Cultural values and ‘cultural scripts’ of Malay (Bahasa Melayu)☆

Abstract This paper documents some Malay ‘rules of speaking’ and articulates their connections with Malay cultural values, using the new theory of ‘cultural scripts’ developed by Anna Wierzbicka. Aspects of the preferred Malay discourse style, which is normally described as refined, restrained, and charming, are shown to be linked with the Malay social emotion of malu ‘shame, propriety’, with the personal qualities of maruah ‘dignity’ and harga diri ‘self-esteem’, and with the ideal of senang hati ‘(lit.) easy heart’. It is argued that the cultural scripts approach enhances descriptive accuracy, helps reduce ethnocentricism, and facilitates the integration of pragmatics and cultural semantics.

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