Bugenhagen, Robert D. (1990). Experiential constructions in Mangap-Mbula. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 10(2), 183-215. DOI: 10.1080/07268609008599441
A variety of constructions used to express experiential notions in the Austronesian language Mangap-Mbula are examined and their meanings explicated. By an “experiential situation” is meant a situation in which something “happens” to an animate entity – someone or something who is able to know that something is happening. Furthermore, the animate entity does not affect or produce any other entity, including himself/herself. Experiential situations are encoded in Mangap-Mbula by six overall construction types:
- uninflected experiential verbs with coreferential Experiencer Subjects and Objects
This subclass contains just five items, two of which are explicated: menmeen ‘happy (about)’ and kaipa ‘selfishly rejoice (over)’.
Since there are only a few verbs in the language which encode experiential notions, a number of other constructions are employed as well. They include:
- inflected experiential verbs with experiencer subjects
This subclass includes verbs of knowledge; verbs of perception, including –re ‘see, look’ and –leŋ ‘hear, listen’; verbs encoding semi-controllable physical states; the verb –mbot ‘stay, be at, be alive’; verbs encoding emotional responses, including –morsop ‘be startled’, –murur ‘be surprised’, and –twer ‘worried about, longing for’); verbs encoding uncontrolled physical states; the verb –moto ‘fear’; the verb –mbel ‘be in trouble’
- inflected experiential verbs with experiencer objects
- a construction involving the verb –kam, a polysemous form which can be variously glossed as ‘do, cause, receive, get’
- a construction in which the forms le– and ka– are added immediately following the verb
- body image expressions
More important than all of the above, however, are body image constructions, in which a body part plus a verb function together as a kind of composite predicate.
The final section of the paper is a study of the different encodings of the notion of ‘fear’.
See also: (E) ka-, (E) kaipa, (E) kokena, (E) kuli- imoto, (E) le, (E) leŋ, (E) mbel, (E) menmeen, (E) morsop, (E) moto, (E) moto- ikam, (E) murur, (E) ni- imozooro, (E) re, (E) twer
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (1994). The exponents of semantic primitives in Mangap-Mbula. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical Universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 87-108). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.08bug
This paper examines the applicability of the proposed set of lexical and semantic universals to Mangap-Mbula, an Austronesian language spoken in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (2001). Emotions and the nature of persons in Mbula. In Jean Harkins, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Emotions in crosslinguistic perspective (pp. 73-118). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783110880168.69
The present paper seeks to precisely specify the meanings of a number of emotion expressions in the Mbula language of Papua New Guinea, focussing on those involving body part images. In doing so, use is made of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage.
Explications are proposed for a number of mata- phrases, many of which relate to seeing (mata = ‘eye’) and to emotions triggered by seeing (e.g. jealousy). Lele- phrases (lele = ‘insides’), kete- phrases (kete = ‘chest/liver’), ni- phrases (ni = ‘being’), kuli- phrases (kuli = ‘skin’), and kopo- phrases (kopo = ‘stomach’) are surveyed as well, each with their related emotions. Body parts less frequently used in body image
expressions are included towards the end of the paper
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) ikam- phrases, (E) kete- phrases, (E) kopo- phrases, (E) kuli- phrases, (E) kwo- phrases, (E) lele- phrases, (E) mata- phrases, (E) ni- phrases, (E) ŋgure- phrases, (E) talŋa- phrases, (E) ur koi pa
Bugenhagen, Robert D. (2002). The syntax of semantic primes in Mangaaba-Mbula. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Meaning and universal grammar: Theory and empirical findings. Vol. II (pp. 1-64). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.61.06bug
The present chapter describes the syntax of the proposed NSM semantic primes in Mangaaba-Mbula, an Austronesian language spoken on Umboi Island in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea by around 3500 people.
Brotherson, Anna (2008). The ethnogeometry of Makasai (East Timor). In Cliff Goddard (Ed.), Cross-linguistic semantics (pp. 259-276). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.102.17bro
The identification of language universals has long been a topic of interest. This article tests a number of theories in relation to universal human conceptualisation of space, by analysing spatial concepts in the Papuan language Makasai (East Timor). This analysis is conducted within the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM). This chapter provides detailed NSM explications for various Makasai shape adjectives, which are then compared and contrasted with spatial terms of English (Wiezbicka 2003, 2006). This analysis finds that while a number of posited language universals are indeed present in Makasai, others are not, and therefore should no longer be considered
universal. The chapter also demonstrates the value of using NSM in the search for language universals, and for analysing and comparing spatial terms across languages.
