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Study

High school students

Learn about the support available to help you get ready for university.

Postgraduate coursework

Take your career to the next level, or in a new direction.

How to apply

Application information you need for your circumstances and chosen degree.

Non school leavers

Explore the different ways you can get in to Griffith.

Higher degrees by research

Discover the benefits of studying a research degree at Griffith.

Scholarships

Explore our wide range of scholarships, find out what you?re eligible for and apply.

Information about

  • Business and government
  • Criminology and law
  • Education
  • Engineering and IT
  • Environment, planning and architecture
  • Medicine, dentistry and health
  • Humanities and languages
  • Music
  • Science and environment
  • Sport
  • Student entrepreneurship
  • Visual and creative arts

International

Life in Australia

Explore the Australian lifestyle and environment, accommodation, and cost of study.

Life in Australia

Find out more - Life in Australia

Study at Griffith

We offer hundreds of study options across a wide range of areas.

Know your options

Discover your pathway options based on your current qualifications and English levels.

English language programs

Study English language courses to improve your English level to qualify for a Griffith degree, travel or work.

Apply now

Follow our simple process to apply to study at Griffith.

Scholarships and finance

Find out about financing study through your home country's loan program, sponsored student support and scholarships.

Student support

Learn about the wide range of support services available for international students.

Study abroad and exchange

Complete one or two trimesters of study in Australia and earn credit towards your home degree.

Information for

  • Griffith English Language Institute
  • International Business Development Unit
  • International Relations
  • Tourism Confucius Institute
  • Find an international agent
  • Contact us

Research

Research excellence

  • Asian politics, security and development
  • Climate change adaptation
  • Criminology and crime prevention
  • Drug discovery and infectious diseases
  • Education
  • Environmental sciences
  • Health and chronic diseases
  • Music, the arts and the Asia Pacific
  • Nursing
  • Physical sciences
  • Sustainable tourism
  • Water science

Griffith research

Explore the strengths of one of Australia?s leading universities.

Research with impact

Delve into our discoveries and see how our research is making a difference.

Centres and institutes

We have an extensive network of research centres and institutes.

Griffith Graduate Research School

Services, support and resources for candidates and supervisors.

Research services

Grants, development, ethics and integrity, policy and performance.

Griffith Enterprise

Commercialisation and technology transfer office of Griffith University.

PhDs and Research degrees

Collaborative research opportunities at Griffith open doors to greater innovation and discovery for higher degree researchers, who are ready to think globally and discover new world solutions.

PhDs and research degrees

Find out more - PhDs and Research degrees

Industry

Industry partnerships

We foster mutually beneficial partnerships with industry, government and the community that power innovation and drive success.

Industry mega nav image

Find out more - Industry partnerships

Collaborate with us

Collaborating with us can open a world of options.

Research commercialisation

Access our research capabilities and see how our impact across industries.

Professional development

Access our educational resources to upskill in a wide range of areas.

Engage our talent

Engage our students, tap into our alumni network and see our success stories.

Success stories

Explore our partnerships and discover the ways we can make a difference.

Contact us

Develop a collaborative partnership with Griffith.

Information about

  • Access to commercial research
  • Griffith Enterprise
  • Griffith Experts
  • Professional training
  • Professional development (music)
  • Creative short courses
  • International business development
  • Recruitment services
  • Work placements

Advancement

Annual appeal

Please make a gift to the Students’ Future Fund to support students facing financial hardship. Thank you.

Annual Appeal

Find out more - Annual appeal

Alumni

Griffith alumni are making an outstanding impact in their local and global communities.

Events and opportunities

Every year we host alumni events in Australia and overseas. Come and join us.

Stay connected

Stay in touch with Griffith University and fellow alumni. Simply register or update your details.

Giving to Griffith

Giving changes lives. Contribute to a better future for all through education and research.

Donate now

Every gift makes a difference. And it?s so easy.

Gifts in wills

The ultimate act of philanthropy, creating a lasting footprint for the future.

