[Lexicog] shame, guilt, sorry, regret

[Wayne Leman]

How widely lexicalized have you all found the semantic concepts of shame,
guilt, sorry (e.g. I'm sorry for what I did), and regret?

Perhaps another way of asking this is: Have you studied a language which
does not seem to have lexicalized one or more of these concepts? If so,
which is/are missing in the lexicon?

Before I began studying Cheyenne I had done reading that led me to believe
that shame was a universal semantic concept (different, of course, from the
claim that it is universally lexicalized) but guilt was not so universal.
However, I'm not sure Cheyenne has lexicalized a term for shame. It does
have a word for 'embarrassed' which I think can be used in some contexts for
'shamed,' but I don't think the Cheyenne word covers the same semantic space
as does English "shame."

Cheyenne doesn't have a noun for guilt, not surprising since Cheyenne is a
very "verby" language, and often expresses what English and some other
languages express as nouns with verbs (and these verbs can take a
nominalizer suffix, but the resultant noun is not naturally used by
speakers). So, Cheyenne does have a verb root -hetómem which means 'state
the truth about someone.' This root has been used by Cheyennes to express
the idea that someone is guilty. Hence, Náhetómemane is close to 'I am
guilty' (literally, 'the truth was told about me').

There is no Cheyenne lexical form to express being sorry for doing
something.

There is a Cheyenne verb which means 'to regret doing something.' This is
close, of course, to being sorry for doing something but Cheyennes do not
feel it is the same. And they never apologize using the verb for 'regret.'
Instead, apologies are made using other lexical routes (frames?), such as
telling someone 'Let's forget about it' or 'Let's shake hands again.' They
understand the cultural script well, and know that the person saying this
wants to bury the hatchet (to coin a phrase!).

OK, how about these concepts in languages you have studied?

Wayne
-----
Wayne Leman
Busby, Montana, U.S.A.
Cheyenne dictionary project:
http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language/cddicy.htm


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