Cover not available

Introduction published In: The Conceptualization of ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Ugly’ across Languages and Cultures
Edited by Anna Gladkova and Jesús Romero-Trillo
[International Journal of Language and Culture 8:1] 2021
► pp. 1–13

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required
Introduction

The linguistic conceptualization in folk aesthetics

Past, present and future

 | Monash University | Australian National University
ORCiD logo with link | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Published online: 7 June 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00032.int
Abstract
This Special Issue is dedicated to the analysis of the linguistic conceptualization of “beautiful” and “ugly” as the key concepts that are basic to aesthetic appreciation across languages and cultures within the framework of folk aesthetics. For this purpose, we present a collection of original research articles analyzing concepts related to folk aesthetics in seven languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Danish, Persian, and Mandarin Chinese. All studies in this Special Issue focus on words and concepts as representations of culture-specific ways of aesthetic appreciation. Most of the studies are corpus-based, therefore they draw their conclusions on significant linguistic data.
Article outline
  • 1.Towards the linguistic conceptualization of “aesthetics”
  • 2.A linguistic approach to folk aesthetics
  • 3.What can be found in this special issue?
  • Notes
  • References
References (54)
References
Allan, K. & Burridge, K. (2006). Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Antonova, I. (2018). Irina Antonova about the contemporary art. Interview to the magazine Partner. Partner №5 (248). [URL]
Apresjan, J. (1992). Lexical Semantics: user’s guide to contemporary Russian vocabulary. [Translation of Apresjan, J. 1974. Leksičeskaja semantika: sinonimičeskie sredstva jazyka.]. Karoma Publishers, Ann Arbor.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Asano-Cavanagh, Y. (2014). Linguistic manifestation of gender reinforcement through the use of the Japanese term kawaii. Gender and Language 81: 341–359. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2017). Kawaii discourse: The semantics of a Japanese cultural keyword and its social elaboration. In C. Levisen & S. Waters (eds) Cultural Keywords in Discourse (pp. 211–234). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bjerke, R. & Polegato, R. (2001). Cross-cultural meanings of healthy and beautiful in words, beauty types, and products. Journal of Promotion Management 71: 117–140. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bratman, G. N., Hamilton, J. P. & Daily, G. (2012). The impacts of nature experience on human cognitive function and mental health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 12491: 118–136. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coote, J. (2006[1992]). “Marvels of everyday vision”: The anthropology of aesthetics and the cattle-keeping Nilotes. In Morphy, H. & M. Perkins (Eds.). The Anthropology of Art: A reader (pp. 281–301). Malden: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crowther, P. (1990). Postmodernism in the Visual Arts: A Question of Ends. In: R. Boyne & A. Rattansi (eds) Postmodernism and Society. Communications and Culture. (pp. 237–259). London: Palgrave. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cyra, D., Headb, M. & Lariosc, H. (2010). Colour appeal in website design within and across cultures: A multi-method evaluation. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 681: 1–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
D’Andrade, R. (1987). A folk model of the mind. In D. Holland & N. Quinn (eds) Cultural Models in Language and Thought (pp. 112–148). New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eco, U. (2004). History of Beauty. New York: Rizzoli.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). On Ugliness. London: Harvill Secker.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Edmonds, A. (2013). Can Medicine Be Aesthetic? Disentangling Beauty and Health in Elective Surgeries. Medical Anthropology Quarterly 271: 233–252. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farese, G. M. (2019). Italian Discourse: A Cultural Semantic Analysis. Lanham: Lexington Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fenko, A., Otten, J. J. & Schifferstein, H. N. J. (2010). Describing product experience in different languages: The role of sensory modalities. Journal of Pragmatics 421: 3314–3327. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gladkova, A. (2020). The semantics of verbs of visual aesthetic appreciation in Russian. In Helen Bromhead and Zhengdao Ye (eds), Meaning, Life and Culture: In Conversation with Anna Wierzbicka. Canberra: ANU Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gladkova, A. & Romero-Trillo, J. (2014). Ain’t it beautiful? The conceptualization of beauty from an ethnopragmatic perspective. Journal of Pragmatics 601: 140–159. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gladkova, A., Vanhatalo, U. & Goddard, C. (2016). The semantics of interjections: An experimental study with Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Applied Psycholinguistics 371: 841–865. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, C. (2014). On “Disgust”. In F. Baider & G. Cislaru (eds) Linguistic Approaches to Emotions in Context (pp. 73–98). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, C. & Wierzbicka, A. (eds) (2002). Meaning and universal grammar: Theory and empirical findings (2 Vols). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Words and Meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hillier, M. (2003). The role of cultural context in multilingual website usability. