Chapter published in:
Cultural Keywords in DiscourseEdited by Carsten Levisen and Sophia Waters
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 277] 2017
► pp. 25–54
Chapter 2
Nice as a cultural keyword
The semantics behind Australian discourses of sociality
Sophia Waters | University of New England
This chapter investigates the English word nice as a cultural keyword, around which sociality discourses revolve. Focusing on its semantic scope in Australian discourse, the keyword nice has an important story to tell about socially accepted and approved ways of thinking, communicating and behaving. Oftentimes nice has been trivialised, or even ridiculed as an “empty word”, but closer scrutiny reveals that nice has all the characteristics of a cultural keyword. It is frequent and foundational in Australian discourse, and it reflects cultural logics, values and orientations. Also, as is common with cultural keywords, nice lacks translational equivalents, even in closely related languages. A comparison with French gentil demonstrates how nice is distinctive in the way it organises and maintains specific discursive orders.
Keywords:
nice
, Australian English, French, sociality, cultural discourse
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Meet nice
- 3.Comparisons with French (gentil, sympathique)
- 4.The collocational profile of nice
- 4.1The lexical semantics of nice
- 4.1.1It’s nice to VP
- 4.1.2Nice person
- 4.1.3Nice + N place and It’s a nice place to VP
- 4.1.4 Nice + N thing : Aesthetic and functional
- 4.1.5Be nice to someone
- 4.1The lexical semantics of nice
- 5.Concluding remarks
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Notes -
References
Published online: 19 October 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.277.02wat
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.277.02wat
References
References
Béal, Christine
The Collins Robert French Dictionary
Goddard, Cliff
Goddard, Cliff, and Anna Wierzbicka
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, Catherine
Mikes, George
Mullan, Kerry
Peeters, Bert
Waters, Sophia
Cited by
Cited by 4 other publications
Farese, Gian Marco
Levisen, Carsten
Peeters, Bert
Trnavac, Radoslava & Maite Taboada
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 march 2022. 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.