Information for

  • Notable alumni
  • Alumni news
  • Annual awards
  • Staff giving
  • Governance
  • Contact us

About Griffith

First Peoples

We recognise Australia?s First Peoples? place in history and culture, and acknowledge them as the traditional custodians of the land.

Walk and Talk event

Find out more - First Peoples

About the University

Discover more about our history, our vision and what sets us apart from other tertiary institutions.

Our campuses and facilities

Explore our five campuses between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Life at Griffith

Find out all Griffith has to offer aside from study.

Our values

Learn about our mission, values and commitments.

Academic groups

View all the schools and centres that fall within our academic groups.

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Investigate employment opportunities available across our five campuses.

Information about

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Staff Portal

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Home > Griffith Intranet > Schools and departments > Natural Semantic Metalanguage > Downloads

Downloads

  • Natural Semantic Metalanguage
  • In brief
  • What is NSM
  • Semantic explications
  • Cultural scripts
  • Publications
  • Downloads
  • Minimal English

Tables of Semantic Primes

Here are a selection of Tables of Semantic Primes in various languages. The final document describes three different formats for such tables.

  • Amharic (PDF 407k)
  • Cantonese (DOC 18k)
  • Cèmuhi (DOCX 20k)
  • Danish (DOCX 22k)
  • English (DOC 109k)
  • Ewe (DOCX 19k)
  • Farsi (PDF 243k)
  • Finnish (DOC 120k)
  • French (DOCX 21k)
  • German (DOC 109k)
  • Italian (DOCX 21k)
  • Japanese (DOCX 24k)
  • Kigiriyama (DOCX 23k)
  • Korean (DOCX 24k)
  • Longgu (DOCX 20k)
  • Mandarin Chinese (DOCX 22k)
  • Polish (DOC 118k)
  • Russian (DOCX 17k)
  • Serbian (DOCX 32k)
  • Spanish (DOC 110k)
  • Trini (DOCX 25k)
  • Vietnamese (DOC 112k)
  • Wolof (DOCX 20k)
  • Three Forms for Tables of Semantic Primes (DOC 103k)

Chart of NSM Semantic Primes

This is a revised and updated version of a Chart first published in 2010. It displays English versions of semantic primes and some of their combinatorial possibilities. It is highly recommended that you print this document on A3 paper.

  • Chart of NSM Semantic Primes (PDF 167k)

Chart of NSM Semantic Primes (French version)

Tableau des primitifs sémantiques de la Métalangue Sémantique Naturelle

  • Goddard, Cliff & Junker, Marie-Odile (2015), Tableau des primitifs sémantiques de la Métalangue Sémantique Naturelle (PDF 173k)

Here are some "release notes" about the French chart.

  • Junker, Marie-Odile. (2015) The Chart of French NSM Semantic Primes (PDF 93k)

List of 150 NSM Canonical Sentences

This is an updated version of a list published in 2014 in the journal Studies in Language.

  • List of 150 NSM Canonical Sentences (PDF 127k)

Downloadable NSM references

List A: Overview, theory, methodology

  • 2010. Cliff Goddard. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage approach (PDF 1.3mb). In Bernd Heine and Heiko Narrog (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analaysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 459-484.
  • Mental lexicon (PDF 338k). Anna Wierzbicka. In Tilman Berger, Karl Gutschmidt, Sebastian Kempgen and Peter Kosta (eds), The Slavic Languages: An international handbook of their history, their structure and their investigation. [HSK]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.(Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft. Handbook of Linguistics and Communication Science.)
  • 'Thinking' across languages and cultures: Six dimensions of variation (PDF 596k). Cliff Goddard. 2003.Cognitive Linguistics 14(2/3), 109-140.
  • Cliff Goddard. 2003. Whorf meets Wierzbicka: Variations and universals in language and thinking.Language Sciences 25(4), 393-432.
  • The search for the shared semantic core of all languages (PDF 130k). Cliff Goddard. 2002. In Cliff Goddard (ed.), Meaning and Universal Grammar – Theory and Empirical Findings. Volume 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ch 1, 5-40.
  • The On-going Development of the NSM Research Program (PDF 68k). Cliff Goddard. 2002. In Cliff Goddard (ed.), Meaning and Universal Grammar – Theory and Empirical Findings. Volume II. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ch 5, 301-321.
  • Bad arguments against semantic primitives (PDF 84k). Cliff Goddard. 1998. Theoretical Linguistics24(2/3), 129-156.

