    # KEHOME/knowledge/theory/NaturalSemanticMetalanguage/SemanticPrimesMKR.html
    # Oct/19/2003

# Semantic primes in the MKR language

This note is an edited version of my Oct/17/2003 letter to Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka.

## Introduction

I have invented a knowledge representation language, MKR (http://rhm.cdepot.net/), which I think may be of interest to you because

- it is English-like
- it can "say anything"
- it includes genus-differentia definitions
- it includes some primitives not in NSM

I originally conceived of MKR as a "simplified English", with no ambiguity, no inflections, etc. For example, "contexts" resolve all ambiguities, and "quantifiers" supply all singular/plural/number information.

In MKR, the most important relations are implemented as verbs/conjunctions, e.g. "has". Because of its emphasis on semantics, MKR has different verbs for different types of properties of entities/existents, e.g.

is | alias, definition
isa | kind hierarchy
haspart | parts (static)
has | attributes (static)
rel,isin | relations (static) between entities/existents
do | entity actions/events
causes | interactions between entities/existents

## NSM vs. MKR

This table summarizes the mapping between NSM and MKR. Note that the MKR grammar categories are very different from NSM categories. The end of the table contains concepts which have no obvious NSM category or semantic prime.

Verbs/conjunctions like "before" and "after" were not originally predefined in the MKR language. I added them explicitly to make sure that MKR covers all of the NSM primes.

## "Missing" Primes

The most important MKR concepts not included in NSM are

purpose | This is an important concept which is implicit in DO ... BECAUSE ... WANT. I would expect it to be a semantic prime.
method | Even in "primitive" cultures, I would expect parents to teach their children the methods of hunting, cooking, etc.
script | A generalization of method which formalizes the interactions of common situations. I have not yet worked on any complicated scripts. The only interaction that is currently built into MKR is causality.
every | I would expect the iteration concept to be universal.
means | Symbols are only implicit in NSM.
is...with | Definitions are only implicit in NSM.

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