Editing Natural semantic metalanguage (section)

==Approach==
The natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) theory attempts to reduce the semantics of all lexicons down to a restricted set of semantic primitives, or primes. Primes are universal in that they have the same translation in every language, and they are primitive in that they cannot be defined using other words. Primes are ordered together to form [[explication]]s, which are descriptions of semantic representations consisting solely of primes.<ref name="Lexical Meaning" />

Research in the NSM approach deals extensively with language and [[cognition]], and language and [[culture]]. Key areas of research include [[lexical semantics]], [[grammatical semantics]], [[phraseology]] and [[pragmatics]], as well as [[cross-cultural communication]].

Dozens of languages, including representatives of 16 language groups, have been studied using the NSM framework. They include [[English language|English]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Danish language|Danish]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Malay language|Malay]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Ewe language|Ewe]], [[Wolof language|Wolof]], [[East Cree]], [[Koromu language|Koromu]], at least 16 [[Australian languages]], and a number of [[creole languages]] including [[Trinidadian creole]], [[Australian Kriol language|Roper River Kriol]], [[Bislama]] and [[Tok Pisin]].<ref name="NSM-approach">{{cite web |last1=Peeters |first1=Bert |title=nsm-approach.net |url=https://nsm-approach.net/ |website=nsm-approach.net |access-date=13 October 2018}}</ref>

Apart from the originators [[Anna Wierzbicka]] and [[Cliff Goddard]], a number of other scholars have participated in NSM semantics, most notably [[Bert Peeters]], [[Zhengdao Ye]], [[Felix Ameka]], [[Jean Harkins]], [[Marie-Odile Junker]], [[Anna Gladkova]], [[Jock Wong]], [[Carsten Levisen]], [[Helen Bromhead]], [[Karen Stollznow]], [[Adrian Tien]], [[Carol Priestley]], [[Yuko Asano-Cavanagh]] and [[Gian Marco Farese]].