Re: Simple English

>From: Jeffrey Henning '<Jeffrey@...>'
>Subject:      Re: Simple English
>
>Gerald Koenig <jlk@...> comunu:
>> Jack Durst built the NGL core grammar with the Ogden set.
>> Anna Wierzbicka finds 89 words/concepts basic to all languages and builds
>> a simplified universal grammar  with them.
Jeffrey ad tok:
>Do you have a list of them?  What are the core verbs?  I've been wondering a
>lot about minimal verb sets lately...
>
Jeffrey---

Here is an excerpt I just typed up for you from the table of contents
of Anna Wierzbicka's _Semantics, Primes and Universals_  Oxford 1996.
"Old primitives" are the first ones she established.  "In the last two
years, the system of semantic primitives has been radically expanded,
from 37 to as many as 55." Page 73. I believe that she and her
collaborators are now talking about 89 universal concepts. I'll see if
there are more verbs in the larger less attested set later.

Jerry

A. OLD PRIMITIVES
2. Substantives: I, YOU, SOMEONE, SOMETHING, PEOPLE
3. Determiners: THIS, THE SAME, OTHER
4. Quantifiers: ONE, TWO, MANY (MUCH), ALL
5. Mental Predicates: THINK, KNOW, WANT, FEEL
6. Speech: SAY
7. Actions and Events: DO and HAPPEN
8. Evaluators: GOOD and BAD
9. Descriptors: BIG and SMALL
10. Time: WHEN, BEFORE, AFTER
11. Space: WHERE, UNDER, ABOVE
12. Partonomy and Taxonomy: PART (OF) and KIND (OF)
13. Metapredicates: NOT, CAN, VERY
14. Interclausal Linkers: IF, BECAUSE, LIKE

B. NEW PRIMITIVES
16. Determiners and Quantifiers: SOME and MORE
17. Mental Predicates: SEE and HEAR
18. Movement, Existence, Life: MOVE, THERE IS, LIVE
19. Space: FAR and NEAR, SIDE, INSIDE, HERE
20. Time: A LONG TIME, A SHORT TIME, NOW
21. Imagination and Possibility: IF...WOULD, CAN, MAYBE
22. WORD