Theoretical and empirical review of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory: A tool for semantic analysis of language-specificity Theoretical and empirical review of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory: A tool for semantic analysis of language-specificity
This paper aims to review the theoretical assumptions and principles of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (hence NSM) theory and its practicality as a semantic tool for explicating language-specific concepts. The NSM theory is founded on the assumption that there exist universal human concepts. A substantial body of cross-linguistic research over the last four decades (see, e.g., Wierzbicka 1972, 1980, 1994, 1996 2002; Goddard 1994, 1995, 2002; Goddard and Wierzbicka 1994, 2002) has demonstrated that there are around 65 universal human concepts and that they combine in some universally shared ways syntactically. The NSM theory claims that the proposed universal human concepts and the universal grammar constitute a mini language that can describe any complex concepts in any natural language. This paper, firstly presents a review of the literature on universal human concepts as a background to the theoretical construct of the NSM theory. Then it introduces methodological issues involved in cross-linguistic research of testing the hypotheses of the theory. It also summarises briefly some major empi- rical findings of the theory over the past few decades in order to show to what extent the NSM theory is feasible. The cross-linguistic investigations against typologically divergent languages are useful for understanding universal features of natural languages. Finally, it presents some examples of semantic analyses done by using the NSM theory to demonstrate the practically of the metalanguage.
This paper aims to review the theoretical assumptions and principles of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (hence NSM) theory and its practicality as a semantic tool for explicating language-specific concepts. The NSM theory is founded on the assumption that there exist universal human concepts. A substantial body of cross-linguistic research over the last four decades (see, e.g., Wierzbicka 1972, 1980, 1994, 1996 2002; Goddard 1994, 1995, 2002; Goddard and Wierzbicka 1994, 2002) has demonstrated that there are around 65 universal human concepts and that they combine in some universally shared ways syntactically. The NSM theory claims that the proposed universal human concepts and the universal grammar constitute a mini language that can describe any complex concepts in any natural language. This paper, firstly presents a review of the literature on universal human concepts as a background to the theoretical construct of the NSM theory. Then it introduces methodological issues involved in cross-linguistic research of testing the hypotheses of the theory. It also summarises briefly some major empi- rical findings of the theory over the past few decades in order to show to what extent the NSM theory is feasible. The cross-linguistic investigations against typologically divergent languages are useful for understanding universal features of natural languages. Finally, it presents some examples of semantic analyses done by using the NSM theory to demonstrate the practically of the metalanguage.
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