Asc Page 54 – nsm-approach.net

(2012) English, Hebrew, Arabic – Folk religious concepts

Habib, Sandy (2012). Meeting the prince of darkness: A semantic analysis of English the devil, Arabic ashshaytan, and Hebrew hasatan. In Gil’ad Zuckermann (Ed.), Burning Issues in Afro-Asiatic Linguistics (pp. 123-160). Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Abstract:

In Christianity, he is a fallen angel; in Islam, he is a kind of jinn, and, in Judaism, he is the only being of his kind. This being is known as the devil by English-speaking Christians, as الشيطان ashshayṭān by Muslim Arabs, and as הסטן hasatan by native Hebrew speakers. Notwithstanding the theological differences, the phrase the devil is almost always glossed in dictionaries and translated in books and stories as الشيطان ashshayṭān, in Arabic, and הסטן hasatan, in Hebrew, and vice versa. Consequently, there is good reason to believe that ordinary native English speakers, Muslim Arabs, and native Hebrew speakers would think that the devil, الشيطان ashshayṭān, and הסטן hasatan refer to the same non-human being. To verify this matter, this study explores these three concepts and delineates the similarities and differences between them.

Since the three concepts originate in three different cultures, each concept is analysed and described in a way that would make it understood, not only to cultural insiders, but also to outsiders. To explain the term the devil, for instance, using words such as supernatural and evil might be problematic, especially when such words (1) are themselves no less complex than devil and hence need explication and (2) do not have equivalents or exact equivalents in other languages. As a consequence, not any linguistic analysis can achieve the goals of this chapter. One method that can is the NSM approach.

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

See also: , , , ,

(2014) Christianity, Islam – Religion

Habib, Sandy (2014). Dying in the cause of God: The semantics of the Christian and Muslim concepts of martyr. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 34(3), 388-398.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2014.898223

Abstract:

Martyrdom is unquestionably an important concept in the discourse of Christianity and Islam. This religious concept challenges the minds of many people, particularly because it calls believers to adhere to their beliefs even if they are tortured to death. Notwithstanding, countless martyrs populate the historical accounts of these two monotheistic religions.

This paper examines and defines the Christian and Muslim concepts of martyr and شهي shahīd, respectively. The focus is not on the English word martyr and the Arabic word شهي shahīd as such. The labels have been chosen for the sake of convenience. The explication of martyr represents the concept as perceived by Christians in general, irrespective of their mother tongues. The same goes for the Islamic concept of شهي shahīd. The explication represents the Islamic concept as perceived, not only by Arabic-speaking Muslims, but by Muslims in general. The paper delineates the similarities and differences between the two concepts and provides an NSM explication of each.

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

See also:

(2015) English, Arabic – Folk religious concepts

Habib, Sandy (2015). Can God and Allah promote intercultural communication? RASK (International Journal of Language and Communication), 42, 77-103.

Open access

Abstract:

This article deals with the concept of English God and its Arabic equivalent Allah. The two concepts are analysed based on how ordinary native English speakers and Muslim Arabs, respectively, use them in their native languages. Additionally, an explication is constructed for each concept. Comparing the explications shows that the two concepts are very similar to each other. The only differences found are as follows: (1) God appears to be perceived as being in the same place to which “good” people go after they die, while Allah is not; (2) God seems to be conceived of as an omnipresent spirit; as for Allah, no linguistic evidence was found to suggest this same idea, and (3) only God seems to have a visual representation, which is that of an old father. Being very similar to each other, these two concepts might prove useful in promoting intercultural communication between native English speakers and Muslim Arabs. In addition, the analysis of the two concepts can provide cultural outsiders with access to an insider perspective on each concept.

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

See also: ,

(2009) Historical English – NSM syntax

Guarddon Anelo, María del Carmen (2009). Un análisis de las propiedades combinatorias de los primitivos semánticos a través de las adposiciones complejas en inglés antigua [An analysis of the combinatorial properties of semantic primes through a study of complex adpositions in Old English]. Revista española de lingüística, 39(2), 93-122. PDF (open access)

This paper presents a study of the lexical content of a number of complex adpositions in Old English and the morpho-semantic processes that have motivated them. Specifically, I have analysed the adpositions which have in, on and at as controlling elements. The theoretical framework supporting this analysis is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (henceforth, NSM). The main goal of this paper is to demonstrate
that the explication of the combinatorial properties of the spatial primes put forward in the NSM can serve to shed light upon certain aspects of the grammar of spatial relations that have not received attention by schools highly focused in this type of metalanguage, i.e. Cognitive Linguistics.

