Semantic molecules

This paper explains and explores the concept of "semantic molecules" in the NSM methodology of semantic analysis. A semantic molecule is a complex lexical meaning which functions as an intermediate unit in the structure of other, more complex concepts. The paper undertakes an overview of different kinds of semantic molecule, showing how they enter into more complex meanings and how they themselves can be explicated. It shows that four levels of "nesting" of molecules within molecules are attested, and it argues that while some molecules such as 'hands' and 'make', may well be language-universal, many others are language-specific

Conceptual Semantics and Public Messaging: "Risk-Benefit" Discourse around COVID-19 Vaccination

This study explores the conceptual semantics of risk–benefit discourse about COVID-19 vaccination and the implications for public health messaging. The underlying methodology is the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) approach. The study proposes a semantic explication of the English word risk in one of its most frequently used frames in COVID-19 vaccine discourse (i.e. the risk of ...), as well as an “advice script” for the complex task of “weighing the risks and benefits” of a vaccination decision. Drawing on COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in Australia and Denmark, the study stresses the difficulties of communicating public health messages using conceptually complex and culture-specific words such as risk. Though the issues are complex, it is argued that adopting a minimal languages approach may provide a way forward, by enabling the creation of texts that are both easier to understand and more easily translated.

The Semantics of Evaluational Adjectives: Perspectives from Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Appraisal

We apply the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach (Goddard & Wierzbicka 2014) to the lexical-semantic analysis of English evaluational adjectives and compare the results with the picture developed in the Appraisal Framework (Martin & White 2005). The analysis is corpus-assisted, with examples mainly drawn from film and book reviews, and supported by collocational and statistical information from WordBanks Online. We propose NSM explications for 15 evaluational adjectives, arguing that they fall into five groups, each of which corresponds to a distinct semantic template. The groups can be sketched as follows: “First-person thought-plus-affect”, e.g. wonderful; “Experiential”, e.g. entertaining; “Experiential with bodily reaction”, e.g. gripping; “Lasting impact”, e.g. memorable; “Cognitive evaluation”, e.g. complex, excellent. These groupings and semantic templates are compared with the classifications in the Appraisal Framework’s system of Appreciation. In addition, we are particularly interested in sentiment analysis, the automatic identification of evaluation and subjectivity in text. We discuss the relevance of the two frameworks for sentiment analysis and other language technology applications

The Ethnopragmatics and Semantics of 'active metaphors'

This paper argues that 'active metaphors' can be sharply distinguished from other metaphorical phenomena due to their reliance on 'metalexical awareness', detectable by linguistic tests as well as by intuition. Far from being a natural function of the human mind or a universal of rational communication, I contend that active metaphorizing is a culture-specific speech practice which demands explication within an ethnopragmatic perspective. I propose an ethnopragmatic script (a kind of specialized cultural script) for active metaphorizing in English, and dramatize its culture-specificity by ethnopragmatic case studies of Pitjantjatjara (central Australia) and Malay. Finally, in relation to English active metaphors, I try to demonstrate that expository metaphors have determinable meanings which can be stated as extended reductive paraphrases. The analytical framework is the natural semantic metalanguage theory [C. Goddard, A. Wierzbicka (Eds.), Meaning and Universal Grammar—Theory and Empirical Findings, 2 vols., John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2002; A. Wierzbicka, Semantics: Primes and Universals, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996a], and the associated theory of cultural scripts

A Semantic Menagerie: The Conceptual Semantics of Ethnozoological Categories

Following the seminal work of Wierzbicka (1985, 2013), this paper proposes and discusses a set of semantic analyses of words from three different levels of the English ethnozoological taxonomic hierarchy (Berlin 1992): creature (unique beginner), bird, fish, snake, and animal (life-form level), dog and kangaroo (generic level). The analytical framework is the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach (Wierzbicka 1996, 2014, Goddard and Wierzbicka 2014). Though ultimately resting on the foundational elements of the NSM system, i.e. 65 semantic primes and their inherent grammar of combination, the analysis relies on the analytical concepts of semantic molecules and semantic templates (Goddard 2012, 2016). These provide mechanisms for encapsulating semantic complexity and for modelling relations between successive layers of the hierarchy. Other issues considered include the extent to which cultural components feature in the semantics of ethnozoological categories, and the extent to which semantic knowledge may vary across different speech communities

A semantically-oriented grammar of the Yankunytjatjara dialect of the Western Desert language

