Studies in Ethnopragmatics, Cultural Semantics, and Intercultural Communication: Minimal English (and Beyond)

This book is the third in a three-volume set that celebrates the career and achievements of Cliff Goddard, a pioneer of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach in linguistics. This third volume explores the potential of Minimal English, a recent offshoot of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage, with special reference to its use in Language Teaching and Intercultural Communication.

Often considered the most fully developed, comprehensive and practical approach to cross-linguistic and cross-cultural semantics, Natural Semantic Metalanguage is based on evidence that there is a small core of basic, universal meanings (semantic primes) that can be expressed in all languages. It has been used for linguistic and cultural analysis in such diverse fields as semantics, cross-cultural communication, language teaching, humour studies and applied linguistics, and has reached far beyond the boundaries of linguistics into ethnopsychology, anthropology, history, political science, the medical humanities and ethics.

Kerry Mullan is Associate Professor and Convenor of Languages in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University. She teaches French language and culture, and sociolinguistics. Her main research interests are cross-cultural communication and the differing interactional styles of French and Australian English speakers. She also researches in the areas of intercultural pragmatics, discourse analysis, language teaching and in humour in social interactions. Her publications include Expressing opinions in French and Australian English discourse: A semantic and interactional analysis (2010) and Cross-culturally speaking, speaking cross-culturally (ed. with B. Peeters and C. Béal, 2013).

Bert Peeters is an Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University, an Adjunct Associate Professor at Griffith University, and a Gastprofessor at the University of Antwerp. His main research interests are in French linguistics, intercultural communication, and language and cultural values. His publications include Les primitifssémantiques (ed., 1993), The lexicon-encyclopedia interface (ed., 2000), Semantic primes and universal grammar (ed., 2006), Tu ou vous: l’embarras du choix (ed. with N. Ramière, 2009), Cross-culturally speaking, speaking cross-culturally (ed. with K. Mullan and C. Béal, 2013), and Heart- and soul-like constructs across languages, cultures, and epochs (ed., 2019).

Lauren Sadow is a sessional academic at the Australian National University, Canberra. Her main research interests are teaching culture, interactional norms, cultural lexicography, and cross-cultural communication. Her PhD thesis created an NSM-based dictionary titled The Australian Dictionary of Invisible Culture for Teachers.