Universal and language-specific aspects of "propositional attitudes": Russian vs. English

Abstract

In the linguistic literature inspired by the philosophical tradition, it is often assumed that the key distinction in the area of "propositional attitude" is that between "know" and "believe". The Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory of language and thought a argues that while KNOW is a universal conceptual prime, "believe" is not. It posits THINK, not "believe" as a universal counterpart of KNOW The Moscow Semantic School posits primitives ZNAT' (KNOW) and SČITAT' (which has no exact English equivalent). This chapter argues that the use of "sčitat" – and "believe" asputative primes is unjustified. It supports THINK/DUMAT' as a universal conceptual prime and it shows that the use of this element as a prime leads to much better results than the use of "sčitat".