The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is a semantic approach based on the reduction of the concepts to semantic primitive key words or English (: primitive premiums , or semantic ) in order to define in a very simple way of the complex ideas or even of the scenarios. These primitives are supposed to be irreducible or atomic concepts. This way of seeing plunges its roots in the XVIIIe century with work of Descartes and Leibniz.

The NSM is a way of describing the words and concepts of a natural language with less possible vocabulary, as in a resolutely simplified glossary.

Overall picture

The words of a human language are analyzable by a succession of primitives NSM. Examples below:

Plant : living room things/thesis things can' T feel something/thesis things can' T C something

Sky : something very big/people edge see it/people edge think like this butt this something: " it has place/it is above all other places/it is far from people"

Sad : X feels sad = X feels something/sometimes has person thinks something like this: " something bad happened/yew I didn' T know that it happened I would say: “I don' T want it to happen”/I don' T say this now because I know: 'I can' T C anything'" /because off this, this person feels something bad/X feels something like this

Annoyed : I think this person did something bad/I don' T want this person to C things like this/I want to C something because off this

Anna Wierzbicka created the theory of the NSM to beginning of the year 70 (Wierzbicka 1972). It started with only 14 primitives. In 2002, NSM had passed to 61 semantic primitives, the list being far from being closed.

Other linguists took part like Cliff Goddard, Felix Ameka, Hilary Chappell, David Wilkins and Nick Enfield. NSM is used much in the analysis of the cultures and mentalities which theirs are dependant.

The primitives semantics (“ premiums ”)

Here the 61 “ currently used premiums ” (LENGTH is a recent proposal)

; Substantives: I, YOU, SOMEONE, PEOPLE, SOMETHING/THING, BODY ; Mental predicates: THINK, KNOW, WANT, FEEL, SEE, HEAR ; Word: SAY, WORD, TRUE ; Action, event and movement: C, HAPPEN, MOVE ; Existence and possession: THERE IS, CUTS ; Life and dead: LIVE, DIE ; Time: WHEN/TIME, NOW, BEFORE, AFTER, HAS LONG TIME, HAS SHORTS TIME, FOR SUMMONS TIME, MOMENT ; Space, place: WHERE/PLACE, YOUNG STAG, ABOVE, BELOW; FAR, NEAR; SIDE, INSIDE; TOUCHING ; Logical concepts: NOT, MAYBE, EDGE, BECAUSE, IF ; Intensifier: VERY ; Adapter: MORE ; Qualifiers: ONE, TWO, NAP, ALL, MANY/MUCH ; Appraisers: GOOD, BAD ; Descriptors: BIG, SMALL, (LENGTH) ; Taxonomy: KIND OFF, SHARE OFF; ; Similarity: LIKE ; Determinative: THIS, THE SAME, OTHER

These primitives were tested in various languages rather representative of the diversity of the existing languages. One can thus suppose that they are universal. The 9 languages tests are: Polish, Chinese, Malaysian, Laotian, Spanish, Korean, Mbula (Austronésien), Creates (algonquin), Yankunytjatjara (Aborigène).

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