Ameka, Felix (1994). Ewe. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Semantic and lexical universals: Theory and empirical findings (pp. 57-86). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.25.07ame
In general, Ewe seems to have lexical exponents for all of the proposed primitives. In several cases, the items correspond in a straightforward manner with the primitives and their combinatorial frames. In other cases, it is easy to identify a lexical exponent for a primitive, but the item is restricted in its range of use (i.e., it is not easy to use it in all of the proposed canonical context sentences). At the same time, it is shown that certain methodological issues need to be addressed. The first issue concerns allolexy; there is a need for clarification of this notion and of the situations in which it can be legitimately invoked. A second methodological issue relates to the translational approach in identifying the primitives across languages. A third and final problem concerns the conceptual status of the semantic primitives.
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
