Natural Semantic Metalanguage free essay sample

It can be defined as kinds of semantic analysis approach in finding the simplest meaning of a word. This approach states that there are many aspects influence language and they can not be separated in analyzing the simplest meaning of words. Those aspects are: 1. The difference of social communities 2. The systematical difference 3. The difference of culture 4. The different style of speaking and communication Natural Semantic Metalanguage Before we go further, we should understand the definition of the word â€Å"metalanguage† since it might be new for some of us.Metalanguage is the language that is used to present, name and describe terminological information, the language of a particular field name in an entry, e,g. synonym is the English name of the data field, that contains synonyms to main entry terms. To make it simpler, metalanguage is a language that can be used to describe languages. Then, we already know that semantic is the study of meaning in language. We will write a custom essay sample on Natural Semantic Metalanguage or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page So, semantic metalanguage is theory and a practical, meaning-based approach to linguistic analysis.The leading proponents of the theory are  Anna Wierzbicka  at the  Australian National University  who originated the theory in the early 1970s (Wierzbicka 1972), and  Cliff Goddard  at AustraliasUniversity of New England  (Goddard ; Wierzbicka 1994, 2002). It is called natural semantic metalanguage because it is derived entirely from natural language and because it can be understood via natural language without any additional arbitrary signs and conventions. To compare meanings, one has to be able to state them.To state the meaning of a word, an expression or a construction, we need a semantic metalanguage. Moreover, Natural Semantic Metalanguage ( NSM ) is important to compare meanings expressed in different language and different culture. Semantic Primitives Linguists of the NSM school rely on  semantic primitives  (or semantic primes) for analysis. Semantic primes  means the suggestion that we have as part of our inherited human faculties a basic set of innate concepts, or perhaps more precisely, a non-conscious propensity and eagerness to acquire those concepts and encode them in sound-forms (words).The words that those concepts become encoded in what is called  semantic primes, or alternatively, semantic primitives — semantic becauselinguists  have assigned that word in reference to the meaning of words (=linguistic symbols). Words that qualify as semantic primes need no definition in terms of other words. In that sense, they remain undefinable. We know their meaning without having to define them. They allow us to construct other words defined  by  them. List of Semantic Primes