Abstract
The author recalls the close ties linking Professor Anna Wierzbicka with the community of linguists centered around the journal “Etnolingwistyka”/“Etnolinguistics” published in Lublin (vols. 1-30, 1988-2018) and with Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, where in 2004 she received the title of doctor honoris causa for her research into universals in different world languages and her service as a morally sensitive humanist. The complementary character between the frameworks advocated by Wierzbicka and Lublin ethnolinguists consists in the opposition to taxonomic approaches to word meaning and the adoption of the subjective reconstruction principle, which derives from Wilhelm Humboldt’s philosophy of language; in the apprecia- tion of the role of colloquial language and the intuition of the average language user; in the use of both systemic and textual data, taking into account all relevant communication features that can be supported with “linguistic evidence”; in the use of simple sentences for definitions, which are arranged in coherent, facetted sequences. Anna Wierzbicka, similarly to Lublin ethnolinguists, postulates to capture the meaning of words in the context of social life, history and national culture. In particular, the author focuses on the concept of the so-called cognitive definition. The article discusses its genesis, construction principles and the most important inspirations for its emergence; although the concept itself was created autonomously as an extension of studies on the language of folklore, independently of Anna Wierzbicka’s works, it nevertheless exhibits clear parallels to the way of thinking of the scholar from Canberra. The author of this article shows the similarities (convergences) between the cognitive definition and the NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) method developed by Anna Wierzbicka on the examples of mother and gold , but it also highlights some differences, which in the case of the cognitive definition are related to the use of colloquial definientia that do not have the status of semantic “primitives” ( primes ). Finally, on the example of the concept HOME/HOUSE, the author considers new perspectives for applying the cognitive definition in comparative works undertaken within the framework of the EUROJOS seminar.
Highlights
INTRODUCTIONOne of the most important elements of the conceptual apparatus of Lublin Cognitive Ethnolinguistics” (LCE) (encompassing such key concepts as linguistic worldview, subject, values, stereotype, point of view and perspective, profiling) is a special way of defining meanings referred to as “cognitive definition” (CD)
The commentary of the editors of the book The Linguistic Worldview: Ethnolinguistics, Cognition, and Culture in the part devoted to the cognitive definition1, reads: “The name of Anna Wierzbicka is especially important in the context of the so-called ‘cognitive definition’ of the ‘mental object’ associated with a given entity, of the way it is viewed, categorized, evaluated, and talked about by speakers of given languages
The concept of the CD met with favourable response on the part of the scientific community in Poland, which can be measured by the publication of a series of articles written according to the proposed design / idea and the spread of the term “cognitive definition”
Summary
One of the most important elements of the conceptual apparatus of LCE (encompassing such key concepts as linguistic worldview, subject, values, stereotype, point of view and perspective, profiling) is a special way of defining meanings referred to as “cognitive definition” (CD) The conception behind this definition, which will be elaborated on in detail in further sections, corresponds with the proposals made by Anna Wierzbicka (in particular those discussed in her book Lexicography and Conceptual Analysis, 1985).
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