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(2007) Dalabon – Ethnopsychology and personhood

Evans, Nicholas (2007). Standing up your mind: Remembering in Dalabon. In Mengistu Amberber (Ed.), The language of memory in a crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 67-95). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.21.06eva

Abstract:

This paper explores the vocabulary of mental states, knowing, thinking and remembering in Dalabon, an Australian Aboriginal language. Though Dalabon has a rich vocabulary for the overall semantic domain of attention, thought, memory and forgetting, there are no expressions specifically dedicated to remembering. Rather, the ontology of cognitive states and processes is categorized into short-term versus long-term mental states and events. Aspectual choices are used to express transitions into mental states and events (‘remembering’ is ‘coming to have in mind’, and ‘forgetting’ is ‘coming to not have in mind’), without the entailments found in English, which distinguishes previously experienced mental states (remember, remind) or mental states experienced for the first time (get the idea that, realize).

The only section of the paper to include NSM-inspired explications is the appendix. One of the explications relates to two bound morphemes of Dalabon that refer to something akin to the English ‘mind’, viz. beng and kanûm. The latter also denotes the ear. Other NSM-inspired explications relate to the verbs bengdi ‘have in mind’ and bengkan ‘keep in mind’.

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Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner

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(1999) Indispensability of semantics

Enfield, Nick J. (1999). On the indispensability of semantics: Defining the ‘vacuous’. RASK (International Journal of Language and Communication), 9/10, 285-304.

This paper deals with the semantics of “vacuous expressions” in English and Lao.

(2000) Linguocentrism

Enfield, N. J. (2000). On linguocentrism. In Martin Pütz & Marjolijn H. Verspoor (Eds.), Explorations in linguistic relativity (pp. 125-157). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/cilt.199.09enf

Enfield’s paper “On linguocentrism” addresses the methodological and theoretical issue in linguistic relativity research that has emerged from two current conflicting positions. According to one view, one may experimentally test a language/culture/thought connection by isolating phenomena from these putatively separate realms, and then demonstrating whether or not there is some influence or non-accidental connection. A second view argues that the said prior separability of language, culture and thought is illusory, and that rather, the point of studies in linguistic relativity is to describe the ways in which particular conceptual themes dominate particular linguistic and
cultural systems. Enfield supports the linguocentric view, which favors the position of language in cognitive and cultural phenomena, allowing linguistic evidence to be used in describing such phenomena. However, Enfield concludes that even though linguocentrism is a fact of life, in its methodology, monolinguocentrism, and therefore ethnocentrism, must be avoided at all cost to avoid circularity in argumentation.

 

 

 

(2002) Emotions and body parts

Enfield, N. J., & Wierzbicka, Anna (2002). Introduction: The body in description of emotion. Pragmatics & Cognition, 10(1/2), 1-25. DOI: 10.1075/pc.10.12.02enf

Introduction to a special issue of Pragmatics & Cognition.

Anthropologists and linguists have long been aware that the body is explicitly referred to in conventional description of emotion in languages around the world. There is abundant linguistic data showing expression of emotions in terms of their imagined “locus” in the physical body. The most important
methodological issue in the study of emotions is language, for the ways people talk give us access to “folk descriptions” of the emotions. “Technical terminology”, whether based on English or otherwise, is not excluded from this “folk” status. It may appear to be safely “scientific” and thus culturally neutral, but in fact it is not: technical English is a variety of English and reflects, to some extent, culture-specific ways of thinking (and categorising) associated with the English language. People — as researchers studying other
people, or as people in real-life social association — cannot directly access the emotional experience of others, and language is the usual mode of “packaging” one’s experience so it may be accessible to others. Careful description of linguistic data from as broad as possible a cross-linguistic base is thus an important part of emotion research. All people experience biological events and processes associated with certain thoughts (or, as psychologists say, “appraisals”), but there is more to “emotion” than just these physiological phenomena. Speakers of some languages talk about their emotional experiences as if they are located in some internal organ such as “the liver”, yet they cannot localise feeling in this physical organ. This phenomenon needs to be understood better, and one of the problems is finding a method of comparison that allows us to compare descriptions from different languages which show apparently great formal and semantic variation. Some simple concepts including feel and body are universal or near-universal, and as such are good candidates for terms of description which may help to
eradicate confusion and exoticism from cross-linguistic comparison and semantic typology. Semantic analysis reveals great variation in concepts of emotion across languages and cultures—but such analysis requires a sound and well-founded methodology.While leaving room for different approaches to the task, we suggest that such a methodology can be based on empirically established linguistic universal (or near-universal) concepts, and on “cognitive scenarios” articulated in terms of these concepts. Also, we warn against the danger of exoticism involved in taking all body part references “literally”. Above all, we argue that what is needed is a combination of empirical cross-linguistic investigations and a theoretical and methodological awareness, recognising the impossibility of exploring other people’s emotions
without keeping language in focus: both as an object and as a tool of study.