The Western Desert Language is a fairly typical Pama- Nyungan language, spoken in the arid western interior of Australia; it is suffixing and agglutinative, with a well-developed case system and a fairly free but basically verb-final word-order. Chapter 1 outlines my fieldwork methodology and semantic approach, and the physical and socio-cultural setting of the Yankunytjatjara dialect. Chapter 2 briefly describes its segmental phonology and some preliminary matters such as parts of speech. The bulk of the thesis describes the morphosyntax in a fairly informal typologically-oriented fashion, with an emphasis on semantics. The treatment of case in Chapter 3 is based on the traditional distinction between a category and its marking, and on the traditional concept of a case as a substitution class. This leads me to recognise three core case categories — an A case (ergative), an 0 case (accusative) and an S case (nominative), despite the fact that they are realised differently with nouns (nominative=accusative) and pronouns (nominative=ergative). This interpretation allows an elegant statement of the structure of certain NP types, such as those involving inalienable possession and group inclusion, and of a pervasive case agreement rule whereby manner-like nominals (active adjectives) agree in case with the actor/subject NP. Non-pronominal case-markers are shown to be portmanteau morphemes, signalling name-status as well as case. Purposive and locative cases are each treated in some detail, showing the semantic interrelatedness of their uses (including the genitive use of purposive case, and the instrumental use of locative case). The 'local' cases (allative, ablative and perlative) are treated more briefly. Chapter 4 deals with NP structure, demonstratives, free and clitic pronouns, nominal derivation and an interesting class of suffixes (relators) showing intention, deprivation, sequential action and control (’having1), which display the actor agreement pattern of case inflection. Chapter 5 begins with nominalisation and goes on to describe how subordination and relativisation are achieved by adding case or relator suffixes to nominalised clauses; also discussed is the ’switch-reference’ specification in the semantic structure of purposive and circumstantial (background) clauses. Chapter 6 deals with verbal inflection, highlighting a perfective/imperfective aspectual contrast in certain tense/mood categories. Adopting a system of intermediate (augmented) stems simplifies the formal description of the paradigms for the four conjugational classes. Chapter 6 also discusses several types of serial verb construction within the Foley/Van Valin typology of clause juncture. Verbal derivation and compounding are treated in Chapter 7; and miscellaneous topics such as negation, temporal and spatial expressions, interrogatives and adverbs in Chapter 8. Chapter 9 begins with sentence connectives (including a discussion of a switch-reference contrast) and proceeds with a fairly detailed survey of free and clitic particles. The final chapter briefly describes some speech registers, the auxiliary language anitji and other matters relating to language use. There is detailed exemplification throughout, and eleven accompanying texts in the Appendix

Whorf meets Wierzbicka: Variation and universals in language and thinking

Probably no contemporary linguist has published as profusely on the connections between semantics, culture, and cognition as Anna Wierzbicka. This paper explores the similarities and differences between her "natural semantic metalanguage" (NSM) approach and the linguistic theory of Benjamin Lee Whorf. It shows that while some work by Wierzbicka and colleagues can be seen as "neo-Whorfian", other aspects of the NSM program are "counter-Whorfian". Issues considered include the meaning of linguistic relativity, the nature of conceptual universals and the consequences for semantic methodology, the importance of polysemy, and the scale and locus of semantic variation between languages, particularly in relation to the domain of time. Examples are drawn primarily from English, Russian, and Hopi

Open ocean carbon monoxide photo-production

Sunlight-initiated photolysis of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is the dominant source of carbon monoxide (CO) in the open-ocean. A modelling study was conducted to constrain this source. Spectral solar irradiance was obtained from two models (GCSOLAR and SMARTS2). Water-column CDOM and total light absorption were modelled using spectra collected along a Meridional transect of the Atlantic ocean using a 200-cm pathlength liquid waveguide UV-visible spectrophotometer. Apparent quantum yields for the production of CO (AQYCO) from CDOM were obtained from a parameterisation describing the relationship between CDOM light absorption coefficient and AQYCO and the CDOM spectra collected. The sensitivity of predicted rates to variations in model parameters (solar irradiance, cloud cover, surface-water reflectance, CDOM and whole water light absorbance, and AQYCO was assessed. The model\u27s best estimate of open-ocean CO photoproduction was 47 +/- 7 Tg CO-C yr-1, with lower and upper limits of 38 and 84 Tg CO-C yr-1, as indicated by sensitivity analysis considering variations in AQYs, CDOM absorbance, and spectral irradiance. These results represent significant constraint of open-ocean CO photoproduction at the lower limit of previous estimates. Based on these results, and their extrapolation to total photochemical organic carbon mineralisation, we recommend a downsizing of the role of photochemistry in the open-ocean carbon cycle. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Referring Expressions and Referential Practice in Roper Kriol (Northern Territory, Australia)

In this thesis I describe aspects of referring expressions and referential practice in an English-lexified creole language spoken in the Ngukurr Aboriginal community, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Kriol has substrate influences from seven traditional Aboriginal languages. Dialects of Kriol are spoken in Aboriginal communities across the Top End of Australia; with estimates suggesting more than 20,000 people speak it as a first language. The language has a low status and in many contexts, such as health, medical and legal contexts, it frequently goes unrecognised as a legitimate language requiring interpreters. There is no comprehensive grammar of Kriol and as yet, there have been few in-depth studies into its structure and use. I investigate referential expressions in Kriol from various perspectives, using tools from a range of theoretical frameworks and research traditions, including descriptive linguistics, discourse analysis, information structure, and ethnopragmatics. The thesis provides an integrated description of how referential expressions are structured and how they are used in spontaneous talk to meet communicative needs. A further goal of this thesis is to demonstrate that there is significant continuity of referring strategies from Kriol's Aboriginal substrate languages. The data used in this study consists of a corpus of spontaneous discourse between two or more speakers, elicited material, and consultation with Elders on cultural issues relevant to language use. ... Each chapter contributes original description of the Kriol language. By combining a number of theoretical perspectives, the thesis offers an integrated description of the structure and function of referring expressions