N.J. Enfield

List of John Benjamins publications in which N.J. Enfield is involved.

Journals

Asian Languages and Linguistics

Edited by Danqing Liu, Ailan Fu and Gong Cheng

ISSN 2665-9336 | E‑ISSN 2665‑9344

Edited by Ruth Breckinridge Church and Olivier Le Guen

ISSN 1568-1475 | E‑ISSN 1569‑9773

Book series

Cognitive Foundations of Language Structure and Use

Edited by Klaus-Uwe Panther and Linda L. Thornburg

ISSN 1387-6724

Title

The Body in Description of Emotion: Cross-linguistic studies

Edited by N.J. Enfield and Anna Wierzbicka

Special issue of Pragmatics & Cognition 10:1/2 (2002) vi, 369 pp.

Articles (15) | Order by:

Enfield, N.J. 2025 Multimodality’s role in nano-scale niche construction Gesture: Online-First Articles | Commentary

Human communicative discourse can be understood as a form of nano-scale niche construction. If our burst-like communicative moves in the medium of language are to create niches that persist long enough to be exploited as shared informational environments, then we need ways to bind individual… read more

Loss, Daniel, Nattanun Chanchaochai, N.J. Enfield and Pittayawat Pittayaporn 2024 Information structure and changes in Moklen word-form Asia-Pacific Language Variation 10:2, pp. 140–182 | Article

In this study, we investigate an apparent discourse-based alternation between monosyllabic and disyllabic word-forms in Moklen, an Austronesian language spoken in Thailand. We explore whether factors of information structure condition the variable elision of the first syllable of certain… read more

de Sousa, Hilário, François Langella and N.J. Enfield 2015 Temperature terms in Lao, Southern Zhuang, Southern Pinghua and Cantonese The Linguistics of Temperature, Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria (ed.), pp. 594–638 | Article

Lao, Southern Zhuang, Southern Pinghua and Cantonese are four languages spoken in Mainland Southeast Asia. The study of the temperature systems in these four languages – two from the Tai family and two from the Sinitic family – provides an interesting test case for the areal study of temperature… read more

Enfield, N.J. 2014 Human agency and the infrastructure for requests Requesting in Social Interaction, Drew, Paul and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen (eds.), pp. 35–54 | Article

This chapter discusses some of the elements of human sociality that serve as the social and cognitive infrastructure or preconditions for the use of requests and other kinds of recruitments in interaction. The notion of an agent with goals is a canonical starting point, though importantly agency… read more

Enfield, N.J. 2011 7. Description of reciprocal situations in Lao Reciprocals and Semantic Typology, Evans, Nicholas, Alice Gaby, Stephen C. Levinson and Asifa Majid (eds.), pp. 129–148 | Article

This article describes the grammatical resources available to speakers of Lao for describing situations that can be described broadly as ‘reciprocal’. The analysis is based on complementary methods: elicitation by means of non-linguistic stimuli, exploratory consultation with native speakers, and… read more

Enfield, N.J. 2010 Review of Streeck (2009): Gesturecraft: The Manu-Facture of Meaning Pragmatics & Cognition 18:2, pp. 465–467 | Review

Enfield, N.J. 2009 Review of Aikhenvald & Dixon (2007): Grammars in contact: A cross-linguistic typology Studies in Language 33:1, pp. 241–246 | Review

Enfield, N.J. 2007 The Paradox of Being Ordinary In gesprek, pp. 9–23 | Article

This article examines how speakers of Lao (a Southwestern Tai language spoken in Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia) make references to persons in the course of everyday conversation. This seemingly simple referential problem turns out to be a rich locus of meaning in the domain of human social relations. read more

Enfield, N.J. 2002 3. Combinatoric Properties of Natural Semantic Metalanguage Expressions in Lao Meaning and Universal Grammar: Theory and empirical findings, Goddard, Cliff and Anna Wierzbicka (eds.), pp. 145–256 | Article

Enfield, N.J. 2002 2. Semantics and combinatorics of ‘sit’, ‘stand’, and ‘lie’ in Lao The Linguistics of Sitting, Standing and Lying, Newman, John (ed.), pp. 25–41 | Chapter

Enfield, N.J. 2002 ‘Lip-pointing’: A discussion of form and function with reference to data from Laos Gesture 1:2, pp. 185–211 | Article

‘Lip-pointing’ is a widespread but little-documented form of deictic gesture, which may involve not just protruding one or both lips, but also raising the head, sticking out the chin, lifting the eyebrows, among other things. This paper discusses form and function of lip-pointing with reference to… read more

Enfield, N.J. 2002 Semantic analysis of body parts in emotion terminology: Avoiding the exoticisms of “obstinate monosemy” and “online extension” The Body in Description of Emotion: Cross-linguistic studies, Enfield, N.J. and Anna Wierzbicka (eds.), pp. 85–106 | Article

Investigation of the emotions entails reference to words and expressions conventionally used for the description of emotion experience. Important methodological issues arise for emotion researchers, and the issues are of similarly central concern in linguistic semantics more generally. I argue… read more

Enfield, N.J. and Anna Wierzbicka 2002 Introduction: The body in description of emotion The Body in Description of Emotion: Cross-linguistic studies, Enfield, N.J. and Anna Wierzbicka (eds.), pp. 1–25 | Article

Anthropologists and linguists have long been aware that the body is explicitly referred to in conventional description of emotion in languages around the world. There is abundant linguistic data showing expression of emotions in terms of their imagined ‘locus’ in the physical body. The most… read more

Enfield, N.J. 2001 Remarks on John Haiman, 1999. ‘Auxiliation in Khmer: the case of baan.’ Studies in Language 23:1. 149–1 Studies in Language 25:1, pp. 115–124 | Article

Enfield, N.J. 2000 On linguocentrism Explorations in Linguistic Relativity, Pütz, Martin and Marjolijn H. Verspoor (eds.), pp. 125–158 | Article