Overview

The book discusses data from a wide range of languages and it shows that the meanings expressed in human interaction and the different ""cultural scripts"" prevailing in different speech communities can be clearly and intelligibly described and compared by using a ""natural semantic metalanguage"", based on empirically established universal human concepts. As the book shows, this metalanguage can be used as a basis for teaching successful cross-cultural communication, including the teaching of languages in a cultural context.

Full Product Details

Author:   Anna Wierzbicka
Publisher:   De Gruyter
Imprint:   De Gruyter Mouton
Edition:   2nd ed. [with an new preface]
Volume:   No. 53
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 3.20cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.944kg
ISBN:  

9783110177695

ISBN 10:   3110177692
Pages:   539
Publication Date:   19 March 2003
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Unknown
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: semantics and pragmatics 1. Language as a tool of human interaction 2. Different cultures and different modes of interaction 3. Pragmatics - the study of human interaction 4. The natural semantic metalanguage 5. The need for a universal perspective on meaning 6. The uniqueness of every linguistic system 7. The problem of polysemy 8. Semantic equivalence vs. pragmatic equivalence 9. Universal grammatical patterns 10. Semantics vs. pragmatics: different approaches 11. Description of contents Chapter 2 Different cultures, different languages, different speech acts 1. Preliminary examples and discussion 2. Interpretative hypothesis 3. Case studies 4. Cultural values reflected in speech acts 5. Theoretical implications 6. Practical implications Chapter 3 Cross-cultural pragmatics and different cultural values 1. 'Self-Assertion' 2. 'Directness' 3. Further illustrations: same labels, different values 4. Different attitudes to emotions 5. Conclusion Chapter 4 Describing conversational routines 1. Conversational analysis: linguistic or non-linguistic pragmatics? 2. 'Compliment response' routines 3. 'Compliment responses' in different cultures Chapter 5 Speech acts and speech genres across languages and cultures 1. A framework for analysing a culture's 'forms of talk' 2. Some Australian speech-act verbs 3. Some examples of complex speech genres 4. Conclusion Chapter 6 The semantics of illocutionary forces 1. Are illocutionary forces indeterminate? 2. More whimperative constructions 3. Additional remarks on the explication of illocutionary forces 4. Selected conversational strategies 5. Tag questions 6. Personal abuse or praise: You X! 7. Illocutionary forces of grammatical and other categories 8. Comparing illocutionary forces across languages 9. Conclusion Chapter 7 Italian reduplications: its meaning and its cultural significance 1. Italian reduplication: preliminary discussion 2. Discourse and illocutionary grammar 3. The illocutionary force of clausal repetition 4. The illocutionary force of Italian reduplication 5. Clausal repetition as a means of 'intensification' 6. The absolute superlative in Italian and in English 7. Illocutionary grammar and cultural style 8. Conclusion Chapter 8 Interjections across cultures 1. Preliminary discussion 2. Volitive interjections 3. Emotive interjections 4. Cognitive interjections 5. Conclusion Chapter 9 Particles and illocutionary meanings 1. English quantitative particles 2. English temporal particles 3. Polish temporal particles 4. Polish quantitative particles 5. Conclusion Chapter 10 Boys will be boys: even 'truisms' are culture-specific 1. The meaning of tautologies 2. English nominal tautologies: semantic representations 3. Some comparisons from Chinese and Japanese 4. Verbal tautologies 5. Is there a semantic invariant? 6. The deceptive form of English tautological constructions 7. The culture-specific content of tautological patterns 8. Conclusion Chapter 11 Conclusion: semantics as a key to cross-cultural pragmatics

Reviews

The book can be regarded as a recapitulation of results obtained in all former scholarly projects carried by its author. [It] is one if the best manuals of widely understood pragmatics and ethnolinguistics of human speech, the more so as the traditoinal grammars and handbooks of linguistics usually leave the ethnography of speech in the background of linguistics analyses. Tomasz Wicherkiewicz in: Linguistics and Oriental Studies from Poznan

Author Information

Anna Wierzbicka is Professor at Australian National University, Canberra.

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