Do I understand this linguistic fact in right way?

Question

One of facts pertaining to all languages stated in a book i am reading is this: (there are universal semantic properties like "male"or "female", "human" or "animate" found in every language in the world). does that mean that the properties that make us say that is male are the same everywhere but there are semantic properties not universal for words like for example committing suicide in Japanese context has semantic meaning as a honor act while in English semantics its considered a sin and so this make suicide word does not have universal semantic properties like "male" has?

Answer 1

I think it means that there are semantics properties that are universal, and others which are cultural concepts (aka Japanese ritual suicide) which are not part of the genetic component of language (according to Chomsky). So, in Sahara deserts Tamashegh, a concept like snow or caribou might not be present as in Eskimos inuit, (and, conversely, camel or sand, ) so if a eskimo sees a female camel for the first time in his life he will probably see some kind of hornless hunchbacked caribou instead of a camel, but he would surely know it`s a female one.