The semantic structure of words for emotions

Based on the analysis of Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina, the article deals with semantic structure of words for emotions.Based on the analysis of Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina, the articledeals with semantic structure of words for emotions

Why there are no 'colour universals' in language and thought

Do all people live in a world full of colours? Perceptually, yes (unless they are visually impaired), but conceptually, no: there are many languages which have no word for 'colour' and in which the question 'what colour is it?' cannot be asked and presumably does not arise. Yet the powerful and still immensely influential theory of Berlin and Kay assumes otherwise. While building on my earlier work on colour semantics, this article brings new evidence against the Berlin and Kay paradigm, and presents a fundamentally different approach. The new data on which the argument is based come from Australian languages. In particular, the article presents a detailed study of the visual world reflected in the Australian language Warlpiri and in Warlpiri ways of speaking, showing that while Warlpiri people have no 'colour-talk' (and no 'colour-practices'), they have a rich visual discourse of other kinds, linked with their own cultural practices. It also offers a methodology for identifying indigenous meanings without the grid of the English concept 'colour', and for revealing 'the native's point of view'

Bodies and their parts: An NSM approach to semantic typology

This paper puts forward, on the basis of evidence and analysis, seven general principles of conceptualization of the body, reflected in the semantic organization of the 'body and body-parts' field across languages. It supplies a large set of semantic explications of English body-part terms, and it shows how ethno-anatomies can be described and compared through the use of the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM). It also returns to the controversial issue of the body-centric character of language and cognition. The paper is, to some extent, a reaction to the Special Issue on "Parts of the body: cross-linguistic categorization" (Language Sciences 28:2-3). One of its goals is to vindicate well-established semantic universals such as body and part, which the Special Issue questions on the basis of raw data, discussed (as is it is argued) in a theoretical vacuum. More generally, the paper argues that semantic typology requires a semantic methodology and it shows what a theoretically-anchored semantic typology can look like

What Christians Believe: the story of God and People

What Christians Believe: The Story of God and People aims to present the essentials of Christian faith in narrative form, in very simple words, without assuming any previous knowledge, and without using any specifically Christian vocabulary (e.g. words like “grace” or “salvation”). The purpose of using a limited vocabulary of simple and intelligible words is not to “dumb down” religious ideas and truths but, on the contrary, to elucidate them, and to articulate their components with clarity and precision. Furthermore, the words used in this “Story” are not only simple, but also, for the most part, universal: while “The Story” is written in English, it is not phrased in a “full English”, shaped by history, culture and tradition, but in “Minimal English”, in words most of which have exact semantic equivalents in all, or nearly all languages. While “The Story of God and People” presented here corresponds to the foundational Christian creeds (the Apostles’ creed and the Nicene creed) and has strong ties with one particular culture (from Abraham and Moses to Jesus), it can be understood by, and resonate with, readers of any cultural and ethnic background. “The Story of God and People” starts with the concept of ‘God’, seen here as including love for people. It continues with the creation of the world, with God’s plans in relation to people; and with the stages of the realisation of these plans, with a focus on God’s special ‘covenants’ with Abraham and Moses. Then comes the culmination of the plan: God’s turning to the Jewish woman Mariam of Nazareth, the birth of Jesus, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The final chapters relate the sending of the Holy Spirit, the activities of the Apostles and the emergence of the Church. The last chapter echoes the theme of God’s love for people with which the story opens. Throughout, the focus is not only on the events, but also on their meaning. The interpretation of that meaning is nourished by Christian theology East and West, past and present, and is presented from the perspective of faith

Back to 'Mother' and 'Father' Overcoming the Eurocentrism of Kinship Studies through Eight Lexical Universals

This paper addresses one of the most controversial issues in cultural anthropology: the conceptual foundations of kinship and the apparent inevitability of ethnocentrism in kinship studies. The field of kinship studies has been in turmoil over the past few decades, repeatedly pronounced dead and then again rising from the ashes and being declared central to human affairs. As this paper argues, the conceptual confusion surrounding ‘kinship’ is to a large extent due to the lack of a clear and rigorous methodology for discovering how speakers of the world’s different languages actually navigate their kinship systems. Building on the author’s earlier work on kinship but taking the analysis much further, this paper seeks to demonstrate that such a methodology can be found in natural semantic metalanguage theory (developed by the author and colleagues), which relies on 65 universal semantic primes and on a small number of universal “semantic molecules,” including ‘mother’ and ‘father’. The paper offers a new model for the interpretation of kinship terminologies and opens new perspectives for the investigation of kinship systems across languages and cultures

The semantics of metaphor and parable: Looking for meaning in the Gospels

Human communication relies largely on metaphors. This applies to literature, to politics, to everyday interaction, to religion and to ethics. Indeed we live by metaphors, as the title of the well-known book by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) suggests. Yet despite their vital importance the meaning of metaphors is often far from clear - even to those who use them. The problem is compounded in cross-cultural communication, because while the letter of the metaphor can often be translated, the translated version may be baffling or deceptive

Čimbenici koji oblikuju pristup lovu kod tinejdžera i mladih : pregled literature

SummaryHunting is an important element in the protection of the natural environment and biodiversity. Demographic changes and people’s distance from nature are causing society to polarize their perception of hunting. Some have ‘’Bambi Syndrome’’ and others so-called ‘’Nature Deficit disorder’’. Factors shaping attitude toward hunting are: sex, age and place of residence: girls and city based children are generally against hunting. Future of wildlife management models largely depends on the attitudes of people towards it in the coming decades. This attitudes are shaping by many different factors but it is lack of knowledge about it. For this purpose, the attitude of young people to hunting should be thoroughly and multidimensionally examined.SažetakLov je važan dio zaštite okoliša i bioraznolikosti. Demografske promjene te udaljenje ljudi od prirode, uzroci su polarizicije percepcije lovstva u društvu. Neki imaju Bambijev sindrom, drugi poremećaj nedostatka prirode. Mlade žene i gradska djeca općenito su protiv lova, a znanost trpi nedostatak analiza čimbenika koji su odgovorni za oblikovanje stavova. Budućnost modela upravljanja divljim životinjama ovisi o stavovima ljudi u nadolazećim desetljećima. Za ovu svrhu potrebno je temeljno i višedimenzionalno ispitati stav mladih ljudi prema lovu

Lexical and Grammatical Universals as a Key to Conceptual Structures

Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: General Session and Parasession on Phonetics and Phonological Universals (1998