Cross-linguistic semantics

Author(s)

• Goddard, Cliff

Bibliographic Information

Cross-linguistic semantics

edited by Cliff Goddard

（Studies in language companion series / series editors, Werner Abraham, Michael Noonan, 102）

John Benjamins, c2008

Note

Includes bibliographical references and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

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.

Table of Contents

• 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)

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BA85773052
• ISBN:
  • 9789027205698
• LCCN: 2008006977
• Country Code: ne
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Amsterdam ; Philadelphia
• Pages/Volumes: xvi, 356 p.
• Size: 25 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : P325
  • DC22 : 401/.43
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Semantics
  • LCSH : Metalanguage
• Parent Bibliography ID:
  • BA00905916