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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

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

About Griffith

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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

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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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Home > Griffith Intranet > Schools and departments > Natural Semantic Metalanguage > What is NSM > Metalanguage syntax

Metalanguage syntax

  • Natural Semantic Metalanguage
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Metalanguage syntax

Universal semantic primes have an inherent grammar—a "conceptual grammar"—which is the same in all languages; that is, each semantic prime has certain combinatorial properties virtue of the particular concept it represents. The formal realisations (marking patterns, word order, constituent structure, etc.) may differ from language to language without these underlying combinatorial properties being disturbed. Although groups of primes share particular properties and can be regarded as falling into natural classes, virtually every prime has some idiosyncratic properties, giving each one a distinctive syntactic signature. The cross-linguistic viability of the current model of NSM grammar has been checked in considerable depth and detail across a range of typologically divergent languages. Key references are Goddard and Wierzbicka (eds., 2002), Goddard (ed., 2008) and Goddard and Wierzbicka (2014). Some of the main aspects of the NSM grammar can be sketched as follows.

Substantives and substantive phrases

The elements which combine directly with substantives include: (a) determiners, e.g., 'this someone', 'the same thing', 'somewhere else', (b) quantifiers, e.g., 'two things', 'many people', 'one part', 'many kinds', (c) evaluators, e.g., 'something good', 'something bad', and (d) descriptors, e.g., 'something small'. They can also be modified by like-phases, e.g., 'people like this', 'someone like me'. There is much more to the grammar of substantive phrases than can be covered here; for example, the relational substantives KIND and PART each can head phrases sui generis, which can be termed "classifier phrases" and "part-hood phrases", respectively, such as 'one thing of this kind' and 'one part of this thing'. Some of the quantifier primes have a "subset" valency options, e.g. 'one of these people/things', 'two of these people/things', 'some of these people/things'.

Predicates, valency options and complements

We can think of a simple NSM clause as consisting of a predicate, such as HAPPEN, DO, SAY or WANT, together with one or more substantive phrases whose nature is constrained by the identity of the predicate. In addition to a minimal frame, predicates typically allow extended frames in which additional arguments identify or fill out the aspects of the situation implied by the nature of the predicate. These optional extras are termed "valency options". For example, HAPPEN allows us to speak not only of 'something happening', but also of 'something happening to someone' or 'something happening to something'. Likewise, with DO it is possible to add an additional argument and speak of 'doing something to someone else' or 'doing something to something'. DO can also be extended by the "instrument" option ('do something with something') and the "comitative" option ('do something with someone').

his means that all the following arrays are licensed by NSM syntax. Furthermore, all predicates can combine with the "meta-predicates" or "predicate operators" NOT and CAN.

  • something HAPPENS - [minimal frame]
  • something HAPPENS to someone/something - [undergoer frames]
  • someone DOES something - [minimal frame]
  • someone DOES something to someone else/something - [patient frames]
  • someone DOES something with something - [instrument frame]
  • someone DOES something with someone - [comitative frame]

In some cases, NSM researchers propose valency options which are seldom recognised in mainstream grammars. For example:

  • someone THINKS about someone/something - [topic frame]
  • someone THINKS something (good/bad) about someone/something - [topic + complement frame]
  • someone THINKS like this: " – – " - [quasi-quotational frame]
  • someone SAID something - [minimal frame]
  • someone SAID: " – – – " - [direct speech frame]
  • someone SAID something to someone - [addressee frame]
  • someone SAID something about something/someone else - [locutionary topic frame]
  • someone SAID (some) words to someone else - [directed words frame]
  • someone SAID something (not) with words - [verbal means frame]
  • I SAY: – – – - [performative frame]

Complex sentences

Most obviously, there is an inherently bi-clausal construction connected with the semantic prime IF, exemplified in sentences such as: 'If you do this, people can think something bad about you'. The primes KNOW and THINK have the capacity to take propositional complements. For example, 'I know that something bad happened to this someone'. WANT is also complement-taking, but it has special characteristics that set it apart from the other complement-taking predicates.

Several other complex sentence structures are allowable in the natural semantic metalanguage. These include (i) "quasi-relative clauses" headed by PLACE or TIME; for example, 'I am far from the place where I live', (ii) adverbial clauses of time and reason, e.g., 'when something like this happens, ...', 'it happened like this because someone wanted it', (iii) "analogy clauses" with LIKE~AS as a linking element, e.g., 'I want to do something bad to this someone, like this someone did something bad to me'.

All these combinatorial possibilities mean that the phrasing of NSM text can be quite complex.

< Go back - Semantic Primes | Continue to - Semantic molecules >

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