Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics Across Domains, Languages, and Cultures
In a series of cross-cultural investigations of word meaning, Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka examine key expressions from different domains of the lexicon - concrete, abstract, physical, sensory, emotional, and social. They focus on complex and culturally important words in a range of languages that includes English, Russian, Polish, French, Warlpiri, and Malay. Some are basic like men, women, and children or abstract nouns like trauma and violence; others describe qualities such as hot, hard, and rough, emotions like happiness and sadness, or feelings like pain. They ground their discussions in real examples from different cultures and draw on work ranging from Leibniz, Locke, and Bentham, to popular works such as autobiographies and memoirs, and the Dalai Lama on happiness.

The book opens with a review of the neglected status of lexical semantics in linguistics. The authors consider a range of analytical issues including lexical polysemy, semantic change, the relationship between lexical and grammatical semantics, and the concepts of semantic molecules and templates. Their fascinating book is for everyone interested in the relations between meaning, culture, ideas, and words.
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Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics Across Domains, Languages, and Cultures
In a series of cross-cultural investigations of word meaning, Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka examine key expressions from different domains of the lexicon - concrete, abstract, physical, sensory, emotional, and social. They focus on complex and culturally important words in a range of languages that includes English, Russian, Polish, French, Warlpiri, and Malay. Some are basic like men, women, and children or abstract nouns like trauma and violence; others describe qualities such as hot, hard, and rough, emotions like happiness and sadness, or feelings like pain. They ground their discussions in real examples from different cultures and draw on work ranging from Leibniz, Locke, and Bentham, to popular works such as autobiographies and memoirs, and the Dalai Lama on happiness.

The book opens with a review of the neglected status of lexical semantics in linguistics. The authors consider a range of analytical issues including lexical polysemy, semantic change, the relationship between lexical and grammatical semantics, and the concepts of semantic molecules and templates. Their fascinating book is for everyone interested in the relations between meaning, culture, ideas, and words.
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Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics Across Domains, Languages, and Cultures

Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics Across Domains, Languages, and Cultures

Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics Across Domains, Languages, and Cultures

Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics Across Domains, Languages, and Cultures

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Overview

In a series of cross-cultural investigations of word meaning, Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka examine key expressions from different domains of the lexicon - concrete, abstract, physical, sensory, emotional, and social. They focus on complex and culturally important words in a range of languages that includes English, Russian, Polish, French, Warlpiri, and Malay. Some are basic like men, women, and children or abstract nouns like trauma and violence; others describe qualities such as hot, hard, and rough, emotions like happiness and sadness, or feelings like pain. They ground their discussions in real examples from different cultures and draw on work ranging from Leibniz, Locke, and Bentham, to popular works such as autobiographies and memoirs, and the Dalai Lama on happiness.

The book opens with a review of the neglected status of lexical semantics in linguistics. The authors consider a range of analytical issues including lexical polysemy, semantic change, the relationship between lexical and grammatical semantics, and the concepts of semantic molecules and templates. Their fascinating book is for everyone interested in the relations between meaning, culture, ideas, and words.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780199668434
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 01/28/2014
Pages: 324
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Cliff Goddard is Professor of Linguistics at Griffith University, Brisbane. His books include Semantic Analysis (OUP 1998, 2nd edn 2011), Cross-Linguistic Semantics (ed., 2008, John Benjamins), and The Languages of East and Southeast Asia: An Introduction (2005, OUP).

Anna Wierzbicka is Professor of Linguistics at Australian National University. Her many books include Semantics: Primes and Universals (OUP 1996), Emotions across Languages and Cultures (CUP 1999), and Experience, Evidence & Sense: The hidden cultural legacy of English (OUP 2010).

Table of Contents

1. Words, Meaning, and Methodology2. iMen, Women/i, and iChildren/i: The semantics of basic social categories3. iSweet, Hot, Hard, heavy, Rough, Sharp/i: Physical quality words in cross-linguistic perspective4. From Colour Words to Visual Semantics: English, Russian, Warlpiri5. iHappiness/i and Human Values in Cross-cultural and Historical Perspective6. iPain/i Is it a Human Universal? The Perspective From Cross-linguistic Semantics7. iSuggesting, Apologising, Complimenting/i: English speech act verbs8. iA Stitch in Time/i and iThe Way of The Rice Plant/i: The semantics of proverbs in English and Malay9. The Meaning of Abstract Nouns: Locke, Bentham and Contemporary Semantics10. Broader Perspectives: Beyond lexical semanticsReferencesIndex
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