The spatial primes are used to address four fundamental issues: 1) Semantic content of the resulting adposition; senses of the constituent elements that are transferred to the complex adposition, senses that are blocked and senses not present in the constituents that arise in the process of compounding; 2) Semantic incompatibilities preventing the combination of certain simple adpositions; 3) Internal syntactic organization found in these complex adpositions. 4) The diachronic evolution of the complex adpositions analyzed in the article. Particularly, I unveil the semantic factors that have led to the disappearance of some of these adpositions while others have survived up to the present day.

(2003) English (USA) – Nicknames of American presidents

Gladkova, Anna (2003). The semantics of nicknames of the American presidents. In Peter Collins, & Mengistu Amberber (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2002 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2002.html. PDF (open access)

This study is focused on the recorded public nicknames of the American presidents, which were collected from onomastic dictionaries, reference literature on American presidents, and the internet. The data consisted of approximately 430 nicknames for 43 presidents. It is shown that the semantic structure of nicknames can be explicated with lexical universals to make their meaning transparent and avoid a culture-biased analysis and that the semantic analysis of nicknames can give clues to cultural values and assumptions determining their coining.

The semantic structure of nicknames contains both referential and expressive components. The referential components of nicknames can be evaluative. The expressive components are complex and can include emotive components, as well as components of status and familiarity. Nicknames differ in their expressive value, and their variety depends on the forms of personal names used in nicknames. It is possible to divide the nicknames examined here into several groups according to the cultural assumptions underlying their coining.


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

See also: , , , , ,

(2005) Russian, English – Feelings: empathy

Гладкова, А. Н. [Gladkova, Anna] (2005). Чем русское сопереживание отличается от английского empathy? Опыт применения естественного семантического метаязыка в контрастивной семантике. In what ways the Russian sopereživanie is different from the English empathy? The Natural Semantic Metalanguage in contrastive semantics (pp. 102-108). In И. М. Кобозева, А. С. Нариньяни & В. П. Селегей (ред.) [I. Kobozeva, A. Narin’jani & V. Selegej (Eds.)], Компьютерная лингвистика и интеллектуальные технологии: Труды международной конференции «Диалог 2005» [Computational linguistics and intellectual technologies: Proceedings of the International Conference “Dialogue 2005”]. Москва [Moscow]: Nauka. PDF (open access)

Written in Russian. No English abstract available.


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

The (E) tags listed below are added on the basis of information in the title of this paper, which also proposes other explications.

See also: , ,

(2005) Russian – Feelings: sympathy

Gladkova, Anna (2005). Sočuvstvie and sostradanie: A semantic study of two Russian emotions. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach. Lidil, 32. 35-47. PDF (open access)

Semantic analysis of the word сочувствие sočuvstvie (usually translated into English as ‘sympathy’) shows that it is a complex feeling caused by the awareness of a negative emotional state of another person associated with some misfortunate event and resulting in the sharing of this negative emotional state. When experiencing сочувствие sočuvstvie, a person develops a positive attitude towards another person who is in trouble due to the desire to stop the negative emotional experience of that person and to do something good for that person. Cочувствие sočuvstvie is characterized by the desire to reveal this attitude to the suffering person.

Cострадание sostradanie (usually translated into English as ‘compassion’) has the same semantic structure as сочувствие sočuvstvie, but it is characterized by a stronger character of emotional experience of another person and a consequent stronger negative feeling of the one who feels cострадание sostradanie. The component of showing one’s attitude and feeling is absent in cострадание sostradanie.

Cочувствие sočuvstvie and cострадание sostradanie are important cultural words that support the idea of the significant role of emotional expressions in Russian language and culture. They also extend the value ascribed to communal actions and states to the importance of sharing the negative emotional experiences of others.


