Semantic Molecules on MOTHER

SEMANTIC MOLECULES on MOTHER

I Nengah Sudipa

nengahsudipa@unud.ac.id

Introduction         

I am impressed by the old nostalgic song, popularized by Alice May

Mother, how are today, here is a note from your daugther, with me everthing is OK.... MOTHER,  how are you today ?

I am interested in reading the very recently published book entitled Studies in Ethnopragmantics, Cultural Semantics and Intercultural Communication, edited by  Kerry Mullan, Bert Peeters, Lauren Sadow,  published in 2020 by  Springer Nature Singapore. It deals with a lot of sub-topics concerned as being refered by the book title itself. The following quotation  is  the clear  reason why this topic was writen.

“Some concepts in need of explication are too complex to be described using only

semantic primes. They require the use of intermediary terms that help to build

layers of complexity” (Mullan, et.al. 2020:18).

from this book, I learn that  NSM has been expanded, especially the explication as one of the  ways to analyze the meaning. Basically  NSM deals with  (i) meaning mapping and (ii) explication. Let’s take lexicon MOTHER as the tokens of the analysis.

Mapping

Genetic mother a woman whose contribution to the child was the ovum, and hence genes.

Gestational mother a woman whose uterus was used for the nurturing and development of an embryo into a baby.

Social mother a woman who rears the baby after birth.

A stepmother is a woman who enters one's family by marrying one's parent. Children from her spouse's previous unions (to whom she is not otherwise related) are known as her step-children.

Foster mother - a woman who is a foster parent and raises another's child. foster-mother. foster parent, foster-parent - a person who acts as parent and guardian for a child in place of the child's natural parents but without legally adopting the child.

Adoptive mother (plural adoptive mothers) A woman who has adopted a child, as opposed to a biological mother.

Mother in law is the mother of one’s spouse

Surrogate Mother is a woman who gets artificially inseminated with the father's sperm. She then carries the baby and delivers it for you and your partner to raise. A traditional surrogate is the baby's biological mother. That's because it was her egg that was fertilized by the father's sperm. Donor sperm can also be used.

Explication

            Once a semantic molecule is explicated in semantic primes, it can then be

used in further explications of more complex concepts—with the symbol [m] being

deployed to identify where a molecule has been used. The procedure is illustrated in

explications [A] [B] and [C] below, taken from Goddard (2018c: 139, 141; emphasis

added):

[A] children

people of one kind

all people are people of this kind for some time

when someone is someone of this kind, it is like this:

this someone’s body is small

this someone can do some things, this someone can’t do many other things

because of this, if other people don’t often do good things for this someone, bad things can happen to

this someone

[B] women

people of one kind

people of this kind are not children [m]

people of this kind have bodies of one kind

the bodies of people of this kind are like this:

inside the body of someone of this kind, there can be for some time a living body of a child [m]

For example, the concept behind the English word women

contains the concept of ‘children’; as an inherent part of its meaning (Goddard 2018c). Concepts

like ‘children’  is not semantic primes, but they can be explicated by means of them.

 [C] MOTHER

person of one kind

person  of this kind is not a child  [m]

prson of this kind has  body  of one kind

the body of person of this kind is like this:

inside the body of someone of this kind, there can be for some time a living body of a child [m]

there must be a husband [m]

there can be a child [m]or children [m] the someone like this to have

For example, the concept behind the English word MOTHER

contains the concept of ‘children’and  ‘husband’  as inherent parts of its meaning.  Concepts like ‘children’ and ‘husband’ are not semantic primes, but they can be explicated by means of them.

Closing

NSM terms these concepts semantic molecules—complex concepts that are expressible in semantic primes but are also building blocks for even more complex meanings.

NSM research undertaken to date suggests that some semantic molecules could be

universal (e.g. man, woman, child, laugh) or near-universal (e.g. sleep, write,

hands, quickly). Other molecules are area-specific (e.g. God, money, tree) or language

and culture-specific (e.g. island, snow, plastic). Culture-specific molecules

are essential for defining terms in one particular culture but may not exist in other

languages.

References

Goddard, Cliff C. 2018. Ten lectures on Natural Semantic Metalanguage: Exploring language, thought and

culture using simple, translatable words. Leiden: Brill. xi + 356 pp. https://doi.org/

10.1163/9789004357723.

Hornby, AS. 2000. Oxford Advanced Learner’ Dictionary. Oxford : OUP

Mullan, Kerry,  Bert Peeters, Lauren Sadow (eds). 2020. Studies in Ethnopragmantics, Cultural Semantics and Intercultural Communication. Singapore : Springer Nature.