Delving into Heart-and Soul-Like Constructs:Describing EPCs in NSM

Abstract

In this introduction to the volume, the editor sets the scene for what follows, justifying the choice of label (ethnopsychological personhood construct or EPC) for the soul-, heart-, and mind-like constructs canvassed by the four contributors. He then addresses the perennial problem of Anglocentrism and reification of EPCs in scholarly discourse, where English continues to set the tone and its constructs continue to be used as yardsticks in the description of cultural diversity, thereby elevating the English language to a status it does not deserve, no matter how important it may be on a world scale. Use of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is put forward as a way out of the problem. NSM is introduced, with specific reference to semantic primes, semantic molecules, and semantic templates. In addition, to demonstrate the famous NSM motto that �every explication is an experiment�, the author reconstructs the various stages that explications of the English EPC mind have gone through since the first attempt was made in the late 1980s.