Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics Across Domains, Languages, and Cultures

323 Pages·2014·1.7 MB·English

by  Cliff C. Goddard

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Words and Meanings
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,4/11/2013,SPi
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,7/11/2013,SPi
Words and Meanings
Lexical Semantics across Domains,
Languages, and Cultures
CLIFF GODDARD AND ANNA WIERZBICKA
1
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,4/11/2013,SPi
3
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OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,4/11/2013,SPi
Contents
Authorshipnote vi
Acknowledgements vii
Tablesandfigures viii
1 Words,meaning,andmethodology 1
2 Men,women,andchildren:thesemanticsofbasicsocialcategories 22
3 Sweet,hot,hard,heavy,rough,sharp:physical-qualitywordsin
cross-linguisticperspective 55
4 From“colourwords”tovisualsemantics:English,Russian,Warlpiri 80
5 Happinessandhumanvaluesincross-culturalandhistoricalperspective 102
6 Pain:isitahumanuniversal?Theperspectivefrom
cross-linguisticsemantics 127
7 Suggesting,apologizing,complimenting:Englishspeech-actverbs 156
8 Astitchintimeandthewayofthericeplant:thesemanticsof
proverbsinEnglishandMalay 184
9 Themeaningof“abstractnouns”:Locke,Bentham,and
contemporarysemantics 205
10 Broaderhorizons:beyondlexicalsemantics 238
References 262
Index 291
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Authorship note
Thisbookpresentsresultsofourcollaborativeworkinlexicalsemanticsoverthepast
fiveorsixyears.Forconsistency,wehaveemployedajointauthorialvoicethrough-
out. It may be useful to state, however, that Chapters 4, 5, and 6 were principally
authoredbyAnnaWierzbicka,andChapters7and8byCliffGoddard,ineachcase
withsubstantialinputfromtheother.Chapters1,2,3,9,and10werejointlyauthored.
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,4/11/2013,SPi
Acknowledgements
ThisbookowesagreatdealtoourongoinginteractionswithcolleaguesintheNSM
research community, both in Australia and overseas. In particular, we have been
sustained (as well as challenged) by NSM workshops held twice yearly at the
Australian National University. We are also greatly indebted to several cohorts of
studentswhohaveparticipatedinsemanticseminarsattheANUandattheUniver-
sity of New England. They have kept us on our toes, contributed insights, and
enhanced the joys of our search for semantic understanding. Warm thanks to
themall.
We would like to thank Carol Priestley for her careful and insightful help in
preparingthefinalmanuscript.WearegratefultoHelenBromhead,AnnaGladkova,
CarstenLevisen,andZhengdaoYeforhelpfulcommentsonvariouschapters.Other
acknowledgements are given below. Part of the research reported in this book was
supportedbytheAustralianResearchCouncil.
Chapter3isarevisedversionofanarticlebyCliffGoddardandAnnaWierzbicka
(2007), titled ‘NSM analyses of the semantics of physical qualities: sweet, hot, hard,
heavy, rough, sharp in cross-linguistic perspective’, Studies in Language 31(4),
765–800.
Chapter4 is an expanded and revised version of an article by Anna Wierzbicka
(2008),titled‘Whythereareno“colouruniversals”inlanguageandthought’,Journal
oftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute14(2),407–425.
Chapter5buildsonAnnaWierzbicka’searlierpublicationson‘happiness’includ-
ing: ‘“Happiness” in a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective’, Daedalus
(2004)133(2),34–43;‘What’swrongwith“happinessstudies”:theculturalsemantics
of happiness, bonheur, Glück and sčast’e’, in Leonid Iomdin etal. (eds), Word and
Language[inRussianSlovoiJazyk],Moscow:JazykiRusskoyKultury,2011,155–171;
and‘The“historyofemotions”andthefutureofemotionresearch’,EmotionReview
(2010)2(3),269–273.
Chapter6 is an expanded and revised version of an article by Anna Wierzbicka
(2012), titled ‘Is pain a human universal? A cross-linguistic and cross-cultural
perspectiveonpain’,EmotionReview4(3),307–317.
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fi
Tables and gures
Tables
1.1 Semanticprimes(Englishexponents),groupedinto
relatedcategories 12
1.2 Valencyframearraysforthreesemanticprimeshappen,do,
andthink 14
2.1 Google“hits”forfourEnglishcollocations(rounded) 41
7.1 Sevensyntacticframesforsemanticprimesay 159
Figures
2.1 Standardfeatureanalysisofman,woman,boy,girl 23
8.1 Structureofsemantictemplateforproverbmeanings 190
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1
Words, meaning, and methodology
1.1 Why words matter
Mainstream linguistics in the 20th century devoted startlingly little attention to
words. Yet words matter a great deal. They matter in human relations (which are
often shaped by names, titles, terms of address and kin terms), in the edifice of
humanknowledge(tomentiononlynumberwords,thenamesofbiologicalspecies,
andtheroleofterminologyinscience),andinsystemsofreligion,belief,andvalues.
“The human spirit thinks with words,” wrote the 18th-century German thinker
Johann Gottfried Herder, and although Herder’s words have often been disputed,
they reflect a deep-seated human intuition that words matter. In Isaiah Berlin’s
elegantparaphraseofHerder’sGerman:
Words,byconnectingpassionswiththings,thepresentwiththepast,andbymakingpossible
memoryandimagination,createfamily,society,literature,history.[...]tospeakandthinkin
wordsisto‘swiminaninheritedstreamofimagesandwords;wemustacceptthesemediaon
trust:wecannotcreatethem’. (Berlin1976:168)
BeforeHerder therewasVico,anothergreatvisionary andbelieverinthefunda-
mental importance of words, of whom Berlin, in his book Vico and Herder, wrote:
“hewas,sofarasIknow,thefirsttograsptheseminalandrevolutionarytruththat
linguisticformsareoneofthekeystothemindsofthosewhousewords,andindeed
to the entire mental, social and cultural life of societies” (Berlin 1976: 51). For Vico,
these“linguisticforms”whichcanprovidethekeystothemental,socialandcultural
lifeofsocieties,presentandpast,are,aboveall,words.
Hissensitivenesstowordsandthephilosophicalsignificanceoftheirusecanbeverymodern.
So, for example, he notes what has only in our day been analysed and classified as the
‘performative functions of words’, namely the fact that words themselves need not merely
describeorattractattentiontosomethingoutsidethemselves,butmaythemselvesbeactsor
intrinsic elements in action, as, for example, in the part that they play in legal transfers, or
religiousceremonial.Thatwordsarenotinvariablyusedtodescribe,orcommand,orthreaten
orejaculateorconveyimagesoremotions,butcanthemselvesbeaformofaction,iscertainlya
newandimportantidea. (Berlin1976:50)