(2002) Lao – NSM syntax

Enfield, N. J. (2002). Combinatoric properties of Natural Semantic Metalanguage expressions in Lao. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Meaning and universal grammar: Theory and empirical findings. Vol. II (pp. 145-256). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.61.08enf

The current version of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) identifies about 60 semantically basic morpholexical items that are hypothesized to be found in every language of the world. It is argued that these universal semantic units have meanings that are both simple, and identical across languages. Further, it is hypothesized that all language-specific semantic structures are complex, and may be analysed (and translated across languages) by means of complex expressions involving just the 60 or so basic universal semantic units. No other descriptive metalanguage (formal or otherwise) insists on this level of cross-translatability, and so it is apparently the closest thing to a real standard of comparison available for cross-linguistic semantic description. To achieve this, not only must the units of the system be semantically basic and cross-linguistically identical, but their combinatoric properties must also be basic and cross-linguistically identical. The purpose of this study is to evaluate current hypotheses regarding universal combinatoric properties of the putative morpholexical/semantic universals, with reference to Lao.


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

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(2008) Tarifyt Berber – MOMENT

Elouazizi, Noureddine, & Trnavac, Radaslava (2008). Identification and syntax of semantic prime MOMENT in Tarifyt Berber. In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 241-258). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.15elo

This study contributes to our understanding of the status of the newly proposed NSM semantic prime MOMENT using data from Tarifyt Berber. The syntax of the primary Tarifyt Berber exponent ġar is exclusively adverbial and requires a biclausal construction. We argue that this reflects the universal “conceptual syntax” of MOMENT, because the aspect-like modification provided by MOMENT requires the implicit presence of an “eventive” frame. The English sentence It happened in one moment, for example, is elliptical for a semantically equivalent,
but more explicit, expanded version: When it happened, it happened in one moment. English expressions such as at that moment and for a moment also lack direct equivalents in Tarifyt Berber.


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

(2007) French, Spanish – Speech acts, “secondary” verbs

Elduayen, Luis Gastón (2007). Introduire le discours d’autrui: Actes de parole et verbes “secondaires” dans la presse franco-espagnole [Introducing other people’s discourse: Speech acts and “secondary” verbs in the French-Spanish press]. Revista española de lingüística aplicada, 20, 37-58. PDF (open access)

Is it necessary to recall that it is ultimately through the speech acts generated by verba dicendi that reported speech is introduced, clarified, even explicated, and that readers are placed on the path of good reception? With public life being nothing short of an immense interlocutional labyrinth, the importance of the words spoken and reported by the written press (in this case the French-Spanish written press), on the one hand, and that of the “relating” verbs, on the other, comes into even sharper focus. The object of this analysis, which is fundamentally semantic, will be this class of “secondary” items – secondary by reason of their frequency. It is a class that, at times, may even include collateral items, i.e. items which, precisely because of their function, belong to the said class but whose semantics is often unrelated to it.

(1996) German – Prepositions (AUS, VOR)

Durst, Uwe (1996). Distinktive Synonymik der Präpositionen ‘aus’ und ‘vor’ in “kausaler” Verwendung [The distinctive synonymym of the German prepositions ‘aus’ and ‘vor’ in their “causative” use]. MA thesis (Magisterarbeit), Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

(1999) Biblical Hebrew – NSM primes (BAD)

Durst, Uwe (1999). BAD as a semantic primitive: Evidence from Biblical Hebrew. Pragmatics & Cognition, 7(2), 375-403. DOI: 10.1075/pc.7.2.08dur

In an article entitled “Is BAD a semantic primitive?” (1996), John Myhill suggested that the concept ‘bad’ should be removed from the list of semantic primitives put forward by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard. Myhill argued (1) that ‘bad’ is semantically decomposable, (2) that there is no word in Biblical Hebrew that corresponds to the English word bad and, thus, no linguistic form that represents the primitive BAD in this language, and (3) that ‘bad’ is dispensable in the semantic analysis and can be replaced with other components without any loss or change of meaning. Discussing and illustrating some fundamental questions in the search for universal semantic primitives, the present author reconsiders these findings and finds a different answer to John Myhill’s question.


