Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words : English, Russian, Polish, German, And Japanese Paperback

Anna Wierzbicka

Wierzbicka demonstrates that every language has its "key concepts" (expressed in key words) and that these concepts reflect the core values of the culture in question. Examining empirical evidence from five languages, and using her own "natural semantic metalanguage" to provide an analytical framework, she shows that cultures can be revealingly studied, compared and explained to outsiders through their key concepts.

English

Oxford University Press, USA

328

Dr. Anna Wierzbicka is Professor of Linguistics at the Australian National University. She has lectured extensively at universities in Europe, America, and Japan, and is the author of many books, including Semantics: Primes and Universals (OUP, 1996) and Semantics, Culture, and Cognition: Universal Human Concepts in Human-Specific Configurations (OUP, 1992).