Semantic Primes and Universal Grammar: Empirical evidence from the Romance languages (Studies in Language Companion Series)

This volume would never have seen the light of day if it were not for the constant encouragement received from Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard. Several years ago, they came up with the idea to test the claims and hypotheses of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach on a set of typologically related languages. As tentative versions of the metalanguage had already been proposed for French and Spanish, they thought it would be good to also have a look at the other Romance languages, esp. Portuguese and Italian. Their enthusiasm proved to be contagious, and I am grateful for their support and interest. I would also like to thank the contributors for the patience they have shown throughout the various stages of preparation and publication: hundreds of e-mails in all directions have finally paid off. I acknowledge the expert feedback provided by all peer reviewers and the professional assistance received from the John Benjamins editorial team and from series editor Werner Abraham. This book is dedicated to Zoë Aysha Adam Tan. She calls me daddy, even though I am not her father (my wife is her godmother), and she is the loveliest little girl I know. She has no idea of what linguistics is all about -but she may, one day, take an interest in what daddy has been up to, all those years. Ch. 1. Natural Semantic Metalanguage (nsm) Approach : An Overview With Reference To The Most Important Romance Languages / Cliff Goddard And Bert Peeters -- Ch. 2. Natural Semantic Metalanguage Exponents And Universal Grammar In Romance : Substantives; Determiners; Quantifiers / Bert Peeters, Marie-odile Junker, Catherine Travis, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-santos And Brigid Maher -- Ch. 3. Nsm Exponents And Universal Grammar In Romance : Evaluators And Descriptors; Mental Predicates / Bert Peeters, Marie-odile Junker, Catherine Travis, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-santos And Brigid Maher -- Ch. 4. Nsm Exponents And Universal Grammar In Romance : Speech; Actions, Events And Movement; Existence And Possession; Life And Death / Bert Peeters, Marie-odile Junker, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-santos And Brigid Maher -- Ch. 5. Nsm Exponents And Universal Grammar In Romance : Time And Space / Bert Peeters, Marie-odile Junker, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-santos And Brigid Maher -- Ch. 6. Nsm Exponents And Universal Grammar In Romance : Logical Concepts; Intensifier And Augmentor; Taxonomy And Partonomy; Similarity / Bert Peeters, Marie-odile Junker, Patrick Farrell, Pedro Perini-santos And Brigid Maher -- Ch. 7. Sfogarsi : A Semantic Analysis Of An Italian Speech Routine And Its Underlying Cultural Values / Brigid Maher -- Ch. 8. Portuguese Saudade And Other Emotions Of Absence And Longing / Patrick Farrell -- Ch. 9. Development Of A Key Word : The Deictic Field Of Spanish Crisis / Deborah Dubartell -- Ch. 10. French Connector Certes : A Natural Semantic Metalanguage Interpretation / Monique Burston -- Ch. 11. Francamente, El Rojo Te Sienta Fatal : Semantics And Pragmatics Of Some Expressions Of Sincerity In Present-day Spanish / Monica Aznarez Mauleon And Ramon Gonzalez Ruiz Ch. 12. Towards A Description Of Spanish And Italian Diminutives Within The Nsm Framework / Angela Bartens And Niclas Sandstrom. Edited By Bert Peeters. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. This volume is part of a research program which started with the publication, in 1972, of Anna Wierzbicka's groundbreaking work on Semantic Primitives. The first within the program to focus on a number of typologically similar languages, it proposes a French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian version of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) elaborated over the years by Wierzbicka and colleagues. Repetition is avoided through teamwork: a number of authors working on the languages under examination have had equal input in a set of five papers dealing with distinct parts of the metalanguage. Some