The English expressions good boy and good girl and cultural models of child rearing

Anna Wierzbicka*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    19 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The expressions good boy and good girl are widely used in Anglo parental speech directed at children to praise them for their actions. Used in this way, these expressions have no equivalents in other European languages. In tracing the history of these expressions, and their negative counterparts bad boy and bad girl, this paper seeks to show that they reflect a unique cultural model of child rearing, which links evaluation of a child's behaviour with evaluation of the child him- or herself. It is argued that this model, which might seem natural and universal, but which is in fact culture-specific, has its roots in England's and America's Puritan past. Using the NSM semantic methodology, the paper explores the changes and continuities in this cultural. model against the backdrop of broad linguistic usage.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)251-278
    Number of pages28
    JournalCulture and Psychology
    Volume10
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Sept 2004

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