View source for Anna Wierzbicka

{{Short description|Polish linguist (born 1938)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox scholar
| name = Anna Wierzbicka
| fullname = 
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1938|3|10|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Warsaw]], [[Poland]]
| death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|1938|3|10|df=y}} -->
| death_place = 
| main_interests = [[Semantics]], [[pragmatics]] and [[anthropological linguistics|cross-cultural linguistics]]
| notable_ideas = [[Natural semantic metalanguage]]
| awards = [[Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science]] (2010)<br />Dobrushin Award (2010)
| alma_mater = [[Warsaw University]]
}}
'''Anna Wierzbicka''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|FAHA|FASSA}} {{IPA|pl|ˈanna vʲɛʐˈbʲitska|}} (born 10 March 1938 in [[Warsaw]]) is a [[Polish people|Polish]] [[linguistics|linguist]] who is Emeritus Professor at the [[Australian National University]], [[Canberra]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/wierzbicka-a|title=Professor Anna Wierzbicka|publisher=[[Australian National University]] |accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref> Brought up in [[Poland]], she graduated from [[Warsaw University]] and emigrated to Australia in 1972, where she has lived since. With over twenty published books, many of which have been translated into other languages, she is a prolific writer.

Wierzbicka is known for her work in [[semantics]], [[pragmatics]] and [[anthropological linguistics|cross-cultural linguistics]], especially for the [[natural semantic metalanguage]] and the concept of [[semantic primes]]. Her research agenda resembles [[Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz]]'s original "[[alphabet of human thought]]". Wierzbicka credits her colleague, linguist [[Andrzej Bogusławski]], with reviving it in the late 1960s.<ref>{{Cite episode
| title        = Natural Semantic Metalanguage
| url          = http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2009/2653726.htm
| series       = LinguaFranca
| credits      = Interviewer: [[Maria Zijlstra]]
| network      = [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]
| airdate      = 2009-08-15
| transcript   = Transcript
| transcript-url= http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2009/2653726.htm}}
</ref>

==Biography==
{{external media | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7-suGuCc5o In Conversation with Anna Wierzbicka — Living in Languages] }}
Wierzbicka was born in 1938, just before the outbreak of World War II.
She received her PhD from the Institute of Literary Research at the [[Polish Academy of Sciences]] in 1964 and her [[habilitation]] degree five years later.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fnp.org.pl/prof-anna-wierzbicka-laureatka-nagrody-fnp-2010/|title=Prof. Anna Wierzbicka – laureatka Nagrody FNP 2010|work=Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej |accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref> Since 1973 she has been working at [[Australian National University|ANU]], from 1989 as a professor. 1988 saw her elected fellow of the [[Australian Academy of the Humanities]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Anna Wierzbicka|url=https://www.humanities.org.au/our-fellows/fellows/?find_contact_id=3398&ffc_page=30|publisher=Australian Academy of the Humanities|accessdate=29 May 2018}}</ref> In 1996 she was elected a Fellow of the [[Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Academic Fellow: Professor Anna Wierzbicka FASSA, FAHA|url=https://socialsciences.org.au/academy-fellow/?sId=0032v000033l9NHAAY|accessdate=25 May 2018|website=Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia}}</ref>
Throughout her career she has collaborated closely with Polish researchers, and was awarded the [[Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science]] for developing the theory of the natural semantic metalanguage and discovering a set of elementary meanings common to all languages.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fnp.org.pl/prof-anna-wierzbicka-laureatka-nagrody-fnp-2010/|title=Prof. Anna Wierzbicka – laureatka Nagrody FNP 2010. |work=Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej |publisher=Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej.|accessdate=17 December 2015}}</ref> Her work spans a number of disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, cognitive science, philosophy, and religious studies as well as linguistics.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/wierzbicka-a|title=Professor Anna Wierzbicka|publisher=[[Australian National University]] |accessdate=17 December 2015}}</ref>

==Natural semantic metalanguage==
{{Main article| Natural semantic metalanguage}}
In her 1972 book ''Semantic Primitives'', she launched a theory of [[natural semantic metalanguage]], a theory of language and meaning that is intended to be language neutral. Over the next 35 years, Wierzbicka refined the concept and developed an inventory of about 200 basic meanings that are established/checked with a sequence of five statements.<ref>Wierzbicka, Anna. 2013. ''Imprisoned in English.'' Oxford University Press.</ref> She claims these meanings to be the nucleus of human language as such. 