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

See also: ,

(2005) Russian – Cultural values

Gladkova, Anna (2005). New and traditional values in contemporary Russian: Natural Semantic Metalanguage in cross-cultural semantics. In Ilana Mushin (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2004 Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society (16 pp.). http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/93. PDF (open access)

Revised and expanded as:

Gladkova, Anna (2008). Tolerance: New and traditional values in Russian in comparison with English. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 301-329). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Work in contrastive semantics can tell us a great deal about differences between cultures in which the words that are being contrasted are used. Linguists can contribute to the social sciences and to the investigation of values prevailing in different cultures and different societies by detailed semantic analysis, which in turn can be successful if the appropriate methodology is used. NSM is able to reveal subtle differences in the meaning of value words and proves to be an adequate tool for this kind of task.

A detailed semantic analysis allows us to show differences between the concepts терпимы terpimyj and tolerant. Tolerant has a more “social” character since it is an attitude towards something seen as different from social norms. Tерпимы terpimyj is more “personal” in its attitude as it is a reaction towards personal offence. Tolerant is related to the recognition of personal autonomy of thinking and behaviour as well as the idea of social harmony as an opportunity for people to behave and think in the way they want. Tерпимы terpimyj is linked to the value of смиренеи smirenie; it is about not developing bad feelings and negative reactions to those seen as doing bad things and about maintaining the social harmony of positive feeling among people. Thus, tolerant is more “rational” and “liberal” and терпимы terpimyj is more “emotional” and “moral”. The proposed definition of tolerant, formulated in simple universal concepts, also allows us to gauge the possible difference between the new Russian word tolerantnyj and the English tolerant.


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

See also: , , ,

(2006) Russian – Praise: MOLODEC, UMNICA

Gladkova, Anna (2006). Russian praise words molodec and umnica: A semantic and cultural analysis. In Keith Allan (Ed.), Selected papers from the 2005 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society (18 pp.). http://www.als.asn.au/proceedings/als2005.html. PDF (open access)

This paper investigates the semantics of two very commonly used Russian language-specific praise words, molodec and umnica. The meanings of these nouns combine the evaluation of an action of another person with the evaluation of the person him- or herself. For this reason, they can be regarded as words with a culture-specific meaning. The study applies the methodology of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. The meanings of molodec and umnica are related to several important cultural themes of Russian culture.


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

See also: , ,

(2007-06) Russian, English – Feelings: empathy

Gladkova, Anna (2006-07). New and traditional emotion terms in Russian: Semantics and culture. Transcultural Studies, 2-3, 123-137. DOI: 10.1163/23751606-00201007

This article focuses on borrowings as a reflection of the influence of other cultures and languages on Russian. New words that enter Russian from other languages signify changes in way of life, thought and behaviour. The most revealing in this respect are emotion and value terms because their meanings are reflective of cultural beliefs, assumptions and understandings. Therefore, the approach implemented in this article is that language, and its lexicon in particular, can be considered a gateway into a people’s culture. Moreover, changes in a language are indicative of cultural changes.

The focus of the paper is on a term from the domain of emotions – емпатииа ėmpatiia (empathy). This word has been used in translated psychology literature for the last two to three decades, but it is gradually entering other spheres of Russian discourse. Against the claim that the content of the term емпатииа ėmpatiia is fully conveyed by the Russian word сопереживание sopereživanie, it is argued that English empathy and Russian сопереживание soperezhivanie are words with significantly different meanings that are largely related to the cultural assumptions of the societies they belong to. For this purpose, the author carries out a detailed comparative semantic analysis of the English word empathy and its closest Russian equivalent сопереживание sopereživanie.


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

See also: , , , , , ,

(2007) Russian – Propositional attitudes

Gladkova, Anna (2007). Universal and language-specific aspects of “propositional attitudes”: Russian vs. English. In Andrea C. Schalley & Drew Khlentzos (Eds.), Mental states: Vol. 2. Language and cognitive structure (pp. 61-83). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.93.06gla

In linguistic literature inspired by philosophical tradition, it is often assumed that the key distinction in the area of “propositional attitude” is that between “know” and “believe”. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory of language and thought argues that while know is a universal conceptual prime (KNOW), believe is not. It posits THINK, not believe, as a universal counterpart of KNOW. The Moscow Semantic School posits primitives ЗНАТЬ ZNAT’ (KNOW) and СЧИТАТЬ SČITAT’ (which has no exact English equivalent). This chapter argues that the use of считать sčitat’ and believe as putative primes is unjustified. It supports думать dumat’ as the Russian exponent of the universal conceptual prime THINK and it shows that the use of думать dumat’ as a prime leads to much better results than the use of считать sčitat’.


