The Natural Semantic Metalanguage Approach

Abstract

AbstractThe Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is a decompositional system of meaning representation based on empirically established universal semantic primes, i.e., simple indefinable meanings that appear to be present as word meanings in all languages. The NSM approach has developed a fairly sophisticated suite of theoretical constructs, which are explained and illustrated in this chapter. These constructs include semantic primes, allolexy, syntactic frames and valency options of primes, semantic templates, semantic molecules, semantic prototypes for grammatical constructs, grammatical polysemy, ethnosyntax, and cultural scripts.