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Cultural Keywords in Discourse
Edited 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

| 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
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 19 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.277.02wat
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