Semantics

Title page......Page 5
Table of Contents......Page 9
Figures and tables......Page 16
Preface......Page 18
Part 1: Preliminaries......Page 21
1.1 Introduction......Page 23
1.2 Semantics and Semiotics......Page 25
1.3 Three Challenges in Doing Semantics......Page 26
1.4 Meeting the Challenges......Page 27
1.5.1 introduction......Page 29
1.5.2 word meaning and sentence meaning......Page 30
1.6 Some Important Assumptions......Page 31
1.6.2 utterances, sentences and propositions......Page 32
1.6.3 literal and non-literal meaning......Page 35
1.6.4 semantics and pragmatics......Page 37
Exercises......Page 39
2.1 Introduction......Page 43
2.2.1 Types of reference......Page 45
2.2.2 Names......Page 47
2.2.3 Nouns and noun phrases......Page 49
2.3 Reference as a Theory of Meaning......Page 50
2.4.1 Introduction......Page 52
2.4.2 Concepts......Page 54
2.4.3 Necessary and sufficient conditions......Page 55
2.4.4 Prototypes......Page 57
2.4.5 Relations between concepts......Page 58
2.4.6 Acquiring concepts......Page 60
2.5.1 Linguistic relativity......Page 61
2.5.2 The language of thought hypothesis......Page 63
2.5.3 Thought and reality......Page 64
2.6 Summary......Page 66
Exercises......Page 67
Patr 2: Semantic Description......Page 71
3.1 Introduction......Page 73
3.3 Words and Lexical Items......Page 75
3.4 Problems with Pinning Down Word Meaning......Page 79
3.5.1 Homonymy......Page 83
3.5.2 Polysemy......Page 84
3.5.3 Synonymy......Page 85
3.5.4 Opposites (antonymy)......Page 86
3.5.5 Hyponymy......Page 89
3.5.6 Meronymy......Page 90
3.5.8 Portion–mass......Page 91
3.6.1 Causative verbs......Page 92
3.6.2 Agentive nouns......Page 93
3.7.1 Colour terms......Page 94
3.7.2 Core vocabulary......Page 97
3.7.3 Universal lexemes......Page 98
3.8 Summary......Page 99
Exercises......Page 100
4.1 Introduction......Page 107
4.2 Logic and Truth......Page 109
4.3 Necessary Truth, A Priori Truth and Analyticity......Page 115
4.4 Entailment......Page 119
4.5.1 Introduction......Page 122
4.5.2 Two approaches to presupposition......Page 123
4.5.3 Presupposition failure......Page 125
4.5.4 Presupposition triggers......Page 127
4.5.5 Presuppositions and context......Page 128
4.5.6 Pragmatic theories of presupposition......Page 130
Further Reading......Page 131
Exercises......Page 132
5.1 Introduction......Page 137
5.2.1 Introduction......Page 138
5.2.2 Verbs and situation types......Page 140
5.2.3 A system of situation types......Page 144
5.2.4 Tense......Page 145
5.2.5 Aspect......Page 149
5.2.6 Comparing aspect across languages......Page 153
5.2.7 Combining situation type and aspect......Page 156
5.3.1 Modality......Page 158
5.3.2 Mood......Page 161
5.3.3 Evidentiality......Page 164
Further Reading......Page 166
Exercises......Page 167
6.1 Introduction: Classifying Participants......Page 172
6.2 Thematic Roles......Page 173
6.3 Grammatical Relations and Thematic Roles......Page 178
6.4 Verbs and Thematic Role Grids......Page 180
6.5 Problems with Thematic Roles......Page 182
6.6 The Motivation for Identifying Thematic Roles......Page 185
6.7.1 Passive voice......Page 189
6.7.2 Comparing passive constructions across languages......Page 192
6.7.3 Middle voice......Page 195
6.8.1 Classifiers......Page 198
6.8.2 Noun classes......Page 200
Further Reading......Page 202
Exercises......Page 203
7.1 Introduction......Page 210
7.2.1 Spatial deixis......Page 211
7.2.3 Extensions of spatial deixis......Page 215
7.2.4 Person deixis......Page 216
7.2.5 Social deixis......Page 217
7.3 Reference and Context......Page 218
7.4 Knowledge as Context......Page 219
7.4.1 Discourse as context......Page 220
7.4.2 Background knowledge as context......Page 221
7.4.3 Mutual knowledge......Page 222
7.4.4 Giving background knowledge to computers......Page 223
7.5.1 The information status of nominals......Page 225
7.5.2 Focus and topic......Page 228
