Table Of ContentSEMANTIC AND LEXICAL UNIVERSALS
STUDIES IN LANGUAGE COMPANION SERIES (SLCS)
The SLCS series has been established as a companion series to
STUDIES IN LANGUAGE, International Journal, sponsored by
the Foundation "Foundations of Language".
Series Editors:
Werner Abraham Michael Noonan
University of Groningen University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
The Netherlands USA
Editorial Board:
Joan Bybee (University of New Mexico)
Ulrike Claudi (University of Cologne)
Bernard Comrie (University of Southern California)
William Croft (University of Manchester)
Östen Dahl (University of Stockholm)
Gerrit Dimmendaal (University of Leiden)
Martin Haspelmath (Free University of Berlin)
Ekkehard König (Free University of Berlin)
Christian Lehmann (University of Bielefeld)
Robert Longacre (University of Texas, Arlington)
Brian MacWhinney (Carnegie-Mellon University)
Marianne Mithun (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Edith Moravcsik (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)
Masayoshi Shibatani (Kobe University)
Russell Tomlin (University of Oregon)
John Verhaar (The Hague)
Volume 25
Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka (eds)
Semantic and Lexical Universals
SEMANTIC
AND LEXICAL
UNIVERSALS
THEORY AND EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
Edited by
CLIFF GODDARD
University of New England
ANNA WIERZBICKA
Australian National University
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Semantic and lexical universals : theory and empirical findings / edited by Cliff God
dard, Anna Wierzbicka.
p. cm. -- (Studies in language companion series (SLCS), ISSN 0165-7763; v.
25)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Semantics. 2. Universals (Linguistics) I. Goddard, Cliff. II. Wierzbicka, Anna. III.
Series: Studies in language companion series ; v. 25.
P325.5.U54S46 1994
401'. 43-dc20 94-4253
ISBN 90 272 3028 5 (Eur.)/l-55619-377-7 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1994 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O. Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • 821 Bethlehem Pike • Philadelphia, PA 19118 • USA
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Opening Statement 1
Anna Wierzbicka
Part 1: General
1 Semantic Theory and Semantic Universals 7
Cliff Goddard
2 Introducing Lexical Primitives 31
CUff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka
Part 2: Individual Language Studies
3 Ewe 57
Felix Ameka
4 The Exponents of Semantic Primitives in Mangap-Mbula 87
Robert D. Bugenhagen
5 Mandarin Semantic Primitives 109
Hilary Chappell
6 Thai 149
Anthony Diller
1 Acehnese 171
Mark Durie, Bukhari Daud and Mawardi Hasan
vi CONTENTS
8 Kayardild 203
Nicholas Evans
9 Lexical Primitives in Yankunytjatjara 229
Cliff Goddard
10 Preliminary Observations on Lexical and Semantic Primitives 263
in the Misumalpan Languages of Nicaragua
Ken Hale
11 Mparntwe Arrernte and the Search for Lexical Universals 285
Jean Harkins and David P. Wilkins
12 Longgu 311
Deborah Hill
13 Samoan 331
Ulrike Mosel
14 Semantic Primitives in Japanese 361
Masayuki Onishi
15 Kalam Exponents of Lexical and Semantic Primitives 387
Andrew Pawley
16 Semantic and Lexical Universals in French 423
Bert Peeters
Part 3: Review
17 Semantic Primitives Across Languages: A Critical Review 445
Anna Wierzbicka
Notes on Contributors 501
Index 505
Acknowledgements
Our thanks to the contributors who prepared the individual language studies which
make up the bulk of this book. To explore and report on the translatability of three
dozen postulated primitives within the relatively brief space available was an arduous
task, but one which they discharged with insight, care and tenacity.
We would like to thank Igor Mel'cuk, Nicholas Evans, Jean Harkins and Andrzej
Bogusiawski, for detailed comments on the opening or concluding chapters.
Above all, we are indebted to Timothy Jowan Curnow, who worked tirelessly to
prepare the final version of the book for publication. Aside from ourselves, he was
the only person who had a comprehensive overview of the entire project. The volume
as a whole has benefitted greatly from his many keen observations and insightful
criticisms.
Cliff Goddard, University of New England
Anna Wierzbicka, Australian National University
Opening Statement
Anna Wierzbicka
Australian National University, Canberra
This set of papers represents a unique collection: it is the first attempt ever to empiri
cally test a hypothetical set of semantic and lexical universals across a number of
genetically and typologically diverse languages. In fact the word 'collection' is not
fully appropriate in this case, since the papers report research undertaken specifically
for the present volume, and shaped by the same guidelines; and because they consti
tute parallel and strictly comparable answers to the same set of questions.
Those questions all boil down to the following: Do all the peoples of the world
have a shared set of concepts, forming the common conceptual foundation of all
cultures? This question has a long history; but this is the first time an answer has been
sought to it on a broad empirical basis.
In the seventeeth century, Leibniz advanced the idea of a universal 'alphabet of
human thoughts' (1903 [MS]:435); and similar ideas were widespread among other
seventeeth- and eighteenth-century philosophers. For example, in the entry on
'Dictionary' of the great French Encyclopédie (1754:959), d'Alembert put forward
the idea of a 'philosophical dictionary' based on the philosophical roots of language,
that is, on universal semantic primitives ("mots originaux et primitifs").
In the nineteeth century, however, this idea faded from philosophical discourse.
Although it was never totally abandoned, by the early twentieth century the opposite
view had become increasingly popular, culminating in the writings of the influential
French sociologist Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, author of Les fonctions mentales dans les
sociétés inférieures (1928) and La mentalité primitive (1925). As the titles of these
books suggest, Lévy-Bruhl placed a strong emphasis on the (allegedly) fundamental
differences between 'logical' (Western) thought and 'primitive' (non-Western)
thought. Naturally, there was no place in this world-view for any notion of a shared
conceptual foundation for all cultures.
At roughly the same time, however, the universalist position asserted itself again,
notably in the writings of Franz Boas and his associates, and in the doctrine of the
'psychic unity of mankind' (Boas 1938). For a long time this doctrine overshadowed
the theories of 'primitive thought', encouraging belief in universals, while recognis-
