ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the approach to linguistic description so-called natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) is based on two fundamental assumptions: that every language has an irreducible core in terms of which the speakers can understand all complex thoughts and utterances, and that the irreducible cores of all natural languages match, so that people can speak, effectively, of the irreducible core of all languages, reflecting the irreducible core of human thought. In the NSM theory of language, it is assumed that such a set of conceptual primitives does indeed exist and that it can be found through in-depth analysis of any natural language. The area of causation has an enormous inherent interest from the point of view of the 'philosophy of grammar' and the psychology of language: after all, the causative constructions a language show how the speakers of this language draw distinctions between different kinds of causal relations, how they perceive and interpret causal links between events and human actions.
