Semantics Primes and Universals

by Wierzbicka, Anna

• ISBN13: 9780198700029
• ISBN10: 0198700024
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-05-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Conceptual primitives and semantic universals are the cornerstones of a semantic theory which Anna Wierzbicka has been developing for many years. Semantics: Primes and Universals is a major synthesis of her work, presenting a full and systematic exposition of that theory in a non-technical andreadable way. It delineates a full set of universal concepts, as they have emerged from large-scale investigations across a wide range of languages undertaken by the author and her colleagues. On the basis of empirical cross-linguistic studies it vindicates the old notion of the "psychic unity ofmankind," while at the same time offering a framework for the rigorous description of different languages and cultures.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 3
A Survey of Semantic Primitives	p. 35
Universal Grammar: The Syntax of Universal Semantic Primitives	p. 112
Prototypes and Invariant	p. 148
Semantic Primitives and Semantic Fields	p. 170
Semantics and "Primitive Thought"	p. 184
Semantic Complexity and the Role of Ostension in the Acquisition of Concepts	p. 211
Against "Against Definitions"	p. 237
Semantics and Lexicography	p. 258
The Meaning of Colour Terms and the Universals of Seeing	p. 287
The Semantics of Natural Kinds	p. 335
Semantics and Ethnobiology	p. 351
Semantic Rules in Grammar	p. 379
A Semantic Basis for Grammatical Description and Typology: Transitivity and Reflexives	p. 402
Comparing Grammatical Categories across Languages: The Semantics of Evidentials	p. 427
References	p. 459
Index	p. 488
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