Research behind the dictionary

Learn These Words First implements a layered monolingual dictionary.

The first layer (Lessons 1 and 2) consists of words representing 61 universal concepts expressed in all languages. This set of "semantic atoms" is based on the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM), developed over the last three decades by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard.

• Wierzbicka, Anna. 1996. Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Goddard, Cliff and Anna Wierzbicka (eds.). 2002. Meaning and Universal Grammar - Theory and Empirical Findings. Volumes I and II. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

The 34 middle layers consist of 300 "semantic molecules" (Lessons 3 through 12). Words in each layer are defined using only the words from the previous layers. This sequence of layers is based on dependency-graph analysis of the non-circular NSM-LDOCE research dictionary.

• Bullock, David. 2011. "NSM + LDOCE: A Non-Circular Dictionary of English" in the International Journal of Lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 24.2: 226-240.

The next layer in Learn These Words First is an alphabetical reference section containing definitions for the 2000 words in the Longman Defining Vocabulary, each defined using only the 360 "atoms" and "molecules" from the lessons.

(The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English can be considered the final layer, since every word is defined using only the 2000-word defining vocabulary.)

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