Bromhead, Helen (2009). The reign of truth and faith: Epistemic expressions in 16th and 17th century English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
This ground-breaking study in the historical semantics and pragmatics of 16th and 17th century English examines the meaning, use and cultural underpinnings of confident- and certain-sounding epistemic expressions, such as forsooth, by my troth and in faith, and first person epistemic phrases, such as I suppose, I ween and I think. It supports the hypothesis that the British Enlightenment and its attendant empiricism brought about a profound epistemic shift in ways of thinking and speaking. In contrast to the modern ethos of empiricism and doubt, the 16th and 17th centuries were dominated by an ethos of truth and faith, which manifests itself (among other ways) in the meanings and usages of epistemic expressions for certainty and confidence.
The study is firmly based on evidence from texts and collocations in the writings of the day and is conducted using the framework of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM).
Reviewed by:
Gladkova, Anna (2012). Intercultural Pragmatics, 9(2), 281-285. DOI: 10.1515/ip-2012-0016
Levisen, Carsten (2012). Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 22(1), 128-129. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1395.2012.01120.x
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) by my faith, (E) by my troth, (E) forsooth, (E) I suppose, (E) I think, (E) I trow, (E) I ween, (E) I wot, (E) in faith, (E) in truth, (E) methinks, (E) pleased, (E) probably, (E) really, (E) suppose, (E) surely, (E) truth, (E) verily
Bromhead, Helen (2011). Ethnogeographical categories in English and Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara. Language Sciences, 33, 58-75. DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2010.07.004
This study examines the contrastive lexical semantics of a selection of landscape terms in English and the Australian Aboriginal language, Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara. It argues that languages and cultures categorize the geographical environment in diverse ways. Common elements of classification are found across the languages, but it is argued that different priorities are given to these factors. Moreover, the study finds that there are language-specific aspects of the landscape terms, often motivated by culture and land use. Notably, this study presents ethnogeographical concepts as being anchored in an anthropocentric perspective, based on human vision and experience in space. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) technique of semantic analysis is used throughout, and it is argued that this methodology provides an effective tool in the exploration of ethnogeographical categories.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) apu, (E) creek, (E) hill, (E) karu, (E) mountain, (E) puli, (E) river, (E) stream
Bromhead, Helen (2011). The bush in Australian English. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 31(4), 445-471. DOI: 10.1080/07268602.2011.625600
Individual landscape terms in various languages do not always have exact equivalents in other languages, or even in different varieties of the same language. One example is the term the bush in Australian English. The bush denotes an Australian landscape zone, but the word has developed additional senses related to culture and human geography. This study delineates the semantics of the bush in Australian English in relation to Australian culture. These meanings of the bush are described using the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to linguistic analysis.
The study finds that the bush is a key word in Australian culture. The author shows that in Australian English and other settler Englishes the meanings of national landscape terms can shed light on the relationship between settlers’ cultures, and their new environments and ways of life.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) bush, (E) the bush
Brala, Marija M. (2003). NSM within the cognitive linguistics movement: Bridging some gaps. Jezikoslovlje, 4(2), 161-186. PDF (open access)
Ever since the Chomskyan views revolutionised the scientific study of language, we have been expecting to see groundbreaking results relative to the workings of the human language faculty. Unfortunately for the discipline, this has not been the case. This paper is structured around one one-word question: why? Departing from some general considerations about cognitive linguistics, and some specific considerations about the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), this paper attempts to: a. establish the common ground(s) shared by
most approaches currently being developed within the cognitive linguistic paradigm; b. posit some key arguments supporting the thesis that semantic and conceptual universals should corroborate most if not all theses relative to linguistic conceptualisation; c. try and bridge some gaps between a number of conceptual theories of language, arguing that quite a few divergences between frameworks and interpretations are due to opacity of criteria, methodologies and even just terminology; d. suggest that NSM has much to offer to linguistics in terms of solving the above problems. It is argued that a more tightly knit paradigm would allow for a more efficient interpretation of data stemming from research in cognitive linguistics, and which is, as shown in the paper, already yielding quite a few consistent patterns.
Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM); Cognitive linguistic paradigm; semantic universals; conceptual primitives
Bourdin, Gabriel Luis (2011). Partes del cuerpo e incorporación nominal en expresiones emocionales mayas [Body parts and nominal incorporation in Maya emotional expressions]. Dimensión antropológica, 51, 103-130. PDF (open access)
This paper relates to the expression of emotions in colonial Yucatec Maya. NSM is used on just one occasion, to explicate the Spanish word miedo ‘fear’.
Bondéelle, Olivier (2015). Polysémie et structuration du lexique: Le cas du wolof [Polysemy and the structure of the lexicon: The case of wolof]. Utrecht: LOT. PDF (open access)
This work deals with the role of polysemy in structuring the lexicon. The thesis proposes a qualitative evaluation of polysemy, comparing it with the other relationships that structure the lexicon. This undertaking makes it possible to verify that polysemy links should not be modeled independently of derivation or conversion links. The results of the evaluation show that the boundary between polysemy and conversion is porous.
The language of study is Wolof, a coastal language of West Africa. This language provides adequate material for the research. A wide range of morphological processes structure the lexicon (derivation by suffixation, derivation by consonantal alternation, conversion by change of the nominal class morpheme).
The descriptive contribution of this work lies in the exploration of the areas of artefacts and emotions of the Wolof, areas never described previously for an African language from the point of view of structuring the lexicon. The methodology consists in describing the meanings of the lexical units and the semantic links connecting them by a single metalanguage, that of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), introduced here for the Wolof language.
Bogusławski, Andrzej (1975). *On ‘the world’. Linguistica Silesiana, 1, 63-69.
Boguslawski, Andrzej (1989). *Knowledge is the lack of lack of knowledge: But what is that lack lack of? Quaderni di Semantica, 10(1), 15-31.
Bogusławski, Andrzej (1991). Semantic primes for agentive relations. Lingua Posnaniensis, 32/33, 39-64.
There is much plausibility in the claim that all agentive relations are based on a semantic prime that is constitutive of them and that is lexicalised in all of the world’s languages. In English, the lexical exponent of that prime is DO. A bold and, methodologically speaking, absolutely justified attempt at finding a decomposition of DO appears in Wierzbicka (1975, 1980). More recent work by the same author (e.g., 1989) questions that decomposition and argues (following our own intuitions) that a valid semantic decomposition of DO is unfeasible. In this paper, I argue that agentive relations are in fact based on either of two semantic primes, not one. It is suggested the following agentive primes should be recognised (expressed here in their basic English shape):
(i) doing (something)
(ii) doing (something) with OR doing (something) to
Note (added by Bert Peeters): This paper predates the concept of valency options, which has since been operationalised in NSM methodology. It contains no explications but is limited to discussion of its main thesis/theses.
Bogusławski, Andrzej (2001). Reflections on Wierzbicka’s explications. Lingua Posnaniensis, 43, 47-88.
Reprinted in:
Bogusławski, Andrzej (2011). Reflections on Wierzbicka’s explications & related essays. Warszawa: BEL Studio.
In this paper, the author brings together three earlier publications dealing with Anna Wierzbicka’s work. One of them is a chapter on “Wierzbicka’s explications” in the book Science as linguistic activity, linguistics as scientific activity (1998); the chapter has been supplemented with some introductory remarks. Another one is part of a chapter on names of natural kinds taken from the book Język w słowniku: desiderata semantyczne do wielkiego słownika polszczyzny [‘Language in the dictionary: semantic desiderata for a great Polish dictionary’] (1988); it is presented here as a partly revised and complemented English version of the Polish text. The third item included in the present publication is based on a small section of an article (in Polish) on Wierzbicka’s dictionary of speech act verbs (1988) and deals with how she analyses descriptions of speech events (not abstract descriptions of kinds of speech acts, but statements of particular tokens thereof as occurring in ordinary discourse and displaying certain non-individual characteristics); this section, too, is more than just a translation.
