"This monograph investigates for the first time words like thing of maximal semantic generality across languages. Not all languages have exact equivalents of English thing - in some, for instance, the nearest equivalent is an interrogative stem (what?). Few languages extend their thing words into indefinite something, anything, nothing, as in English. As regards Indo-European languages, Buck (1988) points out that such words typically derive from a more abstract source than that of simple material objects. In the case of thing, the earliest source usually given is the Germanic word for a judicial assembly. How does such a word develop the most general sense of thing today? Do all languages follow this kind of pattern? These questions lead into an investigation of the concept of thing in a wide range of contexts and in a wide variety of languages, involving both typological and cognitive aspects. The results have sometimes been unexpected. Buck, C.

D. 1988. A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo -European Languages. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press"-- Provided by publisher.