Semantic primitives of time and space in Hong Kong Cantonese

Abstract

This paper takes a subset of the semantic primitives currently proposed in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory (Wierzbicka, 1996) and addresses two questions: Do these meanings have lexical equivalents in Cantonese? If so, does their combinatorial syntax conform to Wierzbicka's hypotheses? The temporal primitives ( when/time, now, before, after, a long time, a short time) are all found to have clear Cantonese exponents which can be combined as predicted with other metalanguage elements—but for two exceptions: the combinations a very short time and before/after now are apparently not possible in Cantonese. We also argue that the Cantonese evidence suggests that ‘when-time’ (as in the phrase at this time) and ‘frequency time’ (as in it happened two times) may be distinct semantic primes. As for the spatial primitives ( where/place, here, near, far, inside, side, above, below), they all appear to have Cantonese exponents with the predicted syntax, but the tentative proposal that on may be a universal primitive is challenged by the apparent lack of an equivalent expression in Cantonese.