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

See also: , ,

(2001) German – Emotions

Durst, Uwe (2001). Why Germans don’t feel “anger”. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 119-152). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.115

There is no German word that perfectly matches the English word anger, and none of the German words Ärger, Wut, and Zorn has a clear counterpart in English. Each of the German words has a meaning that is somewhat different, and there is no evidence for the “basicness” of one of these words. To grasp their meanings and to be able to compare them and to define them, we have to submit each word to a detailed semantic analysis.

In this paper, the lexical items Ärger, Wut, and Zorn, which constitute the most frequent and most common ‘anger’ words in German, are subjected to semantic and comparative investigation. The analysis is given within the theoretical framework of the NSM approach to semantics, which has turned out to be a most useful way to gain suitable results for this task.


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

See also: , , ,

(2003) NSM

Durst, Uwe (2003). About NSM: A general reply. Theoretical Linguistics, 29(3), 295-303. DOI: 10.1515/thli.29.3.295

This paper takes issue with several of the claims made by respondents to the target paper in the same issue of Theoretical Linguistics. The following questions are addressed: 1. Is NSM ‘scientific’? 2. Do semantic primitives have to be lexical universals? 3. How do primitives differ from their exponents? 4. In what sense are NSM primes “primitive”? 5. Are logical expressions decomposable? 6. Are paraphrases an adequate form of semantic description?

(2003) NSM

Durst, Uwe (2003). The Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to linguistic meaning. Theoretical Linguistics, 29(3), 157-200. DOI: 10.1515/thli.29.3.157

After thirty years of language-internal, as well as cross-linguistic research, the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) model developed by Anna Wierzbicka and her colleagues has turned out to be a most useful theoretical and methodological framework for semantic analysis in various linguistic, and even non-linguistic, domains. This paper argues that the NSM approach to semantics constitutes a new paradigm in linguistic research that is free from various shortcomings of other semantic frameworks. The first section provides a brief survey of the historical development of NSM theory from the early seventies up to the present stage [2003]. Its theoretical and methodological principles are outlined in sections 2 and 3, which also illustrate how, in some cases (e.g. HAPPEN), words that used to be explicated have been discovered to be primes. Section 4 illustrates its applications in various domains by means of examples from a number of languages. These include a range of ‘anger’-related words that are compared to one another.


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

See also: ,

(2014) Acehnese – NSM primes

Durie, Mark; Daud, Bukhari; & Hasan, Mawardi (1994). Acehnese. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 171-202). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.11dur


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

(2006) Spanish (Latin-America) – Cultural key words

DuBartell, Deborah (2006). The development of a key word: The deictic field of Spanish crisis. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 259-287). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.17dub

Abstract:

This study represents a preliminary investigation into the application of the principles of the NSM approach in historical linguistics. It offers synchronic evidence of cultural keyword status for Spanish crisis, both in Peninsular and in Latin American varieties, and, using semantic primes and universal syntax, demonstrates how the word itself developed over time. It uses the process of formulating semantic explications as the foundation of a methodology by which to assess change of meaning. The detailed comparison of the explications employs a “configuration method” aimed at offering insight into the semantic components of key word development. The method combines Bühler’s field theory with functional sentence perspective and emphasizes the dynamism of metalinguistic elements in order to track diachronic change.

Rating:


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

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(2009) NSM and cross-cultural translation

Drobnak, Franciška Trobevšek (2009). On the merits and shortcomings of semantic primes and Natural Semantic Metalanguage in cross-cultural translation. ELOPE (English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries), 6(1-2), 29-41. DOI: 10.4312/elope.6.1-2.29-41. PDF (open access)

The purpose of this paper is to review some basic postulates of the theory of semantic primitives (semantic primes) and to evaluate the applicability of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage in cross-cultural translation. The theory of semantic primes, formulated by Anna Wierzbicka and her colleagues, posits a universal set of cognitive primitives, lexicalized in all natural languages, which, combined into canonical sentences of basic syntactic patterns, constitute a Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). NSM is put forward as an alternative to traditional lexicographic definitions of words, to componential and prototypical semantic analysis, and, as tertium comparationis, presented as a more effective tool in translating culture-specific words and ethnosyntactic features.

semantic prime; canonical sentence; Natural Semantic Metalanguage; cognitive syntax; ethnosyntax; cross-cultural translation

(1990) English, Danish – Emotions (shame, embarrassment)

Dineen, Anne (1990). Shame/embarrassment in English and Danish. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 10(2), 217-229. DOI: 10.1080/07268609008599442

The paper discusses one area of the emotion lexicon in Danish and English, namely a set of terms within the domain of ‘shame’/’embarrassment’. This set of terms constitutes a folk taxonomy, the internal relationships between these terms being a matter for empirical investigation. The paper relies on NSM to make semantic relationships explicit and easily comparable. English and Danish terms are discussed in turn, and comparisons are drawn between them.


