TY - JOUR
T1 - The English expressions good boy and good girl and cultural models of child rearing
AU - Wierzbicka, Anna
PY - 2004/9
Y1 - 2004/9
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Anglo culture
KW - Child rearing
KW - Cultural history of English
KW - Cultural models
KW - Cultural psychology
KW - Natural Semantic Metalanguage
KW - Puritanism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=7244252851&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1354067X04042888
DO - 10.1177/1354067X04042888
M3 - Article
SN - 1354-067X
VL - 10
SP - 251
EP - 278
JO - Culture and Psychology
JF - Culture and Psychology
IS - 3
ER -