Overview

This set of studies is founded on the idea that universal grammar is based on - indeed, inseparable from - meaning. The theoretical framework is the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) approach originated by Anna Wierzbicka over thirty years ago and developed since then in collaboration with Cliff Goddard and other colleagues (for references, see vol. I, chapter 1). The NSM framework is based on evidence supporting the idea that there is a set of simple, indefinable meanings - universal semantic primes - which have concrete linguistic exponents in all the world's languages. The NSM system is perhaps best known as the methodology for a large body of descriptive studies in cross-linguistic semantics and pragmatics, but it also has fundamental implications for the theory of universal grammar. The key idea is that universal semantic primes have an inherent grammar (including combinatorics, valency and complementation options) which is the same in all languages. Chapters One and Two of Volume I provide theoretical background and propose a substantial set of concrete hypotheses about universal grammar. Subsequent chapters of that volume test the viability of these hypotheses through studies of Malay, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese. This volume continues with three further languages: Mangaaba-Mbula, Polish, and Lao. In each case the author identifies the inventory of semantic primes in that language and then works through the full set of NSM hypotheses about universal grammar. The final chapters explore how the metalanguage of semantic primes can be used as a semantic foundation for grammatical typology, and identify directions for future research.

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