Enfield, N. J. (2002). Combinatoric properties of Natural Semantic Metalanguage expressions in Lao. In Cliff Goddard, & Anna Wierzbicka (Eds.), Meaning and universal grammar: Theory and empirical findings. Vol. II (pp. 145-256). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/slcs.61.08enf
The current version of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) identifies about 60 semantically basic morpholexical items that are hypothesized to be found in every language of the world. It is argued that these universal semantic units have meanings that are both simple, and identical across languages. Further, it is hypothesized that all language-specific semantic structures are complex, and may be analysed (and translated across languages) by means of complex expressions involving just the 60 or so basic universal semantic units. No other descriptive metalanguage (formal or otherwise) insists on this level of cross-translatability, and so it is apparently the closest thing to a real standard of comparison available for cross-linguistic semantic description. To achieve this, not only must the units of the system be semantically basic and cross-linguistically identical, but their combinatoric properties must also be basic and cross-linguistically identical. The purpose of this study is to evaluate current hypotheses regarding universal combinatoric properties of the putative morpholexical/semantic universals, with reference to Lao.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
