Tong, Malindy, Yell, Michael, & Goddard, Cliff (1997). Semantic primitives of time and space in Hong Kong Cantonese. Language Sciences, 19(3), 245-261. DOI: 10.1016/S0388-0001(96)00063-0
This paper takes a subset of the semantic primitives currently proposed in the Natural Semantic Metalanguage theory and addresses two questions: Do these meanings have lexical equivalents in Cantonese? If so, does their combinatorial syntax conform to Wierzbicka’s hypotheses? The temporal primitives (WHEN/TIME, NOW, BEFORE, AFTER, A LONG TIME, A SHORT TIME) are all found to have clear Cantonese exponents which can be combined as predicted with other metalanguage elements–but for two exceptions: the combinations A VERY SHORT TIME and BEFORE/AFTER NOW are apparently not possible in Cantonese. We also argue that the Cantonese evidence suggests that
‘when-time’ (as in the phrase AT THIS TIME) and ‘frequency time’ (as in IT HAPPENED TWO TIMES) may be distinct semantic primes. As for the spatial primitives (WHERE/PLACE, HERE, NEAR, FAR, INSIDE, SIDE, ABOVE, BELOW), they all appear to have Cantonese exponents with the predicted syntax, but the tentative proposal that ON may be a universal primitive is challenged by the apparent lack of an equivalent expression in Cantonese.
