Natural semantic metalanguage

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The Natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) is a linguistic theory and a practical, meaning-based approach to linguistic analysis. The theory is based on the conception of Polish professor Andrzej Bogusławski. The leading proponents of the theory are Anna Wierzbicka at Warsaw University and later at the Australian National University who originated the theory in the early 1970s (Wierzbicka 1972), and Cliff Goddard at Australia's Griffith University (Goddard & Wierzbicka 1994, 2002).

Approach

Linguists of the NSM school rely on semantic primitives (or semantic primes) for analysis (that is, simple, indefinable, and universally lexicalized concepts) and reductive paraphrase (that is, breaking complex concepts down into simpler concepts).

Research in the NSM approach deals extensively with language and cognition, and language and culture. Key areas of research include lexical semantics, grammatical semantics, phraseology and pragmatics, as well as cross-cultural communication.

Languages studied in the NSM-framework include English, Russian, Polish, French, Spanish, Malay, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Ewe and East Cree,^[1] as well as Swedish.^[2]

Semantic primitives

The English exponents of semantic primitives^[3]

substantives 

I, YOU, SOMEONE, PEOPLE, SOMETHING/THING, BODY

relational substantives

KIND, PART

determiners 

THIS, THE SAME, OTHER/ELSE

quantifiers 

ONE, TWO, MUCH/MANY, SOME, ALL

evaluators 

GOOD, BAD

descriptors 

BIG, SMALL

mental predicates 

THINK, KNOW, WANT, FEEL, SEE, HEAR

speech 

SAY, WORDS, TRUE

actions, events, movement, contact 

DO, HAPPEN, MOVE, TOUCH

location, existence, possession, specification 

BE (SOMEWHERE), THERE IS, HAVE, BE (SOMEONE/SOMETHING)

life and death 

LIVE, DIE

time 

WHEN/TIME, NOW, BEFORE, AFTER, A LONG TIME, A SHORT TIME, FOR SOME TIME, MOMENT

space 

WHERE/PLACE, HERE, ABOVE, BELOW, FAR, NEAR, SIDE, INSIDE

logical concepts 

NOT, MAYBE, CAN, BECAUSE, IF

intensifier, augmentor 

VERY, MORE

similarity 

LIKE/WAY

Citizendium image based on Goddard (2002)

See also

Metalanguage

Bibliography

• Goddard, Cliff. 1998. Semantic Analysis: A practical introduction. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
• Goddard, Cliff (ed.) 2006. Ethnopragmatics - Understanding discourse in cultural context. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Goddard, Cliff (ed.) 2008. Cross-Linguistic Semantics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
• Goddard, Cliff and Wierzbicka, Anna (eds.). 1994. Semantic and Lexical Universals - Theory and Empirical Findings. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
• Goddard, Cliff and Wierzbicka, Anna (eds.). 2002. Meaning and Universal Grammar: Theory and Empirical Findings (2 volumes). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
• Harkins, Jean & Anna Wierzbicka. 2001. Emotions in Crosslinguistic Perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Peeters, Bert (ed.) 2006. Semantic Primes and Universal Grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Wierzbicka, Anna. 1972. Semantic Primitives. Frankfurt: Athenäum.
• Wierzbicka, Anna. 1992. Semantics, Culture, and Cognition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Wierzbicka, Anna. 1996. Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Wierzbicka, Anna. 1997. Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Wierzbicka, Anna. 1999. Emotions Across Languages and Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Wierzbicka, Anna. 2003 (1991). Cross-cultural Pragmatics: The semantics of human interaction. 2nd edition. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Wierzbicka, Anna. 2006. English: Meaning and culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

External links

• Natural Semantic Metalanguage Homepage
• Natural Semantic Metalanguage Wiki

Notes

1. ^ "The natural semantic metalanguage approach", in Bernd Heine and Heiko Narrog (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis (2009) Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2. ^ Pedersen, Jan (2010), "The different Swedish tack: An ethnopragmatic investigation of Swedish thanking and related concepts", Journal of Pragmatics 42:1258-1265.
3. ^ "Natural Semantic Metalanguage: The state of the art", in C. Goddard (ed.) Cross-Linguistic Semantics (2008), p.33.