“Know Your Coffee!” The Cultural Semantics of a Lexico-Syntactic Molecule of English
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21830561 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gian Marco Farese (0000-0002-1579-5104, University of Milan, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 11 |
| Publication date | 2022-06-05 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of English Linguistics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1923-869X • E-ISSN: 1923-8703 |
| Publisher | Canadian Center of Science and Education (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5539/ijel.v12n4p11 |
| OpenAlex | W4281677640 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
This paper presents a cultural semantic analysis of the English syntactic construction ‘know your + noun’ made combining the analytical principles and methods of ethnosyntax (Wierzbicka, 1988, 2003, 2006a) with those of corpus-based discourse analysis (Baker, 2006; Partington et al., 2004). Three main points are made in the paper: (i) ‘know your n.’ constitutes an indissoluble lexico-syntactic molecule of English expressing its own specific meaning; (ii) this construction is both genre-specific and subject to intralinguistic variation; (iii) this construction is quintessentially Anglo, because it reflects Anglo cultural assumptions about personal autonomy informing certain speech practices in English discourse (Goddard & Wierzbicka, 2004; Wierzbicka, 2006b) and defies easy translation in other languages. The analysis is based on the findings of a corpus search in GLOWBE across varieties of English complemented by additional data from the web. The results provide a clear picture of the meaning of ‘know your n.’ and of where it situates within the broad range of know-constructions. Ultimately, the paper emphasises the contribution that corpus-based, empirical discourse analysis can make to the semantics and ethnography of syntax as well as to the study of the interface between syntax, semantics and culture
Epistemology · Lexical item · Lexical Semantics · Linguistics · Noun · Noun phrase · Pragmatics · Sociology · Syntax · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics, Language Diversity, and Identity · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy
Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis
Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface
Cross-Cultural Pragmatics
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language
Know whether and -ever free relative clauses
Discovering the factivity of "know"
Is know a semantic universal? Shiru , wakaru and Japanese ethno-epistemology 1 1A shorter version of this paper was presented at the International Ethno-Epistemology Conference in Kanazawa, Japan, June 4th 2016
Knowing how and pragmatic intrusion
Stance and engagement
Cultural scripts
The syntax-semantics interface
Semantics
| Highly cited | No |
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