Natural Semantic Metalanguage
Cliff Goddard
Abstract
This chapter overviews the theory, practice, and applications of one of the productive and versatile approaches in Cognitive Linguistics, the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach originated by Anna Wierzbicka. The NSM approach describes meanings using simple cross-translatable words. The chapter introduces the basic tenets and concepts behind the approach, such as semantic primes, semantic molecules, semantic templates and explications. It sketches NSM’s intellectual history and theory development over 40 years, identifies major research themes and critical issues, and presents examples of recent work in cultural pragmatics, lexical semantics, and lexicogrammar.
Topics & Concepts
MetalanguageNatural (archaeology)Computer scienceLinguisticsNatural language processingProgramming languagePhilosophyHistoryArchaeologyNatural Language Processing TechniquesLexicography and Language StudiesLanguage, Metaphor, and Cognition