Open AccessOn the merits and shortcomings of semantic primes and natural semantic metalanguage in cross-cultural translation
Author(s) -
Frančiška Trobevšek Drobnak
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
elope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.182
H-Index - 1
eISSN - 2386-0316
pISSN - 1581-8918
DOI - 10.4312/elope.6.1-2.29-41
Subject(s) - metalanguage , computer science , lexicographical order , natural language processing , linguistics , natural (archaeology) , semantic property , artificial intelligence , semantic analysis (machine learning) , translation (biology) , mathematics , philosophy , programming language , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , combinatorics , messenger rna , gene , history
The purpose of this paper is to review some basic postulates of the theory of semantic primitives (semantic primes) and to evaluate the applicability of the natural semantic metalanguage in cross-cultural translation. The theory of semantic primes, formulated by Anna Wierzbicka and her colleagues, posits a universal set of cognitive primitives, lexicalized in all natural languages, which, combined into canonical sentences of basic syntactic patterns, constitute a natural semantic metalanguage (NSM). NSM is put forward as an alternative to traditional lexicographic definitions of words, to componential and prototypical semantic analysis, and, as tertium comparationis, presented as a more effective tool in translating culture-specific words and ethnosyntactic features