    # KEHOME/knowledge/theory/NaturalSemanticMetalanguage/prime.html
    # Oct/10/2003

# Semantic Primes

## Anna Wierzbicka [1]

category | old prime | new prime
substantives | I YOU SOMEONE SOMETHING PEOPLE |
determiners | THIS THE SAME OTHER | SOME
quantifiers | ONE TWO MANY (MUCH) ALL |
augmentor |  | MORE
mental predicates | THINK KNOW WANT FEEL | SEE HEAR
speech | SAY |
actions and events | DO HAPPEN |
non-mental predicates |  | MOVE THERE IS (BE) ALIVE
evaluators | GOOD BAD |
descriptors | BIG SMALL |
space | WHERE UNDER ABOVE | FAR NEAR SIDE INSIDE HERE
time | WHEN BEFORE AFTER | A LONG TIME A SHORT TIME NOW
partonomy and taxonomy | PART (OF) KIND (OF) |
metapredicates | NOT CAN VERY |
interclausal linkers | IF BECAUSE LIKE |
imagination and possibility |  | IF ... WOULD MAYBE
words |  | WORD

## Cliff Goddard [2]

category | prime
substantives | I YOU SOMEONE SOMETHING/THING PEOPLE/PERSON
determiners | THIS THE SAME OTHER/ELSE
quantifiers | ONE TWO ALL MANY/MUCH SOME
mental predicates | WANT FEEL THINK KNOW SEE HEAR
speech | SAY WORD
actions, events, movement | DO HAPPEN MOVE
existence | THERE IS
life | LIVE DIE
evaluators and descriptors | GOOD BAD BIG SMALL
time | WHEN/TIME NOW BEFORE AFTER A LONG TIME A SHORT TIME FOR SOME TIME
space | WHERE/PLACE HERE ABOVE BELOW NEAR FAR SIDE INSIDE
logical concepts | NOT MAYBE IF CAN BECAUSE
intensifier, augmentor | VERY MORE
taxonomy, partonomy | KIND OF PART OF
similarity | LIKE

## References

1. Anna Wierzbicka, "Semantics: Primes and Universals", Oxford University Press, 1996.
   p. 35: old primitives (well tested)
   p. 73: new primitives (more recent)
2. Cliff Goddard, "Polysemy: A Problem of Definition", pp. 129 - 151 in Yael Ravin and Claudia Leacock, "Polysemy: Theoretical and Computational Approaches", Oxford University Press, 2000.
   p. 131: proposed semantic primes

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