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Introduction to Meaning, Life and Culture
No full textThis book is dedicated to Anna Wierzbicka, one of the most influential and innovative linguists of her generation. Her work spans a number of disciplines, including anthropology, cultural psychology, cognitive science, philosophy and religious studies, as well as her home base of linguistics. She is best known for the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to meaning—a versatile tool for exploring ‘big questions’ concerning the diversity and universals of people’s experience in the world.
In this volume, Anna Wierzbicka’s former students, old and current colleagues, ‘kindred spirits’ and ‘sparring partners’ engage with her ideas and diverse body of work. These authors cover topics from the grammar of action verbs to cross-cultural pragmatics, and over 30 languages from around the world are represented.
The chapters in Part 1 focus on the NSM approach and cover four themes: lexico-grammatical semantics, cultural keywords, semantics of nouns, and emotion. In Part 2, the contributors connect with a meaning-based approach from their own intellectual perspectives, including syntax, anthropology, cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics.
The deep humanistic perspective, wide-ranging themes and interdisciplinary nature of Wierzbicka’s research are reflected in the contributions. The common thread running through all chapters is the primacy of meaning to the understanding of language and culture.No Full Tex
Meaning, Life and Culture
Get PDFThis book is dedicated to Anna Wierzbicka, one of the most influential and innovative linguists of her generation. Her work spans a number of disciplines, including anthropology, cultural psychology, cognitive science, philosophy and religious studies, as well as her home base of linguistics. She is best known for the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to meaning—a versatile tool for exploring 'big questions' concerning the diversity and universals of people’s experience in the world. In this volume, Anna Wierzbicka’s former students, old and current colleagues, ‘kindred spirits’ and ‘sparring partners’ engage with her ideas and diverse body of work. These authors cover topics from the grammar of action verbs to cross-cultural pragmatics, and over 30 languages from around the world are represented. The chapters in Part 1 focus on the NSM approach and cover four themes: lexico-grammatical semantics, cultural keywords, semantics of nouns, and emotion. In Part 2, the contributors connect with a meaning-based approach from their own intellectual perspectives, including syntax, anthropology, cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics. The deep humanistic perspective, wide-ranging themes and interdisciplinary nature of Wierzbicka’s research are reflected in the contributions. The common thread running through all chapters is the primacy of meaning to the understanding of language and culture
Royal Semantics:Linguacultural Reflections on the Danish Address Pronoun De
No full textThis paper provides an original analysis of “the Danish De” from a semantic and cultural-discursive perspective. Traditionally, De is classified under the so-called “V”-pronouns of European languages, but this classification does not explain well the highly Danish-specific ways in which the De operates in discourse. Following the lead of Wierzbicka’s meaning-based turn in address studies, the paper contributes to the new exploration of European linguacultures of address, and to the study of “relational grammars”. Breaking free from the stranglehold of the simplistic T-V paradigm, the paper applies instead the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) as it tools for high-resolution semantic and discursive analysis. The paper finds that none of the two main address types, the Anglo and the Continental system, fit the description of the Danish De, and as a result, it is argued that we need to rethink, sharpen and improve our metalanguage of analysis, in order to account for the address diversity across European linguacultures
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Our ordinary lives: Pathways to a more human-oriented linguistics
Get PDFWhen one considers the range of data types, methods and researchquestions that characterise contemporary linguistics, it is clear that the fieldis diverse and ever expanding in ways that were hardly conceivable 100,or even 50, years ago. One shift underlying many of these developmentswithin linguistics has been the increased attention given to the speakersand writers of language. This shift is manifest in a variety of ways: howspeakers interact in conversation, the cognitive processes accompanyingacts of speaking and writing, the language used by speakers and writersin the form of language corpora, the role of the human body in shapinglanguage (i.e. the idea of ‘embodiment’), etc. It is clear that the ideathat linguistics is primarily concerned with a system untethered to thespeakers and writers of the language no longer holds sway in the way itonce did
Meaning, Life and Culture
Get PDFThis book is dedicated to Anna Wierzbicka, one of the most influential and innovative linguists of her generation. Her work spans a number of disciplines, including anthropology, cultural psychology, cognitive science, philosophy and religious studies, as well as her home base of linguistics. She is best known for the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to meaning—a versatile tool for exploring 'big questions' concerning the diversity and universals of people’s experience in the world. In this volume, Anna Wierzbicka’s former students, old and current colleagues, ‘kindred spirits’ and ‘sparring partners’ engage with her ideas and diverse body of work. These authors cover topics from the grammar of action verbs to cross-cultural pragmatics, and over 30 languages from around the world are represented. The chapters in Part 1 focus on the NSM approach and cover four themes: lexico-grammatical semantics, cultural keywords, semantics of nouns, and emotion. In Part 2, the contributors connect with a meaning-based approach from their own intellectual perspectives, including syntax, anthropology, cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics. The deep humanistic perspective, wide-ranging themes and interdisciplinary nature of Wierzbicka’s research are reflected in the contributions. The common thread running through all chapters is the primacy of meaning to the understanding of language and culture
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
To Be with Salt, To Speak with Taste: Metapragmatics of Playful Speech Practices in Persian
No full textThis investigation is centred around three metapragmatic labels designating valued speech practices in the domain of ‘playful language’ in Persian. These three metapragmatic labels, used by speakers themselves, describe success and failure in use of playful language and construe a person as pleasant to be with. They are hāzerjavāb (lit. ready.response), bāmaze (lit. with.taste), and bānamak (lit. with.salt). Each is surrounded and supported by a cluster of (related) word meanings, which are instrumental in their cultural conceptualisations.
