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Wierzbicka, Anna (1991). Semantic complexity: Conceptual primitives and the principle of substitutability. Theoretical Linguistics, 17, 75-97. DOI: 10.1515/thli.1991.17.1-3.75

A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 7 (pp. 211-233) of:

Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics: Primes and universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

This paper argues that the failures of modern semantics have been caused, largely, by an unrealistic idea of the nature of semantic complexity, reflected in popular analyses such as “to kill equals ‘to cause to die'”. In fact, the semantic structure of an ordinary human sentence may be about as simple as the structure of a galaxy or of an atom. If we don’t recognize this complexity and don’t accept the challenge of elucidating it, we will never be able to fulfil the central task of linguistics: that of discovering, and describing, how meanings are encoded in the languages of the world; and of doing so not on the level of programmatic declarations but on the level of empirical detail.

The author argues that to analyze meanings in their complexity we must be able to show how complex meanings are derived from simple ones; semantic analysis requires, therefore, a set of “ultimate simples”, that is, of universal conceptual primitives. In addition to such a set, however, we must also know how these primitives are combined into larger semantic units. The author explores both issues (the set of the ultimate simples and the nature of their “grammar”), and discusses the light they throw on the problem of semantic complexity.

Wierzbicka, Anna (1991). *Semantics vs. pragmatics. In V. Prakasam (Ed.), Encyclopaedic dictionary of linguistic terminology (pp. 204-209). Punjabi University.

Wierzbicka, Anna (1992). What is a life form? Conceptual issues in ethnobiology. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2(1), 3-29. DOI: 10.1525/jlin.1992.2.1.3

A more recent publication building on this one is chapter 12 (pp. 351-375) of:

Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics: Primes and universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

A number of linguistic tests are proposed to reveal different aspects of conceptual organization as reflected in language. It is argued that important evidence on human conceptualization of the world can be derived from ways of referring (e.g., Look at that plant/animal!), grammatical congruity (e.g., three pigs vs. *three livestocks), morphological structure (e.g., blue spruce vs. tulip tree), collocations and metaphorical transfers (e.g., social butterfly, breed like rabbits), and lexical structure (e.g., Siamese/Siamese cat vs. dog/*spaniel dog). It is also argued that evidence of this kind supports the crucial role of hierarchical taxonomic organization in the domain of living kinds (in contrast to other conceptual domains) and helps clarify the crucial and yet controversial concept of life form proposed by Brent Berlin and his associates.

Wierzbicka, Anna (1992). Lexical universals and universals of grammar. In Michel Kefer, & Johan van der Auwera (Eds.), Meaning and grammar: Cross-linguistic perspectives (pp. 383-415). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

In a sense, everything we say in this chapter is problematic, since in the approach sketched here the hypothetical “universal grammar” is a function of the hypothetical “universal lexicon” , and since this hypothetical “universal lexicon” is still in a state of flux, the grammar developed here is doubly hypothetical, and it must remain for some time in a state of “super-flux”.

Nonetheless, it is important, I believe, that strong substantive hypotheses of the kind put forward here should be formulated, because they give a direction to empirical investigations, which can be expected to lead, in turn, to the necessary revisions of the hypotheses themselves.

Wierzbicka, Anna (1992). *On the name Stanislaw: The semantics of names. Études de linguistique romane et slave. Krakow.

Wierzbicka, Anna (1992). *Semantic primitives. In William Bright (Ed.), International encyclopaedia of linguistics: Vol. 3 (p. 403). New York: Oxford University Press.

Wierzbicka, Anna (1992). *The search for universal semantic primitives. In Martin Pütz (Ed.), Thirty years of linguistic evolution (pp. 215-242). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/z.61.20wie

Wierzbicka, Anna (1993). The alphabet of human thoughts. In Richard A. Geiger, & Brygida Rudzka-Ostyn (Eds.), Conceptualizations and mental processing in language (pp. 23-51). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

As human beings, we cannot place ourselves outside all cultures. This does not mean, however, that if we want to study cultures other than our own, all we can do is describe them through the prism of our own culture, and therefore to distort them. We can find a point of view which is universal and culture-independent; but we must look for such a point of view not outside all human cultures (because we cannot place ourselves outside them), but within our own culture, or within any other culture that we are intimately familiar with. To achieve this, we must learn to separate within a culture its idiosyncratic aspects from its universal aspects. We must learn to find “human nature” within every particular culture. This is necessary not only for the purpose of studying “human nature” but also for the purpose of studying the idiosyncratic aspects of any culture that we may be interested in. To study different cultures in their culture-specific features we need a universal perspective; and we need a culture-independent analytical framework. We can find such a framework in universal human concepts, that is in concepts which are inherent in any human language.

If we proceed in this way, we can study any human culture without the danger of distorting it by applying to it a framework alien to it; and we can aim both at describing it “truthfully” and at understanding it.