Wierzbicka, Anna (1994). Semantic primitives across languages: A critical review. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 445-500). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hunting for semantic and lexical universals is not like pearl-fishing. Primitives do not present themselves glittering and unmistakable. Identifying them is an empirical endeavour but one that calls for much interpretative effort.
Although the overwhelming conclusion emerging from the 1994 Semantic and lexical universals survey of languages is that there is indeed a universal “alphabet of human thoughts”, this by no means implies that no problems have arisen in testing our hypothetical set of conceptual and lexical universals. This closing chapter is devoted mainly to a survey of these problems.
