical universal, in view of the diversity of desiderative constructions across languages. Specific criteria are proposed for the assessment of semantic equivalence across languages, and for distinguishing language-specific phenomena from potentially universal elements and configurations of meaning. This leads to a proposal for a ‘universal syntax’ of desiderative meaning. The influence of cultural values and attitudes on the expression of desire is explored with a view to explaining aspects of the interaction between social and linguistic structure and its impact on the range and types of desiderative constructions found in different languages, and how a theory of language universals might deal with processes of language change.
Harkins, Jean (1996). Linguistic and cultural differences in concepts of shame. In David Parker, Rosamund Dalziell, & Iain Richard Wright (Eds.), Shame and the modern self (pp. 84-96). Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing.
Shame is one of a set of ‘social emotions’ that have a strong influence upon the behaviour of individuals in relation to the society in which they live. Emotions of this kind, and related norms of behaviour, are socially constructed within a particular linguistic and cultural context. Serious cross-cultural misunderstanding can result from assuming that emotions, or the behaviour associated with them, will be the same for different cultural groups. For example, shame-like emotions in some contexts can strongly motivate people to conform, but in others they can increase a person’s alienation from and hostility to society. This essay examines shame-like concepts in some languages of Aboriginal Australia and the Pacific, showing how the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) method of analysing emotion words and cultural rules can pinpoint the cognitive and emotive elements contained within culture-specific emotion concepts, and can make some predictions about ‘scripts’ for behaviour associated with these emotions.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) ashamed, (E) shame, (E) whakamaa, (S) reintegrative shaming
Harkins, Jean, & Wierzbicka, Anna (1997). Language: A key issue in emotion research. Innovation in Social Sciences Research, 10(4), 319-331. DOI: 10.1080/13511610.1997.9968537
Linguistic evidence shows significant differences in the use of supposedly equivalent words for emotions in different languages and cultural settings, even in the case of emotions thought to be as basic or widespread as ‘anger’. This paper argues that such differences in usage often reflect differences in semantic content, and shows how the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) approach can provide a way of making explicit both the similarities and the differences in meanings of related emotion words. Stating the semantic components of a word’s meaning in this way also facilitates understanding of these emotion words in their cultural and social context, in relation to cultural values, norms of behaviour, and cultural identity.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) angry, (E) cheeky, (E) distressed, (E) indignant, (E) sulky, (S) name-calling, (S) teasing
Harkins, Jean, & Wierzbicka, Anna (Eds.) (2001). Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110880168
Abstract:
This volume aims to enrich the current interdisciplinary theoretical discussion of human emo-tions by presenting studies based on extensive linguistic data from a wide range of languages of the world. Each language-specific study gives detailed semantic descriptions of the meanings of culturally salient emotion words and expressions, offering fascinating insights into people’s emotional lives in diverse cultures including Amharic, Chinese, German, Japanese, Lao, Malay, Mbula, Polish and Russian.
The book is unique in its emphasis on empirical language data, analysed in a framework free of ethnocentrism and not dependent upon English emotion terms, but relying instead on independently established conceptual universals. Students of languages and cultures, psychology and cognition will find this volume a rich resource of description and analysis of emotional meanings in cultural context.
Table of contents:
Introduction (Anna Wierzbicka, Jean Harkins)
Testing emotional universals in Amharic (Mengistu Amberber)
Emotions and the nature of persons in Mbula (Robert D. Bugenhagen)
Why Germans don’t feel”anger” (Uwe Durst)
Linguistic evidence for a Lao perspective on facial expression of emotion (N. J. Enfield)
Hati: A key word in the Malay vocabulary of emotion (Cliff Goddard)
Talking about anger in Central Australia (Jean Harkins)
Meanings of Japanese sound-symbolic emotion words (Rie Hasada)
Concepts of anger in Chinese (Pawel Kornacki)
Human emotions viewed through the Russian language (Irina B. Levontina, Anna A. Zalizniak)
A culturally salient Polish emotion: Przykro (pron. pshickro) (Anna Wierzbicka)
An inquiry into “sadness” in Chinese (Zhengdao Ye)
Each chapter has its own entry, where additional information is provided.
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Harkins, Jean (2001). Talking about anger in Central Australia. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 201-220). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.197
This exploration of a small group of emotion expressions in the Arrernte language of Central Australia takes the view that it is useful and illuminating, when investigating emotional or other meanings, to cultivate awareness of the cultural and intercultural dimensions of the enterprise, and to see both the processes and outcomes of the investigation in this light. It demonstrates the practicality of the NSM approach in facilitating intercultural discussion and understanding of people’s emotional life and behaviour in cultural context, and, furthermore, as a tool for stating meanings in the language of inquiry.
