The Arabic and Hebrew exponents of simple, universal mental predicates and speech concepts

Abstract

This paper has investigated and identified the exponents of mental predicates (THINK, KNOW, WANT, DON’T WANT, FEEL, SEE, HEAR) and speech concepts (SAY, WORDS, TRUE) in three languages: MS Arabic, Jish Arabic, and Hebrew. In addition, it has looked into their combinatorial frames and demonstrated that all of them have exact equivalents in the three target languages. The results corroborate the hypothesis that these predicates and concepts are simple and universal.