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

See also:

(2008) Russian, English – Cultural values: frankness

Гладкова, А. Н. [Gladkova, Anna] (2008). Концепт ‘откровенность’ в русской и английской языковых картинах мира [The concept of ‘frankness’ in Russian and English linguistic world-views]. In Нина Арутюнова [Nina Arutjunova] (Ed.), Логический анализ языка: Между ложью и фантазией [Logical analysis of language: Between lie and fantasy] (pp. 502-514). Москва [Moscow]: Индрик [Indrik].

Written in Russian.

Abstract:

Исследования в области межкультурной прагматики показывают, что для русского языка и культуры характерно наличиел установки (или культурных скриптов) на прямое и открытое выражение своих мыслей и чувств [Вежбицка 2002; Гловинская 2003]. Похожие уста­ новки характерны и для других культур — например, испанской [Aznarez, Gonazalez 2006]. Однако в некоторых культурах (например, англосаксонской и малазийской) подобное правило менее значимо или отсутствует вообще [Goddard 1997; Wierzbicka 2006а]. Доминиро­ вание определенной культурной установки находит отражение в се­ мантике слов, которые по своему значению связаны с этой установ­ кой [Апресян 2006; Вежбицка 2002; Зализняк, Левонтина, Шмелев 2005; Wierzbicka 2006а]. Данную гипотезу интересно проверить при сравнительном семантическом анализе слов­переводных эквивален­ тов из языков с различными культурными правилами. В работе про­ водится семантический анализ наречия откровенно в значении харак­ теристики манеры речи, которое может быть связано с установкой на открытое и прямое выражение своих мыслей и чувств, характерное для русской культуры. Данное наречие сравнивается с его ближай­ шими переводными эквивалентами candidly иfrankly в английском языке, где доминируют другие культурные скрипты [Wierzbicka 2006а].

Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

See also: , ,

(2008) Russian, English – Cultural values: tolerance

Gladkova, Anna (2008). Tolerance: New and traditional values in Russian in comparison with English. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 301-329). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.19gla

An earlier version of this paper was published as:

Gladkova, Anna (2005). New and traditional values in contemporary Russian: Natural Semantic Metalanguage in cross-cultural semantics. In Ilana Mushin (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2004 Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society. http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/93.

This chapter examines the recent trend in contemporary Russian towards increased lexical borrowing from English. In particular, it compares and contrasts the meanings of a recently borrowed value term tolerantnyj with its English equivalent tolerant and the traditionally closest Russian equivalent терпимый terpimyj ‘tolerant/indulgent/forbearing’. A detailed contrastive semantic analysis demonstrates that, although tolerant and терпимый terpimyj are translational equivalents, their meanings do differ and reflect different cultural attitudes across the two societies involved.

The work also shows that the meaning of the new Russian term tolerantnyj does not fully coincide with the meaning of the English tolerant, as it reflects the Russian value system. The analysis is conducted using NSM as its main analytical tool.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

See also: , , , ,

(2009) Russian – Propositional attitudes: SCITAT’

Гладкова, А. Н. [Gladkova, Anna] (2009). К вопросу о семантическом статусе глагола считать [About the semantic status of the Russian verb scitat’]. Русский язык в научном освещении [Russian language in scientific coverage], 17(1), 201-227.

Written in Russian. No English abstract available.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

The (E) tag listed below is added on the basis of information in the title of this paper, which also proposes other explications.

See also: ,

(2010) English, Russian – Emotions

Gladkova, Anna (2010). Sympathy, compassion, and empathy in English and Russian: A linguistic and cultural analysis. Culture & Psychology, 16(2), 267-285.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X10361396

Abstract:

This corpus-based study contributes to the description and analysis of linguistic and cultural variation in the conceptualization of sympathy, compassion, and empathy. A contrastive semantic analysis of sympathy, compassion, and empathy in English and their Russian translational equivalents sočuvstvie, sostradanie, and sopereživanie uncovers significant differences in the conceptualization of these words, which are explained with reference to the prevalence of different models of social interaction in Anglo and Russian cultures, as well as different cultural attitudes towards emotional expression. The analysis uses NSM, which the author argues is a powerful tool in contrastive studies.