This small study has found confirmation for several of the hypotheses about emotional meanings put forward by Wierzbicka and other practitioners of the NSM approach to semantic analysis, and has raised some questions about other parts of the theory. There was surprising convergence between the Arrernte perceptions and the NSM picture of emotions as cognitively based feelings. Arrernte anger-like feelings all contain the impulse to act, proposed as a universal of anger-like feelings by Wierzbicka (1999). The Arrernte ayeye akweke did not have the full prototype structure for cognitively based feelings (“sometimes a person thinks…”, etc.) proposed by Wierzbicka (1999). An attempt to apply such a frame rendered the ayeye akweke unintelligible in Arrernte, and it is not entirely clear how this problem could be resolved, or whether it would be appropriate to do so. A simplified frame for practical definitional purposes may be the way to go, as it could very well be the case that the full prototype structure is a little too abstract for workable natural language definitions.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) ahele-irreme, (E) akiwarre, (E) arnkelye
Hamid, Hazidi bin Haji Abdul (1999). Communicating meaning across cultures – A framework: analysis and evaluation of the work of Anna Wierzbicka, the critics and cultural scripts for Bahasa Melayu. Master’s thesis, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Hamid, Hazidi bin Haji Abdul (2002). Similar words, different meanings: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage exploration of cultural differences. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 2(1). PDF (open access)
Anna Wierbicka and other Natural Semantic Metalanguage (henceforth NSM) practitioners often argue that anthropologists and psychologists, particularly Western, are wrong for applying concepts like mind, anger and depression to foreign cultures because these cultures do not have words with similar intention and extensions. Their critics on the other hand argue that the NSM critique is unjustified because, while other cultures do not necessarily have similar words, they must have corresponding concepts simply because people in these other cultures, like in Malaysia, experience feelings like these. This paper intends to show that the NSM critique is justified because these corresponding concepts can be similar to a certain extent but can also carry great semantic difference when broken down to their more basic elements of meaning. More importantly, this is done using analysis of the Malay language.
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
See also: (E) amok, (T) Malay
Hale, Kenneth L. (1994). Preliminary observations on lexical and semantic primitives in the Misumalpan languages of Nicaragua. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 263-284). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.14hal
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Habib, Sandy (2011). Ghosts, fairies, elves, and nymphs: Towards a semantic template for non-human being concepts. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 31(4), 411-443.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2012.625599
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to devise a semantic template for non-human being terms. To achieve this objective, four non-human being concepts were analysed, and an explication for each concept was built. Comparing the explications yielded a nine-part semantic template. The usefulness of this semantic template is threefold. First, it eases the task of explicating non-human being concepts because the parts of the template can serve as guidelines to be followed while constructing the explications. Second, it eases the comparison between related non-human being concepts from different languages. Third, it reveals the devices that are embodied in the structure of non-human being concepts and that enable people to use these complex concepts without difficulty.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) elf, (E) fairy, (E) ghost, (E) nymph
Habib, Sandy (2011). Angels can cross cultural boundaries. RASK (International Journal of Language and Communication), 34, 49-75.
Open access
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to explore how ordinary Native English speakers and Muslim Arabs view English angel and its Arabic equivalent malāk, respectively. The two terms are examined and analysed based on linguistic data that show how people from each group understand and use one of these terms in their native language.
The results demonstrate that there are similarities and differences between the two concepts. The similarities include, among other things, (1) the categorization of angels and ‘malāʿika‘ (pl. of malāk), (2) their habitat, (3) their good nature, and (4) their relation with people. The differences are manifested mainly in the conceptualization of these creatures’ (visual) appearances. Being similar to each other, these two concepts may prove to be helpful in promoting cross-cultural communication between ordinary native English speakers and Muslim Arabs. Additionally, the analysis of the two terms can provide cultural outsiders with access to the insider perspective of each term.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) angel, (E) malāk ملاك
Habib, Sandy (2011). Contrastive lexical-conceptual analysis of folk religious concepts in English, Arabic, and Hebrew: NSM approach. PhD thesis, University of New England, Armidale.
Abstract:
The primary aim of this dissertation is to explore a number of religious concepts in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. It is the first detailed study of folk religious concepts from a linguistic vantage point. The concepts included in the study are those behind the English words angels, the devil, God, heaven, hell, martyr, sin, and grace, as well as their Arabic and Hebrew near-equivalents. The theoretical framework is that of the NSM approach.
To lay the groundwork, Arabic and Hebrew versions of NSM are established, which had not been done before. Semantic explications of the target religious concepts are then developed in terms that are both comprehensible to ordinary people and translatable between the three languages (English, Arabic, and Hebrew). This allows for easy identification of the similarities and differences among the various concepts in the languages under investigation.
Rating:
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) aljanna, (E) Allah الله, (E) angel, (E) ashshayṭān الشيطان, (E) devil, (E) elf, (E) Elohim, (E) fairy, (E) gan eden, (E) geyhinom, (E) ghost, (E) God, (E) grace, (E) hasatan הסטן, (E) heaven, (E) hell, (E) jahannam, (E) khaṭī'a, (E) khesed, (E) khet, (E) mal`akh מַלְאָך, (E) malāk ملاك, (E) martyr, (E) niʿma, (E) nymph, (E) ra', (E) shahīd شهيد, (E) sin, (T) Arabic, (T) Hebrew
