About the forms of primitives
2.4 About the forms of primitives
An important part of establishing primitives cross-linguistically is learning how to recognize them. The first step in this process is understanding the ways in which a primitive’s form may differ across languages. The following list addresses a number of common misconceptions: 1. A primitive may appear to be formally complex. Something and someone appear to consist formally of some + thing and some + one. Likewise, Japanese nanika and dareka appear to contain a formative -ka. Semantically, however, some + one does not equal someone. Someone is a simple and irreducible concept. 2. A primitive may be composed of several possibly noncontiguous wordsmorphemes. The primitives THERE IS, IS SOMEWHERE, IF ... WOULD, and KIND OF are realized in SE as several words. 3. A primitive form may be polysemous, with both a primitive and a non-primitive sense. Know is polysemous between a non-primitive sense as in we know John and the primitive sense as in we know John is a good boy. In Yunkuntjara Goddard 1994, the form for the primitive WANT can also mean stomach. 4. A primitive may have contextual variants allolexes such as I and me in English. 5. A primitive need not be realized as a free form, it may be realized as a bound-morpheme. One exponent for WANT in Japanese is the verbal suffix -tai. 6. A primitive in one language need not be in the same syntactic category as its English counterpart.The other exponent for WANT in Japanese is the adjectival hoshii. Neither -tai nor hoshii are verbs like English want. From NSM’s point of view, the primitive’s formal syntactic category is not as important as its semantic combinability. It does not matter whether NSM substantives such as I or THIS are realized as nouns or verbal inflections or whether NSM predicates such as WANT are realized as verbs or adjectives. What does matter is that there is a mechanism by which they may be combined to form a canonical sentence meaning I WANT THIS. Combinatorial operations are left unspecified in NSM and they may be accomplished through any means, whether syntactic or morphological. 7. Under the current strong lexicalization hypothesis, a primitive must have some kind of segmental content. It cannot be realized as an intonation or as a grammatical process such as reduplication. This constraint may seem too strong to some, but for the time being, it is retained because it is the strongest and therefore the most interesting hypothesis.2.5 Cross-linguistic equivalence
Parts
» e Book 61 Stanwood Adequacy Hawaii Creole English
» Concerning the present study Contents of chapters The hypothesis
» The NSM specification Introduction
» Falsification of hypothesis Validity of results
» Naturalness NSM as an approach to semantic analysis
» Substitutability NSM as an approach to semantic analysis
» How substitution works for articles
» Substituting one level at a time
» Directionality An overview of Natural Semantic Metalanguage
» The search for semantic primitives
» About the forms of primitives
» Cross-linguistic equivalence An overview of Natural Semantic Metalanguage
» The NSM specification An overview of Natural Semantic Metalanguage
» Specific concerns about the current NSM proposal
» Conclusion X feels like this
» History Hawai‛i Creole English
» Language attitudes Hawai‛i Creole English
» HCE and cognition Hawai‛i Creole English
» Standard English and cognitive development Linguists on the equality of languages
» Pattern of variation What to study
» The primitives Importance of primitives History and status of primitives
» Organization of following sections
» HCE candidates Examples of aimi
» HCE Candidates Examples of yu
» HCE candidates SOMEONE .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of samwan Examples of prsn
» Examples of sambadi SOMEONE .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of gai SOMEONE .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of pipo
» HCE candidates Examples of samting
» Examples of ting Examples of wat
» HCE candidates THINK .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of tink THINK .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates KNOW .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of no KNOW .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates SAY .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of sei SAY .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of tel SAY .1 Primitive Syntax
» Primitive Syntax HCE candidates
» Examples of laik WANT .1 Semantics
» Examples of wan WANT .1 Semantics
» HCE candidates FEEL .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of fio FEEL .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of du
» HCE Candidates Examples of dis
» HCE Candidates Examples of seim
» HCE Candidates Examples of ada
» Examples of eos OTHER .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of wan
» HCE Candidates Examples of tu
» HCE Candidates Examples of lats
» Examples of maeni MUCHMANY .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of mach MUCHMANY .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of pleni MUCHMANY .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of aw
» Examples of aweiz ALL .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of evribadi ALL .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of evriwan ALL .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of gud
» HCE Candidates HCE Examples Examples of baed
» HCE Candidates Examples of big
» HCE Candidates SMALL .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of smaw SMALL .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of lido SMALL .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of veri
» Examples of rili VERY .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of wen
» Examples of taim WHEN .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of samtaim WHEN .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates AFTER .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of aefta AFTER .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of aeftawad AFTER .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of bifo
» HCE Candidates WHERE .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of pleis WHERE .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of wea WHERE .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of anda
» Examples of andanit UNDER .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates ABOVE .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of abav ABOVE .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates PART .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of pat PART .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates KIND OF .1 Primitive Syntax
» X IS kain OF Y X IS THE SAME kain AS Y
» HCE Candidates LIKE .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of laik LIKE .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of jaslaik LIKE .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of bikaz
» Examples of kaz BECAUSE .1 Primitive syntax
» HCE Candidates IF .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of if IF .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Examples Examples of dondi’n
» Examples of no NOT .1 Primitive Syntax
» Examples of neva NOT .1 Primitive Syntax
» HCE Candidates Examples of kaen
» Summary CAN .1 Primitive Syntax
» YOU, I, SOMEONE, and PEOPLE SOMETHING and FEEL
» The other mental predicates: THINK, KNOW, SAY, WANT
» Activities and events: DO and HAPPEN Evaluators: GOOD, BAD
» Qualities: BIG, SMALL Intensifier: VERY Temporal: TIMEWHEN, AFTER, and BEFORE
» Locative: PLACEWHERE, UNDER, ABOVE
» PartonomyTaxonomy: PART OF, KIND OF LIKE
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