==Awards==
* Honorary degree from [[Maria Curie-Skłodowska University]] (2004)
* Honorary degree from [[Warsaw University]] (2006)
* [[Prize of the Foundation for Polish Science]] (2010)
* [[Dobrushin Award]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://iitp.ru/en/awards/22.htm|title=Dobrushin International Award|accessdate=24 November 2014}}</ref> (2010)

==Bibliography==

=== Books ===
*(co-authored with Cliff Goddard) ''Words and Meanings: Lexical Semantics Across Domains, Languages, and Cultures.'' Oxford UP (2014). {{ISBN|9780199668434}}
*''Imprisoned in English. The Hazards of English As a Default Language'', Oxford UP 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-19-932150-6}}
*''Experience, Evidence, and Sense: The Hidden Cultural Legacy of English'' (2010). {{ISBN|0-19-536801-0}}
* ''English: Meaning and culture'' (2006). {{ISBN|0-19-517474-7}}
* ''What Did Jesus Mean? Explaining the Sermon on the Mount and the Parables in simple and universal human concepts'' (2001).
* ''Emotions Across Languages and Cultures: Diversity and universals'' (1999).
* ''Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, Japanese'' (1997).
* ''Semantics: Primes and Universals'' (1996).
* ''Semantics, Culture and Cognition: Universal human concepts in culture-specific configurations'' (1992).
* ''Cross-cultural pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction'' (1991).
* ''The Semantics of Grammar'' (1988).
* ''English Speech Act Verbs: A semantic dictionary'' (1987).
* ''Lexicography and Conceptual Analysis'' (1985).
* ''The Case for Surface Case'' (1980).
* ''Lingua Mentalis: The semantics of natural language'' (1980).
* ''Semantic Primitives'' (1972).

===Articles===
Anna Wierzbicka has published over 300 articles in journals from the disciplines her work spans, including ''Language'', ''[[Current Anthropology, American Anthropologist]]'', ''Man'', ''[[Anthropological Linguistics (journal)|Anthropological Linguistics]]'', ''[[Cognition and Emotion]]'', ''Culture and Psychology'', ''Ethos'', ''Philosophica'', ''[[Behavioral and Brain Sciences]]'' and ''[[The Journal of Cognition and Culture]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/wierzbicka-a|title=Professor Anna Wierzbicka|publisher=[[Australian National University]] |accessdate=17 December 2015}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Cliff Goddard]]
*[[List of Poles#Linguistics|Polish Linguists]]

== References ==
<references/>

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140815204604/http://linguistics.anu.edu.au/staff/professor-anna-wierzbicka Wierzbicka's page], Australian National University
* [https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/wierzbicka-a#biography Bibliography from 1990 onward]
* [http://www.fnp.org.pl/prof-anna-wierzbicka-laureatka-nagrody-fnp-2010/ Wierzbicka's biography], Foundation for Polish Science
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140728043754/http://www.griffith.edu.au/humanities-languages/school-languages-linguistics/research/natural-semantic-metalanguage-homepage/publications/anna-wierzbicka Wierzbicka's page], [[Griffith University]]
* Zhengdao Ye Introducing Anna Wierzbicka's and Cliff Goddard's Natural Semantics Method, https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/permalink/v125a8c985c90oj5g30p/
*{{Internet Archive author |sname= Anna Wierzbicka}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wierzbicka, Anna}}
[[Category:1938 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Linguists from Australia]]
[[Category:Polish women linguists]]
[[Category:Australian women linguists]]
[[Category:Linguists from Poland]]
[[Category:Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Australian people of Polish descent]]
[[Category:Semanticists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Australian National University]]
[[Category:Polish emigrants to Australia]]
[[Category:Scientists from Warsaw]]