List B: Lexical semantics in English and across languages and cultures

  • 2011. Anna Wierzbicka. The common language of all people: The innate language of thought. (The International Dobrushin Prize) (PDF 1.1 mb). Problems of Information Transmission. Vol. 47. No. 4. 378-397.
  • 2010. Cliff Goddard. A piece of cheese, a grain of sand: the semantics of mass nouns and unitizers. In Pelletier, Francis Jeffry (ed.), Kinds, Things and Stuff. Mass Terms and Generics. New York: Oxford University Press. 132-165.
  • 2008. Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka. Universal human concepts as a basis for contrastive linguistic semantics. In Current Trends in Contrastive Linguistics: Functional and Cognitive Perspectives, edited by María de los Ángeles Gómez-González, Lachlan Mackenzie, and Elsa Gonzáles Álvarez. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 205-226.
  • 2007. Cliff Goddard. A “lexicographic portrait” of forgetting. In The Language of Memory in a Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Edited by Mengistu Amberber. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 119–137.
  • 2000. Cliff Goddard. Polysemy: A Problem of Definition. In Polysemy: Theoretical and Computational Approaches. Edited by Yael Ravin and Claudia Leacock. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 129-151.
  • Introduction (PDF 1mb). Anna Wierzbicka. 1997. Understanding Cultures Through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-33.
  • Semantics and lexicography (PDF 461k). Anna Wierzbicka. 1996. Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ch 9, 259-286.

List C: Ethnopragmatics, Cultural scripts

  • Cultural scripts: applications to language teaching and intercultural communication (PDF 543k). Cliff Goddard. 2010. Studies in Pragmatics 3, 105–119.
  • Ethnopragmatics: A new paradigm (PDF 437k). Cliff Goddard. 2006. In Cliff Goddard (ed.),Ethnopragmatics: Understanding Discourse in Cultural Context. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 1-30.
  • The ethnopragmatics and semantics of "active metaphor" (PDF 106k). Cliff Goddard. 2004. Journal of Pragmatics 36, 1211-1230.
  • Russian cultural scripts: The theory of cultural scripts and its applications (PDF 164k). Wierzbicka, Anna. 2002. Ethos 30(4), 401-432.
  • Discourse and Culture (PDF 135k). Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka. 1997. In Teun A. van Dijk (ed.),Discourse as Social Interaction. London: Sage Publications, 231-259.

List D: Applications and extensions

  • Goddard, Cliff and Wierzbicka, Anna. 2015. Global English, Minimal English: Towards better intercultural communication (PDF 180k). Position statement prepared for a Symposium to be held at ANU, Canberra, 2-3 July, 2015.
  • Semantic primes and cultural scripts in language learning and intercultural communication (PDF 428k). Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka. 2007. In Gary Palmer and Farzad Sharifian (eds.), Applied Cultural Linguistics: Implications fro second language learning and intercultural communication. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 105-124.
  • Cliff Goddard. 2004. The ethnopragmatics and semantics of 'active metaphors' (PDF 106k). Journal of Pragmatics 36, 1211-1230.
  • The semantics of metaphor and parable: Looking for meaning in the Gospels (PDF 61k). Anna Wierzbicka. 2002. Theoria et Historia Scientiarum IV(1), 85-106. (Special issue on metaphor, edited by Tomasz Komendzinski.)
  • Cliff Goddard. 2001. Conceptual primes in early language development (PDF 2.3mb). In Applied Cognitive Linguistics I: Theory and Language Acquisition. Edited by Martin Putz, Susanne Niemeier and Rene Dirven. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 193-227.
  • The double life of a bilingual: A cross-cultural perspective (PDF 65k). Anna Wierzbicka. 1997. In Michael Bond (ed.), Working at the Interface of Culture: Eighteen lives in social science. London: Routledge, 113-125.

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