Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T10:37:20.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lexical universals of kinship and social cognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2010

Anna Wierzbicka
Anna Wierzbicka
Affiliation:
School of Language Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200Australia. anna.wierzbicka@anu.edu.auwww.une.edu.au/bcss/linguistics/nsm/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Jones recognizes the existence of “primitives of conceptual structures,” out of which “local representations of kinship are constructed.” NSM semantics has identified these primitives through a cross-linguistic search for lexical universals (“NSM” stands for Natural Semantic Metalanguage and also for the corresponding linguistic theory). These empirical universals provide, I argue, a better bridge between cognitive anthropology and evolutionary psychology than the abstract constructs of OT, with dubious claim to conceptual reality.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 5 , October 2010 , pp. 403 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Burling, R. (1964) Cognition and componential analysis: God's truth or hocus-pocus? American Anthropologist. 66(1):20–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Andrade, R. (1995) The development of cognitive anthropology. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fogelson, R. (2001) Schneider confronts componential analyses. In: The cultural analysis of kinship: The legacy of David M. Schneider, ed. Feinberg, R. & Ottenheimer, M., pp. 33–45. University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Geertz, C. (1976) “From the native's point of view”: On the nature of anthropological understanding. In: Meaning in anthropology, ed. Basso, K. & Selby, H. A., pp. 221–37. University of New Mexico.Google Scholar
Goddard, C., ed. (2008) Cross-linguistic semantics. John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goddard, C. (2010) Semantic molecules and semantic complexity (with special reference to “environmental” molecules) Review of Cognitive Linguistics 8(1):123–55.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & Wierzbicka, A., ed. (2002) Meaning and universal grammar: Theory and empirical findings. John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & Wierzbicka, A. (forthcoming) Men, women and children: The semantics of basic social categories.Google Scholar
Jones, D. (2004) The universal psychology of kinship: Evidence from language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8(5):211–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kronenfeld, D. B. (2001) Introduction: The uses of formal analysis re cognitive and social issues. Anthropological Theory 1(2):147–72.Google Scholar
Leaf, M. J. (2006) Experimental-formal analysis of kinship. Ethnology 45(4):305–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucy, J. A. (1997) The linguistics of |at“colour.” In: Colour categories in thought and language, ed. Hardin, C. L. & Maffi, L., pp. 320–46. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NSM Homepage: www.une.edu.au/bcss/linguistics/nsm/Bibliographical details.Google Scholar
Shapiro, W. (2008) What human kinship is primarily about: Toward a critique of the new kinship studies. Social Anthropology 16:137–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shore, B. (1996) Culture in mind: Cognition, culture and the problem of meaning. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sousa, P. (2003) The fall of kinship: Towards an epidemiological explanation. Journal of Cognition and Culture 3(4):265–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, A. F. C. & Atkins, J. (1969) The meaning of kinship terms. In: Cognitive anthropology, ed. Tyler, S., pp. 345–69. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (1992) Semantics, culture, and cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (1996) Semantics: Primes and universals. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (2006) English: Meaning and culture. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (2010) Experience, evidence, and sense: The hidden cultural legacy of English. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (forthcoming) Seven universals of kinship: Overcoming the Eurocentrism of kinship semantics through seven universal semantic molecules.Google Scholar