Semantics, Culture, and Cognition: Universal Human Concepts in Culture-Specific ConfigurationsNot everything that can be said in one language can be said in another. The lexicons of different languages seem to suggest different conceptual universes. Investigating cultures from a universal, language-independent perspective, this book rejects analytical tools derived from the English language and Anglo culture and proposes instead a "natural semantic metalanguage" formulated in English words but based on lexical universals. The outcome of two and a half decades of research, the metalanguage is made up of universal semantic primitives in terms of which all meanings--including the most culture-specific ones--can be described and compared in a precise and illuminating way. Integrating insights from linguistics, cultural anthropology, and cognitive psychology, and written in simple, non-technical language, Semantics, Culture, and Cognition is accessible not only to scholars and students, but also to the general reader interested in semantics and the relationship between language and culture. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 98
Page 11
... concepts and ( 2 ) the range of languages in which a given concept has been lexicalised . For example , the concept realised in English by the verb say is useful for defining , among other things , hundreds of English verbs of speech ...
... concepts and ( 2 ) the range of languages in which a given concept has been lexicalised . For example , the concept realised in English by the verb say is useful for defining , among other things , hundreds of English verbs of speech ...
Page 12
... concept of ' thinking ' ( in particular , the concept of cogito ' I think ' ) , and any attempt to do so can only lead to greater obscurity and confusion . Furthermore , there is no need to define this concept , because its meaning is ...
... concept of ' thinking ' ( in particular , the concept of cogito ' I think ' ) , and any attempt to do so can only lead to greater obscurity and confusion . Furthermore , there is no need to define this concept , because its meaning is ...
Page 20
... concepts utterly alien to our own . . . . But , fortunately , détente , freedom , and glasnost ' are concepts available to all of us . It is not the barriers of language that keep us from applying them . ( The New Yorker , March 30 ...
... concepts utterly alien to our own . . . . But , fortunately , détente , freedom , and glasnost ' are concepts available to all of us . It is not the barriers of language that keep us from applying them . ( The New Yorker , March 30 ...
Page 21
... concept , or the inability to form this concept . But the presence of a word proves the presence of the concept , and , moreover , its salience in a given culture ; compare Humboldt : From the mass of indeterminate and , as it were ...
... concept , or the inability to form this concept . But the presence of a word proves the presence of the concept , and , moreover , its salience in a given culture ; compare Humboldt : From the mass of indeterminate and , as it were ...
Page 23
... Concepts , Witt- genstein argued , are mutually related by " family resemblance " . They cannot be given accurate definitions in terms of discrete semantic components ; it is impossible to capture the semantic invariant of a concept ...
... Concepts , Witt- genstein argued , are mutually related by " family resemblance " . They cannot be given accurate definitions in terms of discrete semantic components ; it is impossible to capture the semantic invariant of a concept ...
Contents
3 | |
29 | |
EMOTIONS ACROSS CULTURES | 117 |
MORAL CONCEPTS ACROSS CULTURES | 181 |
NAMES AND TITLES | 223 |
KINSHIP SEMANTICS | 327 |
LANGUAGE AS A MIRROR OF CULTURE AND NATIONAL CHARACTER | 371 |
Postscript | 443 |
Notes | 445 |
References | 453 |
Index | 475 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adjective affectionate alofa aloha Anglo-Saxon apatheia attitude Australian Australian Aboriginal languages Australian English back-formations bad things called component concept contrast courageous čto culture dative Descartes destiny diminutive discussion disharmonic duša Dyirbal ečka emotion en'ka encoded English word example expressive fact fago fate feel toward children feels something bad feminine names full names girl happen hard stem human humility Ilongot imply kind kinship language Leibniz lexical liget linguistic linked litost Maasai masculine names meaning mind MOTHER and FATHER natural semantic metalanguage noun očka one's person Pintupi Pitjantjatjara Poland Polish polysemy prototype reference reflected relationship respect Russian Russian language Schicksal Seele seems semantic metalanguage sentences short forms show they feel smirenie social soft stem someone soul speak to children speaker sudba suffix suggest tion Tolstoy toska translated Tsvetaeva universal usia verbs want to show want to speak whereas Wierzbicka Zośka
Popular passages
Page 4 - It was found that the background linguistic system (in other words, the grammar) of each language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual's mental activity, for his analysis of impressions, for his synthesis of his mental stock in trade.
Page 4 - It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language, and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the "real world" is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group.
Page 37 - O Hamlet, speak no more : Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul ; And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct.
Page 94 - ... our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.
Page 4 - We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way — an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.
Page 4 - Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. . . . The fact of the matter is that the "real world" is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group.
Page 4 - The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds — and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds.
Page 4 - social reality'. Though language is not ordinarily thought of as of essential interest to the students of social science, it powerfully conditions all our thinking about social problems and processes. Human beings do not live in the objective world alone...
Page 19 - A moderate skill in different languages, will easily satisfy one of the truth of this, it being so obvious to observe great store of words in one language, which have not any that answer them in another.
Page 98 - Lutheranism to the world were in general uncertain from the beginning and remained so. Ethical principles for the reform of the world could not be found in Luther's realm of ideas ; in fact it never quite freed itself from Pauline indifference. Hence the world had to be accepted as it was, and this alone could be made a religious duty. But in the Puritan view, the providential character of the play of private economic interests takes on a somewhat different emphasis. True to the Puritan tendency...