Semantic primes and conceptual ontology

Author(s)
Goddard, Cliff
Publication Date
2007
Abstract
The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach to language analysis, originated by Anna Wierzbicka (1972, 1996; Goddard and Wierzbicka 1994, 2002), claims to have identified some 65 universal semantic primes. As explained below, they can be grouped in various ways, using syntactic and/or "thematic" criteria. The present study concentrates on a set of primes which may be termed "substantive", and which form the foundation of the nominal lexicon. After an introduction in Section 1., Section 2. gives an account of the NSM substantive primes. Section 3. addresses the question of how major divisions within the nominal vocabulary are constructed either exclusively from semantic primes, or from primes in combination with semantic molecules. Concluding remarks form Section 4.
Citation
Ontolinguistics: how ontological status shapes the linguistic coding of concepts, p. 145-173
ISBN
9783110189971
Link
Language
en
Publisher
Mouton de Gruyter
Series
Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]
Edition
1
Title
Semantic primes and conceptual ontology
Type of document
Book Chapter
Entity Type
Publication

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