Besemeres, Mary & Wierzbicka, Anna (2003). Pragmatics and cognition: The meaning of the particle lah in Singapore English. Pragmatics & Cognition, 11(1), 3-38. DOI: 10.1075/pc.11.1.03bes
This paper tries to crack one of the hardest and most intriguing chestnuts in the field of cross-cultural pragmatics and to identify the meaning of the celebrated Singaporean particle lah, the hallmark of Singapore English. In pursuing this goal, the authors investigate the use of lah and seek to identify its meaning by trying to find a paraphrase in ordinary language that would be substitutable for lah in any context. In doing so, they try to enter the speakers’ minds, and as John Locke urged in his pioneering work on particles, published in 1691, “observe nicely” the speakers’ “postures of the mind in discoursing”. At the same time, they offer a general model for the investigation of discourse markers and show how the methodology based on the NSM semantic theory allows the analyst to link pragmatics, via semantics, with the study of cognition.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) Ah, (E) lah, (E) you know
Béal, Christine (1993). Les stratégies conversationnelles en français et en anglais: Conventions ou reflet de divergences culturelles profondes? [Conversational strategies in French and English: Convention or reflection of profound cultural divergence?] Langue française, 98, 79-106. DOI: 10.3406/lfr.1993.5835. PDF (open access)
The inspiration for this paper was found in A. Wierzbicka’s Cross-cultural pragmatics (1991). The author describes contrastively some of the rules which underlie conversation in French and in Australian English. The transcription of authentic recordings shows how each system works in isolation and what kind of conflicts emerge when both systems meet (in the case of native speakers or French using their own conversational strategies when expressing themselves in English). It is claimed that the observed differences reflect divergent cultural norms. underlie conversation in French and in Australian English. The transcription of authentic recordings shows how each system works in isolation and what kind of conflicts emerge when both systems meet (in the case of native speakers or French using their own conversational strategies when expressing themselves in English). It is claimed that the observed differences reflect divergent cultural norms.
Baumgartner, Joanne M. (2002). Key cultural concepts in Australian Aboriginal languages as used in biblical translation. In Nga kete o te matauranga / Global pressures, local impacts: Challenges for the Pacific Rim. Association of Pacific Rim Universities 2nd Doctoral Students Conference, 1-4 February 2001, University of Auckland. Los Angeles: University of Southern California [CD Rom]. 11 pp.
In Aboriginal Bible translation today, it is necessary to separate pagan beliefs and their associated word usage from Christian beliefs and its totally different concepts, and, having done this, to describe the work being translated in traditional Aboriginal terms. It is possible to do this using NSM, which employs universal terms to identify concepts that are common to all languages, thus preserving the cultural identity already in existence in Aboriginal language use. This avoids the confusion that occurs when academic English is applied to languages that require different cultural concepts, such as Aboriginal languages. This new way of translating can then be used by theologians when applying current translation techniques.
Rating:
Approximate application of NSM principles carried out without prior training by an experienced NSM practitioner
See also: (E) angel, (E) big boss, (E) God, (E) Holy Spirit, (E) Katutja, (E) king, (E) kurrunpa, (E) mayutju pulka, (E) nganka ngurrara, (E) spirit, (E) synagogue, (E) tjuwuku tjaatji
Bartolo, Kay Frances (2008). ‘Bogan’: Polite or not? Cultural implications of a term in Australian slang. Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication, 1(1), 7-20. PDF (open access)
Although changes in the usage of words in English are emerging through globalisation and travel, Australian slang has kept its strong ties to Australian culture. The main aim of this research was to look at the term ‘bogan’, whether it is used in a derogatory way in Australian English, and what effects culture can have on its use and acceptance. Research was conducted using a small corpus built of Australian slang and data taken from ethno‐pragmatic interviews with Australian‐born native speakers of English. It was concluded from the research that the term can be used both negatively, as a negative comment or impolite projection of a social identity onto a person who does not identify themselves within that classification by the older generation, and positively, as a sign of solidarity or a compliment amongst members of the same in‐group by the younger generation. The factors found to affect the result of the use of this term are the cultural stereotype that the user attaches to the meaning and the cultural understanding of the listener.
Bartens, Angela, & Sandström, Niclas (2006). Towards a description of Spanish and Italian diminutives within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage framework. In Bert Peeters (Ed.), Semantic primes and universal grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (pp. 331-360). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.81.20bar
This paper uses the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach to describe Spanish and Italian diminutives, which are able to express a number of diverse emotional nuances ranging from the “affectionate” to the pejorative. Different dialects of Spanish are checked to gain a better insight into areal variation. The authors also investigate the status of the diminutive as a grammatical and/or lexical category, they attempt to establish whether diminutive formation instantiates derivation or composition, and they examine its relationship to reduplication and to the absolute superlative.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
See also: (E) (diminutives)
