Editing Linguistic universal (section)

==Semantics==
In [[semantics]], research into linguistic universals has taken place in a number of ways. Some linguists, starting with [[Gottfried Leibniz]], have pursued the search for a hypothetic irreducible semantic core of all languages. A modern variant of this approach can be found in the [[natural semantic metalanguage]] of [[Anna Wierzbicka]] and associates.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Semantic and lexical universals|editor-last=Goddard|editor-first=Cliff|editor2-last=Wierzbicka|editor2-first=Anna|date=1994|publisher=Benjamins|location=Amsterdam}}</ref><ref>Goddard (2002).</ref> Other lines of research suggest cross-linguistic tendencies to use body part terms metaphorically as [[adposition]]s,<ref>Heine (1997)</ref> or tendencies to have morphologically simple words for cognitively salient concepts.<ref>Rosch et al. (1976)</ref> The human body, being a physiological universal, provides an ideal domain for research into semantic and lexical universals. In a seminal study, [[Cecil H. Brown]] (1976) proposed a number of universals in the semantics of body part terminology, including the following: in any language, there will be distinct terms for <small>BODY</small>, <small>HEAD</small>, <small>ARM</small>, <small>EYES</small>, <small>NOSE</small>, and <small>MOUTH</small>; if there is a distinct term for <small>FOOT</small>, there will be a distinct term for <small>HAND</small>; similarly, if there are terms for <small>INDIVIDUAL TOES</small>, then there are terms for <small>INDIVIDUAL FINGERS</small>. Subsequent research has shown that most of these features have to be considered cross-linguistic tendencies rather than true universals. Several languages like [[Tidore language|Tidore]] and [[Kuuk Thaayorre language|Kuuk Thaayorre]] lack a general term meaning 'body'. On the basis of such data it has been argued that the highest level in the [[meronomy]] of body part terms would be the word for 'person'.<ref>Wilkins (1993), Enfield et al. 2006:17.</ref>

Some other examples of proposed linguistic universals in [[semantics]] include the idea that all languages possess words with the meaning '(biological) mother' and 'you (second person singular pronoun)' as well as statistical tendencies of meanings of basic color terms in relation to the number of color terms used by a respective language. Some [[Linguistic relativity and the color naming debate|theories of color naming]] suggest that if a language possesses only two terms for describing color, their respective meanings will be 'black' and 'white' (or perhaps 'dark' and 'light'), and if a language possesses more than two color terms, then the additional terms will follow trends related to the focal colors, which are determined by the physiology of how color is perceived, rather than linguistics. Thus, if a language possesses three color terms, the third will mean 'red', and if a language possesses four color terms, the next will mean 'yellow' or 'green'. If there are five color terms, then both 'yellow' and 'green' are added, if six, then 'blue' is added, and so on.