Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements; 2. List of contributors; 3. List of abbreviations; 4. Typographical conventions and symbols; 5. Preface (by Wierzbicka, Anna); 6. Scope and contents of this volume (by Peeters, Bert); 7. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach: An overview with reference to the most important Romance languages (by Goddard, Cliff); 8. Part 1: Romance versions of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage; 9. Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Substantives; determines; quantifiers (by Peeters, Bert); 10. Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Evaluators and descriptors; mental predicates (by Peeters, Bert); 11. Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Speech; actions, events and movement; existence and possession; life and death (by Peeters, Bert); 12. Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Time and space (by Peeters, Bert); 13. Natural Semantic Metalanguage exponents and universal grammar in Romance: Logical concepts; intensifier and augmentor; taxonomy and partonomy; similarity (by Peeters, Bert); 14. Part 2: The Natural Semantic Metalanguage Applied; 15. Sfogarsi: A semantic analysis of an Italian speech routine and its underlying cultural values (by Maher, Brigid); 16. Portuguese saudade and other emotions of absence and longing (by Farrell, Patrick); 17. The development of a key word: The deictic field of Spanish crisis (by DuBartell, Deborah); 18. The French connector certes: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage interpretation (by Burston, Monique A.); 19. Francamente, el rojo te sienta fatal: Semantics and pragmatics of some expressions of sincerity in present-day Spanish (by Aznarez Mauleon, Monica); 20. Towards a description of Spanish and Italian diminutives within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage framework (by Bartens, Angela); 21. Indexes