•  33
    Indirect Reports and Pragmatics in the World Languages (edited book)
    with Alessandro Capone, Una Stojnic, Ernie Lepore, Denis Delfitto, Anne Reboul, Gaetano Fiorin, Kenneth A. Taylor, Jonathan Berg, Herbert L. Colston, Sanford C. Goldberg, Edoardo Lombardi Vallauri, Cliff Goddard, Magdalena Sztencel, Sarah E. Duffy, Alessandra Falzone, Paola Pennisi, Péter Furkó, András Kertész, Ágnes Abuczki, Alessandra Giorgi, Sona Haroutyunian, Marina Folescu, Hiroko Itakura, John C. Wakefield, Hung Yuk Lee, Sumiyo Nishiguchi, Brian E. Butler, Douglas Robinson, Kobie van Krieken, José Sanders, Grazia Basile, Antonino Bucca, Edoardo Lombardi Vallauri, and Kobie van Krieken
    Springer Verlag. 2018.
    This volume addresses the intriguing issue of indirect reports from an interdisciplinary perspective. The contributors include philosophers, theoretical linguists, socio-pragmaticians, and cognitive scientists. The book is divided into four sections following the provenance of the authors. Combining the voices from leading and emerging authors in the field, it offers a detailed picture of indirect reports in the world’s languages and their significance for theoretical linguistics. Building on th…Read more
  • Semanticheskie universalii i opisanie i︠a︡zykov
    I︠A︡zyki russkoĭ kulʹtury. 1999.
  •  6
    Right and wrong: from philosophy to everyday discourse
    Discourse Studies 4 (2): 225-252. 2002.
    One of the most interesting phenomena in the history of the English language is the remarkable rise of the word right, in its many interrelated senses and uses. This article tries to trace the changes in the meaning and use of this word, as well as the rise of new conversational routines based on right, and raises questions about the cultural underpinnings of these semantic and pragmatic developments. It explores the hypothesis that the `discourse of truth' declined in English over the centuries…Read more
  •  5
    ‘Dialogue’ is an important concept in the contemporary world. It plays a very significant role in English public discourse, and through English, or mainly through English, it has spread throughout the world. For example, the dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi calls for ‘reconciliation and dialogue’ in Burma, the Russian pro-democracy groups ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to ‘begin a dialogue’ with them, and Popes Paul VI and John Paul II are praised for opening the Catholic Church to a ‘dia…Read more
  •  11
    Direct and indirect speech revisited: Semantic universals and semantic diversity
    with Cliff Goddard
    In Alessandro Capone, Una Stojnic, Ernie Lepore, Denis Delfitto, Anne Reboul, Gaetano Fiorin, Kenneth A. Taylor, Jonathan Berg, Herbert L. Colston, Sanford C. Goldberg, Edoardo Lombardi Vallauri, Cliff Goddard, Anna Wierzbicka, Magdalena Sztencel, Sarah E. Duffy, Alessandra Falzone, Paola Pennisi, Péter Furkó, András Kertész, Ágnes Abuczki, Alessandra Giorgi, Sona Haroutyunian, Marina Folescu, Hiroko Itakura, John C. Wakefield, Hung Yuk Lee, Sumiyo Nishiguchi, Brian E. Butler, Douglas Robinson, Kobie van Krieken, José Sanders, Grazia Basile, Antonino Bucca, Edoardo Lombardi Vallauri & Kobie van Krieken (eds.), Indirect Reports and Pragmatics in the World Languages, Springer Verlag. pp. 173-199. 2018.
    We present new interpretations of “direct” and “indirect” speech, framed entirely using simple and cross-translatable words and phrases, i.e. framed in language which can be transparent both to linguists and to the speakers whose ways of speaking we are trying to understand. In relation to “direct speech”, we present linguistic generalisations about two forms of quoted speech, which, we claim, are very likely to be found in all languages of the world. We next examine the semantics of logophoric …Read more
  •  36
    From 'Consciousness' to 'I Think, I Feel, I Know': A Commentary on David Chalmers
    Journal of Consciousness Studies 26 (9-10): 257-269. 2019.
    David Chalmers appears to assume that we can meaningfully discuss what goes on in human heads without paying any attention to the words in which we couch our statements. This paper challenges this assumption and argues that the initial problem is that of metalanguage: if we want to say something clear and valid about us humans, we must think about ourselves outside conceptual English created by one particular history and culture and try to think from a global, panhuman point of view. This means …Read more
  •  9
    On Folk Conceptions of Mind, Agency and Morality
    Journal of Cognition and Culture 6 (1-2): 165-179. 2006.
  •  26
    The semantics of human facial expressions
    Pragmatics and Cognition 8 (1): 147-184. 2000.
    This paper points out that a major shift of paradigm is currently going on in the study of the human face and it seeks to articulate and to develop the fundamental assumptions underlying this shift. The main theses of the paper are: 1) Facial expressions can convey meanings comparable to the meanings of verbal utterances. 2) Semantic analysis (whether of verbal utterances or of facial expressions) must distinguish between the context-independent invariant and its contextual interpretations. 3) C…Read more
  •  55
    Semantic primitives
    Athenäum-Verl.. 1972.
  •  49
    Language and Metalanguage: Key Issues in Emotion Research
    Emotion Review 1 (1): 3-14. 2009.
    Building on the author's earlier work, this paper argues that language is a key issue in understanding human emotions and that treating English emotion terms as valid analytical tools continues to be a roadblock in the study of emotions. Further, it shows how the methodology developed by the author and colleagues, known as NSM (from Natural Semantic Metalanguage), allows us to break free of the “shackles” (Barrett, 2006) of English psychological terms and explore human emotions from a culture-in…Read more
  •  55
    Introduction: the body in description of emotion
    with N. J. Enfield
    Pragmatics and Cognition 10 (1): 1-26. 2002.
