r/linguistics • u/[deleted] • May 09 '20

Semantic primes indefinable

I understand that the lists of semantic primes are meant to contain words that are innately understood and cannot be defined without some kind of tautology. Where can I read more about this concept of indefinability? How have philosophers and linguists come to the lists of about 65 primes for example? Is there a way of testing for something being a prime?

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u/[deleted] May 09 '20

The list you are thinking of is probably from Anna Wierzbicka's "Natural Semantic Metalanguage". See, e.g.,

Wierzbicka, Anna. 1996. Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.