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

See also: , , , , , , , , ,

(1994) Thai – NSM primes

Diller, Anthony (1994). Thai. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 149-170). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.10dil

This chapter argues that, in assessing how specific NSM primitives could best be represented in Thai and how formulations could be constructed using these items, it is useful to keep a few general features of the language in mind. In fact, just what ‘the language’ might mean for Thai is perhaps the most critical feature. Different speech registers or what Sapir refers to as ‘subforms of language’ are especially salient in the Thai communicative context. NSM formulations in Thai would be a subform. It is assumed that the Thai version of a semantic metalanguage is best constructed as an intimate, informal linguistic subform, as though we were overhearing, say, a mother talking to her daughter.


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

(2016) NSM primes – KNOW

Dessaix, Dominie (2016). The basicness of knowing, where semantics meets philosophy: The KNOW prime of Natural Semantic Metalanguage and its philosophical implications. BA(Hons) thesis, Australian National University.

The topic of this thesis is the semantic prime KNOW of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) theory. I take an in-depth look at this NSM prime, proposed to be a fundamental concept found in all the world’s languages, considering both linguistic and broader philosophical issues in relation to the KNOW hypothesis, i.e. the proposal that the concept represented by KNOW is a legitimate NSM prime. After introducing NSM and defending a specific “psychological” interpretation of the theory (Chapter 1), I outline the KNOW proposal, including discussion of the combinatorial properties ascribed to it and how they have evolved in recent years (Chapter 2). I then look at would-be counterexamples to the universality of KNOW from a handful of languages (Chapter 3). I argue that overall the prime stands up well to these challenges, though the case of Kalam (Pawley 1994) does raise some issues that require further investigation and possibly novel kinds of testis to resolve. Then in the first part of the “philosophical” side to the thesis, I draw a comparison with the KNOW hypothesis and Timothy Williamson’s (2001) view that knowing is a conceptually fundamental concept, finding both striking similarities and instructive differences between the positions (Chapter 4). Lastly, I consider the “experimental philosophy” findings made by Weinberg et al. (2001) on what looks like cultural variation in concepts of knowing, addressing the question of whether such results are problematic for the universality of the KNOW prime (Chapter 5). Here I contend that such studies do not pose a threat to KNOW, not least because they come with a multitude of methodological issues, including specifically linguistic issues, many of which could be prevented by constructing NSM-based questionnaires. In Chapter 6, I conclude, pointing to several important avenues for further research brought up by the discussion, both on the subject of continued research on the KNOW prime and in relation to interdisciplinary applications of NSM to philosophy.

(2012) Vietnamese – Classifiers

Dao, Loan (2012). The Vietnamese classifiers ‘CON’, ‘CÁI’ and the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach: A preliminary study. In Maia Ponsonnet, Loan Dao, & Margit Bowler (Eds.), Proceedings of the 42nd Australian Linguistic Society Conference – 2011 (pp. 58-74). http://langfest.anu.edu.au/index.php/als/als2011. PDF (open access)

This preliminary study is the first-ever attempt to analyse the lexical semantics of the two most commonly used classifiers in the Vietnamese language, con and cái, using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach. The study originates from an experience in teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language in Australia, where students’ difficulty in learning/acquiring the usage of the Vietnamese classifiers and the classifier noun phrases was observed. The ultimate aim of this pilot study is to use the semantic analysis of the classifiers achieved through NSM to enhance teaching and learning Vietnamese as a foreign language, and to advance the understanding of one of the world’s most extensive and elaborate classifier systems. If this aim is achieved, the study will further support the claim that NSM is an effective tool in the explanation of lexical semantics and language-specific grammatical categories and constructions.


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

See also: ,

(1993) Spanish – HACER causatives

Curnow, Timothy Jowan (1993). Semantics of Spanish causatives involving hacer. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 13(2), 165-184. DOI: 10.1080/07268609308599494. PDF.

Abstract:

This paper examines the semantics of two Spanish causative constructions – the hacer-plus-infinitive construction and the hacer-plus-subjunctive construction using Natural Semantic Metalanguage to describe the semantic invariants of these two constructions. The analysis is limited to sentences which have animate causers. From the analysis of such sentences, it can be demonstrated that the two constructions have similar but distinct meanings. The hacer-plus-subjunctive construction encodes some idea of intentionality which is absent from the hacer-plus-infinitive construction. Where the construction with the subjunctive is used, the action involved is often (though
not always) indirect, or mediated, rather than direct, in which case the infinitive is usually (but not always) used.