Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics: Primes and universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Abstract:
Conceptual primitives and semantic universals are the cornerstones of a semantic theory that 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 and readable 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 of mankind’, while at the same time offering a framework for the rigorous description of different languages and cultures.
Despite the promise held out by the cognitive revolution in the human sciences in general and by the ‘Chomskyan revolution’ in linguistics, meaning – not the meaning of the logician, but the meaning that underlies and informs human cognition, communication, and culture – remains for many linguists an intractable problem, and ‘the weak point of language study’ (Bloomfield). This book demonstrates clearly and conclusively that it does not have to be so.
Table of contents:
I. GENERAL ISSUES
1. Introduction
2. A survey of semantic primitives
3. Universal grammar: The syntax of universal semantic primitives
4. Prototypes and invariants
5. Semantic primitives and semantic fields
6. Semantics and “primitive thought”
7. Semantic complexity and the role of ostension in the acquisition of concepts
II. LEXICAL SEMANTICS
8. Against “Against definitions”
9. Semantics and lexicography
10. The meaning of colour terms and the universals of seeing
11. The semantics of natural kinds
12. Semantics and ethnobiology
III. THE SEMANTICS OF GRAMMAR
13. Semantic rules in grammar
14. A semantic basis for grammatical description and typology: Transitivity and reflexives
15. Comparing grammatical categories across languages: The semantics of evidentials
Translations:
Into Russian (Chapters 1 and 14 only):
Chapters 1 (pp. 3-43) and 2 (pp. 44-76) of Вежбицкая, Анна (1999), Семантические универсалии и описание языков [Semantic universals and the description of languages]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки русской культуры [Languages of Russian Culture]
Into Russian (Chapters 1, 4 and 14):
Chapters 1 (pp. 19-53), 3 (pp. 91-124) and 5 (pp. 135-170) of Вежбицкая, Анна (2011), Семантические универсалии и базисные концепты [Semantic universals and basic concepts]. Москва [Moscow]: Языки славянских культуры [Languages of Slavic Culture].
Into Polish:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2010). Semantyka: Jednostki elementarne i uniwersalne. Lublin: UMCS.
Into Czech:
Wierzbicka, Anna (2014). Sémantika: Elementární a univerzální sémantické jednotky. Praha: Karolinum.
More information:
Chapter 4 builds on: ‘Prototypes save’: On the uses and abuses of the notion of ‘prototype’ in linguistics and related fields (1990)
Chapter 5 builds on: Semantic primitives and semantic fields (1992)
Chapter 6 builds on: Semantic universals and primitive thought? The question of the psychic unity of humankind (1994)
Chapter 7 builds on: Semantic complexity: Conceptual primitives and the principle of substitutability (1991); Ostensive definitions and verbal definitions: Innate conceptual primitives and the acquisition of concepts (1991)
Chapter 8 builds on: Back to definitions: Cognition, semantics, and lexicography (1992)
Chapter 9 builds on: What are the uses of theoretical lexicography? (1992-3)
Chapter 10 builds on: The meaning of color terms: Semantics, culture, and cognition (1990)
Chapter 11 builds on: Dictionaries versus encyclopaedias: How to draw the line (1995)
Chapter 12 builds on: What is a life form? Conceptual issues in ethnobiology (1992)
Chapter 14 builds on: A semantic basis for grammatical typology (1995)
Chapter 15 builds on: Semantics and epistemology: The meaning of ‘evidentials’ in a cross-linguistic perspective (1994)
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
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