“Know Your Coffee!” The Cultural Semantics of a Lexico-Syntactic Molecule of English

This paper presents a cultural semantic analysis of the English syntactic construction ‘know your + noun’ made combining analytical principles and methods ethnosyntax (Wierzbicka, 1988, 2003, 2006a) with those corpus-based discourse (Baker, 2006; Partington et al., 2004). Three main points are in paper: (i) n.’ constitutes an indissoluble lexico-syntactic molecule expressing its own specific meaning; (ii) this is both genre-specific subject to intralinguistic variation; (iii) quintessentially Anglo, because it reflects Anglo assumptions about personal autonomy informing certain speech practices (Goddard & Wierzbicka, 2004; 2006b) defies easy translation other languages. The based on findings corpus search GLOWBE across varieties complemented by additional data from web. results provide clear picture meaning where situates within broad range know-constructions. Ultimately, emphasises contribution that corpus-based, empirical can make semantics ethnography syntax as well study interface between syntax, culture.