Cross-Linguistic Semantics
Published on 10. April 2008
Book
Hardback
356 pages
978-90-272-0569-8 (ISBN)
Description
Cross-linguistic semantics - investigating how languages package and express meanings differently - is central to the linguistic quest to understand the nature of human language. This set of studies explores and demonstrates cross-linguistic semantics as practised in the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) framework, originated by Anna Wierzbicka. The opening chapters give a state-of-the-art overview of the NSM model, propose several theoretical innovations and advance a number of original analyses in connection with names and naming, clefts and other specificational sentences, and discourse anaphora. Subsequent chapters describe and analyse diverse phenomena in ten languages from multiple families, geographical locations, and cultural settings around the globe. Three substantial studies document how the metalanguage of NSM semantic primes can be realised in languages of widely differing types: Amharic (Ethiopia), Korean, and East Cree. Each constitutes a lexicogrammatical portrait in miniature of the language concerned. Other chapters probe topics such as inalienable possession in Koromu (Papua New Guinea), epistemic verbs in Swedish, hyperpolysemy in Bunuba (Australia), the expression of "momentariness" in Berber, ethnogeometry in Makasai (East Timor), value concepts in Russian, and "virtuous emotions" in Japanese. This book will be valuable for linguists working on language description, lexical semantics, or the semantics of grammar, for advanced students of linguistics, and for others interested in language universals and language diversity.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 245 mm
Width: 164 mm
Weight
805 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-272-0569-8 (9789027205698)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Cliff Goddard
Cross-Linguistic Semantics
E-Book
04/2008
1st Edition
John Benjamins Publishing Company
€149.99
Available for download
Person
Content
1. Acknowledgements; 2. List of contributors; 3. List of tables, figures and appendices; 4. Part I. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory; 5. 1. Natural Semantic Metalanguage: The state of the art (by Goddard, Cliff); 6. 2. New semantic primes and new syntactic frames: "Specificational BE" and "abstract THIS/IT" (by Goddard, Cliff); 7. 3. Towards a systematic table of semantic elements (by Goddard, Cliff); 8. Part II. Whole metalanguage studies; 9. 4. Semantic primes in Amharic (by Amberber, Mengistu); 10. 5. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage of Korean (by Yoon, Kyung-Joo); 11. 6. Semantic primes and their grammar in a polysynthetic language: East Cree (by Junker, Marie-Odile); 12. Part III. Problems in semantic metalanguage; 13. 7. Hyperpolysemy in Bunuba, a polysynthetic language of the Kimberley, Western Australia (by Knight, Emily); 14. 8. Re-thinking THINK in contrastive perspective: Swedish vs. English (by Goddard, Cliff); 15. 9. Identification and syntax of semantic prime MOMENT in Tarifyt Berber (by Elouazizi, Noureddine); 16. Part IV. Semantic studies across languages; 17. 10. The ethnogeometry of Makasai (East Timor) (by Brotherson, Anna); 18. 11. The semantics of "inalienable possession" in Koromu (PNG) (by Priestley, Carol); 19. 12. Tolerance: New and traditional values in Russian in comparison with English (by Gladkova, Anna); 20. 13. Two "virtuous emotions" in Japanese: Nasake/joo and jihi (by Hasada, Rie)