Phraseology and Culture in English

part of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Here is one possibility: 

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Bert Peeters
a week 
a time 
this time has two parts 
one of these parts has many parts of the same kind 
during this part people do many things 
because they have to do these things 
not because they want to do them 
after this part, there is another part 
the other part is not like this 
the other part does not have many parts of the same kind 
during this other part people can do many things 
because they want to do these things 
not because they have to do these things 
Another possibility would be an explication along the following lines: 
a week 
a time 
this time has many parts of the same kind 
there can be no two parts of this time at the same time 
there are names for these parts 
one part is Monday 
there are no parts of the same time before this part 
the part after this part is Tuesday 
the part after Tuesday is Wednesday 
the part after Wednesday is Thursday 
the part after Thursday is Friday 
the part after Friday is Saturday 
the part after Saturday is Sunday 
there are no parts of the same time after this part 
The two explications (or formulae, to use a different term in common use 
among NSM-practitioners) are by no means mutually exclusive. They 
merely correspond to two different conceptualisations of the week: either a 
succession of working days followed by a period of relaxation, or a set of 
days without any internal differenciation. No claim is being made that the 
definitions are valid only in the case of Australian English, and that the 
word week has a different meaning and different connotations depending on 
where one looks. There is always a possibility that this is the case. We sim-

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Australian perceptions of the weekend
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ply don’t know for sure at this stage and I will refrain from making any 
assertions one way or the other.
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