Anna Wierzbicka (born 10 March 1938 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

) is a Polish

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Lingu ...

who is Emeritus Professor at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

, Canberra. Brought up in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, she graduated from Warsaw University and emigrated to Australia in 1972, where she has lived since. With over twenty published books, many of which have been translated into foreign languages, she is a prolific writer. Wierzbicka is known for her work in

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

pragmatics In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the int ...

and cross-cultural linguistics, especially for the

natural semantic metalanguage The natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) is a linguistic theory that reduces lexicons down to a set of semantic primitives. It is based on the conception of Polish professor Andrzej Bogusławski. The theory was formally developed by Anna Wierzbic ...

and the concept of semantic primes. Her research agenda resembles

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of ...

's original "alphabet of human thought". Wierzbicka credits her colleague, linguist Andrzej Bogusławski, with reviving it in the late 1960s.

Biography

Wierzbicka was born in 1938, just before the outbreak of World War II. She received her PhD from the Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences in 1964 and subsequently her habilitation degree five years later. Since 1973 she has been working at

ANU , image=Detail, upper part, Kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125-1104 BCE. British Museum.jpg , caption=Symbols of various deities, including Anu (bottom right corner) on a kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125–1104 BCE , ...

, from 1989 as a professor. 1988 saw her elected fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 1996 she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Throughout her career she has collaborated closely with Polish researchers, and was awarded the Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science for developing the theory of the natural semantic metalanguage and discovering a set of elementary meanings common to all languages. Her work spans a number of disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, cognitive science, philosophy, and religious studies as well as linguistics.

Natural semantic metalanguage

In her 1972 book ''Semantic Primitives'', she launched a theory of

, a theory of language and meaning.

Awards

* Honorary degree from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (2004) * Honorary degree from Warsaw University (2006) * Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science (2010) * Dobrushin Award (2010)

Bibliography

Books

*(co-authored with Cliff Goddard) ''Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics Across Domains, Languages, and Cultures.'' Oxford UP (2014). *''Imprisoned in English. The Hazards of English As a Default Language'', Oxford UP 2013. *''Experience, Evidence, and Sense: The Hidden Cultural Legacy of English'' (2010). * ''English: Meaning and culture'' (2006). * ''What Did Jesus Mean? Explaining the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables in simple and universal human concepts'' (2001). * ''Emotions Across Languages and Cultures: Diversity and universals'' (1999). * ''Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, Japanese'' (1997). * ''Semantics: Primes and Universals'' (1996). * ''Semantics, Culture and Cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations'' (1992). * ''Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction'' (1991). * ''The Semantics of Grammar'' (1988). * ''English Speech Act Verbs: A semantic dictionary'' (1987). * ''Lexicography and Conceptual Analysis'' (1985). * ''The Case for Surface Case'' (1980). * ''Lingua Mentalis: The semantics of natural language'' (1980). * ''Semantic Primitives'' (1972).

Articles

Anna Wierzbicka has published over 300 articles in journals from the disciplines her work spans, including ''Language'', '' Current Anthropology, American Anthropologist'', ''Man'', ''

Anthropological Linguistics Anthropological linguistics is the subfield of linguistics and anthropology which deals with the place of language in its wider social and cultural context, and its role in making and maintaining cultural practices and societal structures. Whil ...

'', '' Cognition and Emotion'', ''Culture and Psychology'', ''Ethos'', ''Philosophica'', '' Behavioral and Brain Sciences'' and '' The Journal of Cognition and Culture''.

References

External links

Wierzbicka's page
Australian National University
Bibliography from 1990 onward

Wierzbicka's biography
Foundation for Polish Science
Wierzbicka's page
Griffith University * Zhengdao Ye Introducing Anna Wierzbicka's and Cliff Goddard's Natural Semantics Method, https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/permalink/v125a8c985c90oj5g30p/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Wierzbicka, Anna 1938 births Living people Linguists from Australia Women linguists Linguists from Poland Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Australian people of Polish descent Semanticists Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Australian National University faculty Polish emigrants to Australia Scientists from Warsaw