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications 21: 2–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Howes, D. (ed.) (1991). The varieties of sensory experience: A sourcebook in the anthropology of the senses. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). Sensual relations. Engaging the senses in culture and social theory. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ingold, T. (ed) (1996). Key Debates in Anthropology. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iordanskaja, L. (1979). The semantics of three Russian verbs of perception: vosprinimat’ ‘(to) perceive’, oščuščat’ ‘(to) sense’ and čusvstvovat’ ‘(to) feel’. Linguistics 171: 825–842. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Levisen, C. & Waters, S. (eds.) (2017). Cultural Keywords in Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Majid, A. & S. Levinson (eds.) (2011). The senses in language and culture [Special Issue]. Senses and Society 6 (1). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Makeeva, I. I. (2004). Bjaše že licem krasen. Ėstetičeskaja ocenka v drevnerusskom slovesnom portrete. [He was beautiful in face: Aesthetic evaluation in the Old Russian word portrait.] In Arutjunova, N. D. (ed.) Logičeskij analiz jazyka. Jazyki ėstetiki. Konceptual’nye polja prekrasnogo i bezobraznogo. [Logical analysis of language. Languages of aesthetics. Conceptual fields of beautiful and ugly]. (pp. 428–436) Moscow: Indrik. (in Rus.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mears, A. (2010). Size zero high-end ethnic: Cultural production and the reproduction of culture in fashion modeling. Poetics 381: 21–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Miller, L. (2006). Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics. Berkeley: University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morphy, H. (2006[1992]). From dull to brilliant: the aesthetics of spiritual power among the Yolngu. In Morphy, H. & M. Perkins (Eds.). The Anthropology of Art: A reader (pp. 302–320). Malden: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Naveh, Z. (1995). Interactions of lanscapes and cultures. Landscape and urban planning, 32(1), 43–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ogarkova, A. (2013). Folk emotion concepts: lexicalization of emotional experience across languages and cultures. In K. Scherer, J. Fontaine & C. Soriano (eds) Components of emotional meaning: A sourcebook (pp. 46–62). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Romero-Trillo, J. & Espigares, T. (2012). The cognitive representation of nature in language. Pragmatics & Cognition 201: 168–185. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). Cognitive and linguistic factors affecting the selection of landscapes in the Corpus of Language and Nature. Journal of Research Design and Statistics in Linguistics and Communication Science, 21, 157–159. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Romero-Trillo, J. & Fuentes, V. (2017). What is pretty cannot be beautiful? A corpus-based analysis of the aesthetics of nature. In Blochowiak, J., Grisot, C., Durrleman, S., & C. Laenzlinger (Eds.), Formal models in the study of language (pp. 415–430). Dordrecht: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sapir, E. (1949). Selected writings of Edward Sapir in language, culture and personality. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sartwell, C. (2004). Six Names of Beauty. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sharifian, F. (2017). Cultural Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stevens, C. S. (2014). Cute but Relaxed: Ten Years of Rilakkuma in Precarious Japan. M/C Journal, 171: [URL].
Strauss, S. (2005). The linguistic aestheticization of food: a cross-cultural look at food commercials in Japan, Korea, and the United States. Journal of Pragmatics 371: 1427–1455. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vendina, T. I. (2004). Prekrasnoe i bezobraznoe v russkoj tradicionnoj duxovnoj kul’ture. In Arutjunova, N. D. (ed.) (2004) Logičeskij analiz jazyka. Jazyki ėstetiki. Konceptual’nye polja prekrasnogo i bezobraznogo. (pp. 143–161). Moscow: Indrik. [Logical analysis of language. Languages of aesthetics. Conceptual fields of beautiful and ugly]. (in Rus.)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Viberg, Å. (1983). The verbs of perception: A typological study. Linguistics 211: 123–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Viswanathan, M. (1998). Aesthetics, Japanese. In The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor and Francis. Retrieved 11 Jan. 2019, from [URL].
Whitt, R. J. (2011). (Inter)Subjectivity and evidential perception verbs in English and German. Journal of Pragmatics 431: 347–360. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Whorf, B. (1956). Language, thought and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Massachusetts: The M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (1999). Emotions across Languages and Cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2005). There are no “color universals” but there are universals of visual semantics. Anthropological Linguistics, 47(2), 217–244.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010). Experience, evidence and sense: The hidden cultural legacy of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Tajeddin, Zia & Abbas Mansouri
2025. Women’s Beauty and Body Image as Culturally Conceptualized in Global ELT Textbooks. In Cultural Linguistics and ELT Curriculum [Cultural Linguistics, ], ► pp. 197 ff. DOI logo
Levisen, Carsten & Zhengdao Ye
2024. “When bad things happen to people”. In The Cultural Pragmatics of Danger [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 346], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue