Semantics, Culture, and Cognition : Universal Human Concepts in Culture-specific Configurations

ISBN-13: 9780195073263 / Angielski / Miękka / 1992 / 496 str.

Anna Wierzbicka

Opis

Not 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.

This study ranges across a wide variety of languages and cultures in an attempt to identify concepts which are truly universal and to explore whether certain words are culture-specific.

Recenzje

Excellent cross-linguistic, cross-cultural penetration into how the mind works. Fascinating analysis of language as a mirror into the workings of the human soul.