7.5.3 Information structure and comprehension......Page 230
7.6 Inference......Page 231
7.7.1 Grice’s maxims of conversational cooperation......Page 233
7.7.2 Generalizing the gricean maxims......Page 236
7.7.3 Relevance theory......Page 238
7.8 Summary......Page 240
Exercises......Page 242
8.1 Introduction......Page 250
8.2.1 Introduction......Page 253
8.2.2 Evaluating performative utterances......Page 255
8.2.3 Explicit and implicit performatives......Page 256
8.2.4 Statements as performatives......Page 257
8.2.5 Three facets of a speech act......Page 258
8.3 Categorizing Speech Acts......Page 259
8.4.1 Introduction......Page 261
8.4.2 Understanding indirect speech acts......Page 263
8.4.3 Indirect acts and politeness......Page 265
8.5 Sentence Types......Page 268
8.6 Summary......Page 270
Exercises......Page 271
Part 3: Theoretical approaches......Page 277
9.1 Introduction......Page 279
9.2 Lexical Relations in CA......Page 280
9.2.2 Redundancy rules......Page 281
9.3.1 Introduction......Page 282
9.3.3 Projection rules......Page 283
9.4.1 The methodology......Page 286
9.4.2 Thematic roles and linking rules......Page 289
9.5 Components and Conflation Patterns......Page 294
9.6.1 Introduction......Page 298
9.6.2 The semantic components......Page 299
9.6.3 Localist semantic fields......Page 301
9.6.4 Complex events and states......Page 302
9.6.5 Things: semantic classes of nominals......Page 303
9.6.6 Cross-category generalizations......Page 304
9.6.7 Processes of semantic combination......Page 305
9.7.1 Event structure......Page 309
9.7.2 Qualia structure......Page 313
9.8 Problems with Components of Meaning......Page 315
Further Reading......Page 317
Exercises......Page 318
10.1 Introduction......Page 325
10.2 Model-Theoretical Semantics......Page 328
10.3.2 Simple statements in predicate logic......Page 329
10.3.3 Quantifiers in predicate logic......Page 331
10.3.4 Some advantages of predicate logic translation......Page 334
10.4.1 Introduction......Page 335
10.4.2 The semantic interpretation of predicate logic symbols......Page 336
10.4.4 The denotation assignment function......Page 337
10.5 Checking the Truth-Value of Sentences......Page 338
10.5.2 Evaluating a compound sentence with ∧ ‘and’......Page 339
10.5.3 Evaluating sentences with the quantifiers ∀ and ∃......Page 341
10.6 Word Meaning: Meaning Postulates......Page 343
10.7 Natural Language Quantifiers and Higher Order Logic......Page 345
10.7.1 Restricted quantifiers......Page 346
10.7.2 Generalized quantifiers......Page 347
10.7.3 The strong/weak distinction and existential there sentences......Page 349
10.7.4 Monotonicity and negative polarity items......Page 351
10.8.1 Introduction......Page 353
10.8.2 Modality......Page 355
10.8.3 Tense and aspect......Page 357
10.9.1 Anaphora in and across sentences......Page 360
10.9.3 DRT and discourse anaphora......Page 362
10.10 Summary......Page 367
Further Reading......Page 368
Exercises......Page 369
11.1 Introduction......Page 375
11.2.1 Introduction......Page 378
11.2.2 Metaphor in cognitive semantics......Page 380
11.2.3 Features of metaphor......Page 381
11.2.4 The influence of metaphor......Page 384
11.3 Metonymy......Page 385
11.4 Image Schemas......Page 386
11.4.1 Containment schema......Page 387
11.4.2 Path schema......Page 388
11.4.3 Force schemas......Page 389
11.5 Polysemy......Page 390
11.5.1 Prepositions......Page 391
11.5.2 Modal verbs......Page 395
11.6 Mental Spaces......Page 397
11.6.1 Connections between spaces......Page 398
11.6.2 Referential opacity......Page 401
11.6.3 Presupposition......Page 404
11.6.4 Conceptual blending......Page 406
11.7 Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar......Page 408
11.7.1 Nouns, verbs and clauses......Page 409
11.7.2 Construal......Page 411
11.8 Summary......Page 413
Exercises......Page 414
Solutions to selected exercises......Page 420
Bibliography......Page 438
Index......Page 463