    Anthropologists and linguists have long been aware that the body is explicitly referred to in conventional description of emotion in languages around the world. There is abundant linguistic data showing expression of emotions in terms of their imagined ¿locus¿ in the physical body. The most important methodological issue in the study of emotions is language, for the ways people talk give us access to ¿folk descriptions¿ of the emotions. ¿Technical terminology¿, whether based on English or otherw…Read more
  •  44
    Understanding others requires shared concepts
    Pragmatics and Cognition 20 (2): 356-379. 2012.
    “It is a noble task to try to understand others, and to have them understand you but it is never an easy one”, says Everett. This paper argues that a basic prerequisite for understanding others is to have some shared concepts on which this understanding can build. If speakers of different languages didn’t share some concepts to begin with then cross-cultural understanding would not be possible even with the best of will on all sides. Current Anthropology For example, Everett claims that Pirahã h…Read more
  •  31
    This article focuses on the emergence of a new subfield of emotion research known as “history of emotions.” People’s emotional lives depend on the construals which they impose on events, situations, and human actions. Different cultures and different languages suggest different habitual construals, and since habitual construals change over time, as a result, habitual feelings change, too. But to study construals we need a suitable methodology. The article assumes that such a methodology is provi…Read more
  •  76
    On Emotions and on Definitions: A Response to Izard
    Emotion Review 2 (4): 379-380. 2010.
    This commentary argues that the question of metalanguage is a key issue in emotion research. Izard (2010) ignores this issue (and all the earlier literature relating to it, including the debate in Emotion Review, 2009, 1[1]), and thus falls into the old traps of circularity, obscurity, and ethnocentrism. This commentary rejects Izard’s claim that “emotion” defies definition, and it offers a viable definition of “emotion” formulated in simple and universal human concepts, using the English versio…Read more
  •  22
    Japanese Cultural Scripts: Cultural Psychology and “Cultural Grammar”
    Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology 24 (3): 527-555. 1996.
  •  20
    Can there be common knowledge without a common language?
    Common Knowledge 21 (1): 141-171. 2015.
    This essay argues that, since Kant wrote in German and since German has no word for “right” corresponding in meaning to the English word, it is a case of conceptual anglocentrism to say, as many anglophone philosophers do, that Kant reformulated the foundations of ethics by formulating them in terms of the “right” rather than the “good.” Further, the essay shows how the German word Pflicht, central to Kant's ethics, does not correspond in meaning to the English word duty, whose cultural roots li…Read more
  • Policy statement and retraction v
    with Teresa Bejarano-Fernández, Mary Besemeres, Christoph Mischo, Steve Nicolle, Pablo Gamallo Otero, Dorit Ravid, Shoshana Zilberbuch, Wolff-Michael Roth, and Farzad Sharifian
    Pragmatics and Cognition 11 (2): 405-406. 2003.
  •  10
    The semantics of human facial expressions
    Pragmatics and Cognition 8 (1): 147-183. 2000.
    This paper points out that a major shift of paradigm is currently going on in the study of the human face and it seeks to articulate and to develop the fundamental assumptions underlying this shift. The main theses of the paper are: 1) Facial expressions can convey meanings comparable to the meanings of verbal utterances. 2) Semantic analysis must distinguish between the context-independent invariant and its contextual interpretations. 3) Certain components of facial behavior do have constant co…Read more
  •  151
    Semantics: primes and universals
    Oxford University Press. 1996.
    Conceptual primitives and semantic universals are the cornerstones of a semantic theory which Anna Wierzbicka has been developing for many years. Semantics: Primes and Universals is a major synthesis of her work, presenting a full and systematic exposition of that theory in a non-technical and readable way. It delineates a full set of universal concepts, as they have emerged from large-scale investigations across a wide range of languages undertaken by the author and her colleagues. On the basis…Read more
  •  14
    Semantics of natural language; includes some Australian language examples.
  •  61
    Pain is a global problem whose social, economic, and psychological costs are immeasurable. It is now seen as the most common reason why people seek medical (including psychiatric) care. But what is pain? This article shows that the discourse of pain tends to suffer from the same problems of ethnocentrism and obscurity as the discourse of emotions in general. Noting that in the case of pain, the costs of miscommunication are particularly high, this article offers a new paradigm for communicating …Read more
  •  16
    Introduction
    with N. J. Enfield
    Pragmatics and Cognition 10 (1-2): 1-25. 2002.
    Anthropologists and linguists have long been aware that the body is explicitly referred to in conventional description of emotion in languages around the world. There is abundant linguistic data showing expression of emotions in terms of their imagined ‘locus’ in the physical body. The most important methodological issue in the study of emotions is language, for the ways people talk give us access to ‘folk descriptions’ of the emotions. ‘Technical terminology’, whether based on English or otherw…Read more
  •  13
    Pain: Universal but Culturally Shaped
    Emotion Review 4 (3): 324-325. 2012.
    Response to comments by Fabrega, Fernandez, and Hinton
  •  24
    Defining Emotion Concepts
    Cognitive Science 16 (4): 539-581. 1992.
    This article demonstrates that emotion concepts—including the so‐called basic ones, such as anger or sadness—can be defined in terms of universal semantic primitives such as “good”, “bad”, “do”, “happen”, “know”, and “want”, in terms of which all areas of meaning, in all languages, can be rigorously and revealingly portrayed.The definitions proposed here take the form of certain prototypical scripts or scenarios, formulated in terms of thoughts, wants, and feelings. These scripts, however, can b…Read more