Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Language in Context
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Language in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Language in Context Studies
- Part I Language in Context: A Sociohistorical Perspective
- Part II Philosophical, Semantic, and Grammatical Approaches to Context
- Part III Pragmatic Approaches to Context
- 8 The Role of Context in Gricean and Neo-Gricean Pragmatics
- 9 Sociopragmatics and Context
- 10 Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Context
- 11 Relevance Theory and Context
- 12 The Interplay of Linguistic, Conceptual, and Encyclopedic Knowledge in Meaning Construction and Comprehension
- 13 Corpus Pragmatics
- 14 Prosodic Pragmatics in Context
- Part IV Applications of Context Studies
- Part V Advances in Multimodal and Technological Context-Based Research
- Index
- References
10 - Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Context
from Part III - Pragmatic Approaches to Context
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 November 2023
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Language in Context
- Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics
- The Cambridge Handbook of Language in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Language in Context Studies
- Part I Language in Context: A Sociohistorical Perspective
- Part II Philosophical, Semantic, and Grammatical Approaches to Context
- Part III Pragmatic Approaches to Context
- 8 The Role of Context in Gricean and Neo-Gricean Pragmatics
- 9 Sociopragmatics and Context
- 10 Natural Semantic Metalanguage and Context
- 11 Relevance Theory and Context
- 12 The Interplay of Linguistic, Conceptual, and Encyclopedic Knowledge in Meaning Construction and Comprehension
- 13 Corpus Pragmatics
- 14 Prosodic Pragmatics in Context
- Part IV Applications of Context Studies
- Part V Advances in Multimodal and Technological Context-Based Research
- Index
- References
Summary
The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is an approach to studying linguistic meaning in isolation, as well as in context. Relying on Leibniz’s hypothesis about the existence of undefinable and irreducible further meanings in language, the approach proposes a set of 65 semantic primitives and their universal syntactic properties. The primitives and their universal syntactic properties have been identified by trial and error in the process of designing definitions of words from multiple lexical domains and have been tested in about three dozen related and unrelated languages. The primitives are used to construct semantic explications as representations of meaning and cultural scripts. The chapter discusses the main NSM theoretical concepts, such as semantic primitive, universal syntax, semantic molecule, semantic explication, cultural keyword, cultural script, Minimal Language. It illustrates the possibilities of applying NSM in the analysis of linguistic meaning at a conceptual level and in cultural context. It demonstrates how NSM can be applied to studying “formal” linguistic context, through studying lexical meaning and conceptual inter-connections and constructing semantic explications. Cases of multiple types of context influencing meaning are also illustrated. The chapter concludes with the description of recent developments of the NSM approach and the concept of Minimal Language.
Keywords
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- The Cambridge Handbook of Language in Context , pp. 225 - 246Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
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