More information:

This paper has been plagiarized in the following publication:

Buyankina, A. S. (2015). Sympathy and empathy in English and Russian: A linguistic and cultural analysis. In С. А. Песоцкая [S. A. Pesotskaya] (Ed.), Коммуникативные аспекты языка и культуры: сборник материалов XV Международной научно-практической конференции студентов и молодых ученых [Communicative aspects of language and culture: A collection of materials of the XVth International Scientific and Practical Conference of Students and Young Scientists]: Vol. 3 (pp. 70-72). Томск [Tomsk]: Изд-во ТПУ [TPU Publishing House].

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

See also: , , , , ,

(2010) English, Russian – Emotions

Gladkova, Anna (2010). A linguist’s view of “pride”. Emotion Review, 2(2), 178-179.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073909355014

Abstract:

This brief commentary on a paper published in the same issue offers a linguistic perspective on ‘pride’. On the basis of a semantic analysis, it demonstrates that the interpretation of pride put forward in that paper is Anglocentric and consistent with the contemporary use of the English word pride. It compares the English concept of pride with the Russian concept of гордиться gordit’sja and demonstrates their differences. It calls for a psychological account of ‘pride’ free from ethnocentric bias.

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

See also: ,

(2010) Russian cultural semantics [BOOK]

Гладкова, А. Н. [Gladkova, Anna] (2010). Русская культурная семантика: эмоции ценности, жизненные установк [Russian cultural semantics: Emotions, values, attitudes]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки славянской культуры [Languages of Slavonic Cultures].

Written in Russian.

This book is devoted to the study of the relationship between the Russian language and Russian culture with the help of a detailed semantic analysis of a number of terms of emotions, values ​​and attitudes. The main idea that unites this research is that the meanings of some words and expressions reflect cultural-significant representations, that is, the meanings of these words contain ways of thinking that are shared by the native speakers. The cultural significance of the words and expressions being examined is demonstrated by the discovery of a semantic connection between their meanings and the meanings of a number of key words and ideas of the Russian language. The linguistic and cultural specificity of the words being studied is established by comparing their values ​​with the meanings of their translated and culturally significant equivalents in English.

The book offers semantic interpretations of the researched words and expressions using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). It reports on first-time research aimed at determining the exponents of NSM semantic primes and their syntactic properties in Russian.


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

(2011) Cultural scripts

Gladkova, Anna (2011). Cultural variation in language use. In Gisle Andersen, & Karin Aijmer (Eds.), Pragmatics of society (pp. 571-592). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110214420.571

Abstract:

The methodology known as the cultural scripts approach is based on principles that meet the requirements formulated by Clifford Geertz. Section 1 of this paper is a description of this approach. It is followed by an analysis of different culture-specific linguistic practices carried out with the help of this methodology. Section 3 discusses how cultural values are embedded in language- and culture-specific ways of speaking. In this section, examples are drawn from Anglo English and Singapore English in relation to the value of ‘personal autonomy’, from Russian in relation to the values of pravda ‘truth’ and iskrennost’ ‘sincerity’, and from Yiddish in relation to the cultural practice of cursing. Section 4 illustrates how social categories affect ways of interaction on the basis of Korean, Chinese and Russian cultures. Section 5 demonstrates how a communicative practice of ‘gratitude’ can have different cultural interpretations. Examples are drawn from Anglo English, Indian, Korean, Yiddish and West African cultures. Section 6 concludes.

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

See also: , , , , , , ,

(2012) Russian – NSM primes

Gladkova, Anna (2012). Universals and specifics of ‘time’ in Russian. In Luna Filipović, & Kasia M. Jaszczolt (Eds.), Space and time across languages and cultures: Vol. II. Language, culture and cognition (pp. 167-188). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.37.13gla

Abstract:

This chapter addresses the question of universal as well as language- and culture-­specific traits in the conceptualization of ‘time’. It tests the NSM hypothesis that the semantic primes WHEN~TIME and NOW should also be found in Russian. It demonstrates that когда~время kogda~vremja and сейчас sejčas are Russian exponents of these primes, while the related terms пора pora, теперь teper’, and нынче nynče are semantically complex. The chapter formulates culturally salient attitudes to time in Russian, such as ‘change’, ‘persistence’, ‘things being outside people’s control’, on the basis of the analysed words. It argues that, because of its universal character, NSM can be regarded as an effective tool in time-related linguistic research.

Rating:


Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners

See also: , , , , , ,