The present study explores use of multidimensional scaling to cross-cultural investigation involving six cultures and two categories varying in abstractness: animals and emotions. Cross-cultural agreement in the scaling solutions was quite high but highest for the Emotions category. Additionally, the solutions of both categories across cultures revealed details that reflected culture-specific meaning. Thus, the results demonstrate the utility of multidimensional scaling analysis for the cross-cultural investigation of meaning.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BURLING, R. (1965) Hill Farms and Padi Fields. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
2.
BURLING, R. (1964) "Cognition and componential analysis: God's truth or hocus pocus."Amer. Anthropologist66: 20-28.
3.
BUSH, L. E. (1973) "Individual differences multidimensional scaling of adjectives denoting feelings."J. of Personality and Social Psychology25 (1): 50-57.
4.
CARAMAZZA, A. , H. HERSH, and W. S. TORGERSON (1976) "Subjective structures and operations in semantic memory."J. of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior15: 103-107.
5.
CARROLL, J. D. and J. J. CHANG (1970) "Analysis of individual differences in multidimensional scaling via an n-way generalization of "Eckart-Young" decomposition."Psychometrika36: 283-319.
6.
CHOMSKY, N. (1965) Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. The Hague: Mouton and Co.
7.
COLE, M. and S. SCRIBNER (1974) Culture and Thought. New York: John Wiley.
8.
CONKLIN, H. D. (1957) Hanunoo Agriculture. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
9.
CONKLIN, H. D. (1955) "Hanunoo Color Categories."Southwestern J. of Anthropology11: 399-444.
10.
D'ANDRADE, R. G. (1976) "A propositional analysis of U.S. American beliefs about illness," in K. H. Basso and H. A. Selby (eds.) Meaning in Anthropology. Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press.
11.
FILLENBAUM, S. and A. RAPOPORT (1971) Structures in the Subjective Lexicon. New York: Academic Press.
12.
GOODENOUGH, W. (1956) "Componential analysis and the study of meaning."Language32: 195-216.
13.
GREENBERG, J. (1966) Language Universals. The Hague: Mouton and Co.
14.
HENLEY, N. (1969) "A psychological study of the semantics of animal terms."J. of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior8: 176-184.
15.
HERSKOVITS, M. (1971) Life in a Haitian Village. New York: Doubleday.
16.
HICKEY, G. C. (1964) Village in Vietnam. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
17.
LEVY, M. J., Jr. (1963) The Family Revolution in Modern China. New York: Octagon Books.
18.
LEYBURN, J. (1966) The Haitian People. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
19.
OSGOOD, G. E. , W. MAY and M. MIRON (1975) Cultural Universals of Affective Meaning. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press.
20.
OSGOOD, G. E. , G. J. SUCI and P. H. TANNENBAUM (1957) The Measurement of Meaning. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press.
21.
PIKE, L. (1947) Phonemics: A Technique for Reducing Languages to Writing. University of Michigan Publications in Linguistics 3. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
22.
PIKE, L. (1943) Phonetics: A Critical Analysis of Phonetic Theory and a Technique for the Practical Description of Sounds. University of Michigan Publications, Language and Literature, 21. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
23.
RIPS, L. J. , E. J. SHOBEN and E. E. SMITH (1973) "Semantic distance and the verification of semantic relations."J. of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior12, 1: 1-20.
24.
ROMNEY, A. K. , R. N. SHEPARD and S. B. NERLOVE (1972) Multidimensional Scaling. New York: Seminar Press.
25.
SOLOMON, R. H. (1971) Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
26.
TAKATA, G. (1974) "An examination of cultural differences in the use of English mood words: a multidimensional scaling analysis." Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University.