The analytical framework is set within the research area known as ethnopragmatics, which is an offspring of Natural Semantics Metalanguage (NSM). With the use of explications and scripts articulated in cross-translatable semantic primes, the metapragmatic labels and the related clusters are examined in meticulous detail. This study demonstrates how ethnopragmatics, its insights on epistemologies backed by corpus pragmatics, can contribute to the metapragmatic studies by enabling a robust analysis using a systematic metalanguage.
Chapter 1 establishes the relationship between speakers’ metapragmatic knowledge and the speech practices they perform. ‘Speech practices’ are defined to refer to ‘things people do with words’ in certain contexts due to the native skills and knowledge they have (habitus), which can be grouped by the speakers themselves under a descriptive (metapragmatic) label. These labels can shed light on nonpropositional knowledge of speakers, i.e. on emic (or insider) understandings. Relatedly, rather than conducting the research under the banner of the linguistics of humour (in a broad sense) in Persian, the general category of playful language is preferred, as a significant definitional improvement. ‘Playful language’ has its own conventions which are different from the conventions of ‘normal’ interactions, and this depends on the participants recognising the intention behind the play. Besides, the cultural significance of ‘playful language’ in Persian is emphasised with a review of the concept of bāzi (play) and other historical and modern linguistic and non-linguistic evidence.
Chapter 2 studies hazer javābi, Chapter 3 bāmaze , and Chapter 4 bānamak, respectively.
Hāzerjavābi shows that there is a perception in a conversational setting that a speaker has satisfied the expectation of providing a response in a shorter than expected span of time t. While it is often not faster than normal talk, the verbal content that has been produced in time t is deemed (by observers) to be of a higher verbal/mental quality than the one that other, ‘normal’ speakers produce in time t. This can be interpreted as being bāmaze or bānamak.
In Chapter 3, I propose a metalexical test to explore issues of polysemy and [active] metaphor in relation to maze (taste) and namak (salt). The examination indicates that the intentional aspect of the speech practices, as well as the necessary recognition of the intention by others present, are major components of perception of ‘having maze’. The recognition is confirmed with laughter. The ethno-epistemology of maze, via channelling the active metaphor of good maze (gastronomical taste), is illustrated in a mental script to the effect that people “want more” to hear or to be with that person.
Chapter 4 presents a corpus-informed examination of namak and its cultural conceptualisation in Persian. This situates the concept of namak (salt) in the centre of Persian hospitality, sociability, and mutuality, within the Persian cultural schema of adab (roughly, politeness). The explication of the concept reveals that its conceptualisation hinges on the components ‘this is good, I want more’, which is the active metaphor component behind sharing namak with others.
In addition, failed humour and dispreferred speech practices in the context of playful language are expressed using labels such as bimaze (lit. without.taste) and binamak (lit. without salt), as well as maze-rixtan (lit. taste.pouring), namak-rixtan (lit. salt.pouring), bāmaze.bāzi.dar-āvordan (lit. with.taste.play.out-bring), etc.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)School of Hum, Lang & Soc ScArts, Education and LawFull Tex
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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