Goddard (U. of New England) presents this book for advanced students and professionals in linguistics describing the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) framework for investigating semantic primes cross-linguistically, and detailing a number of metalanguage studies and problems therein. Chapters look at topics that include: the specificational "be" and abstract "this/it," a systematic table of semantic elements, semantic primes in Amharic, semantic primes and their grammar in the polysynthetic language of East Cree, hyperpolysemy in Bunuba (Australia), the ethnogeometry of Makasai (East Timor), and the semantics of "inalienable possession" in Koromu (Papua New Guinea).