This document discusses componential analysis, an approach that tries to discover the ultimate meaning units that systematically compose words. It analyzes words by describing them with relatively small sets of general elements of meaning, called components, markers, or sememes. Researchers like Katz, Foder, Weinreich, and Berwisch applied this approach to analyze kinship terms, color vocabulary, words for animals, and botanical terms by identifying parameters like sex that form word sets based on relationships.