An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics
3rd Edition
Published on 23. February 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-3995-0461-4 (ISBN)
Description
This clear and accessible textbook introduces the crucial concepts essential to your study of the semantics and pragmatics of English. Coverage is wide-ranging, taking you from word meaning to the level of discourse, and explaining how these topics are treated in contemporary linguistic research. Chapters cover adjective, noun and verb meanings, situation types, figurative language, tense, aspect, modality, quantification, topic and focus. Explanations of entailment, compositionality and scope provide a foundation for subsequent study of formal semantics.
Supported by chapter summaries and with plenty of usage examples, exercises and discussion questions, you will not only gain a systematic overview of meaning in English but be equipped with the tools to argue for specific analyses as well.
Supported by chapter summaries and with plenty of usage examples, exercises and discussion questions, you will not only gain a systematic overview of meaning in English but be equipped with the tools to argue for specific analyses as well.
More details
Series
Edition
3rd edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
7 black and white illustrations, 6 black and white tables
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
247 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3995-0461-4 (9781399504614)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Patrick Griffiths was a professor of English at Beppu University, Japan. He taught courses on semantics, the structure of English, psycholinguistics and general linguistics at a number of universities, including Beppu, the University of the South Pacific, and in the UK at York University and York St John. Chris Cummins is Reader in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Edinburgh. His other works include Pragmatics (EUP, 2019) and Constraints on Numerical Expressions (2015), and he co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics (2019) with Napoleon Katsos.
Content
CONTENTS
Preface
Preface to the third edition
1. Studying meaning
Overview
1.1 Sentences and utterances
1.2 Types of meaning
1.2.1 Denotation, sense, reference and deixis
1.3 Semantics vs. pragmatics
1.3.1 A first outline of semantics
1.3.2 A first outline of pragmatics
Summary
Exercises
2. Sense relations
Overview
2.1 Propositions and entailment
2.2 Compositionality
2.3 Synonymy
2.4 Complementarity, antonymy, converseness and incompatibility
2.5 Hyponymy
2.5.1 Hierarchies of hyponyms
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
Notes
3. Nouns
Overview
3.1 The has-relation
3.1.1 Inferring existence from the has-relation
3.1.2 Hyponymy, prototypes, and the has-relation
3.1.3 Parts can have parts
3.1.4 Spatial parts
3.1.5 Ends and beginnings
3.1.6 Body part terms, metaphor and has-relations
3.2 Count nouns and mass nouns
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
4. Adjectives
Overview
4.1 Gradability
4.1.1 Non-gradable adjectives
4.2 Combining adjective meanings with noun meanings
4.2.1 Non-intersective adjectives with broader denotations
4.2.2 Privative adjectives
4.2.3 Relative adjective meanings
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
5. Verbs
Overview
5.1 Verb types and arguments
5.1.1 Other kinds of arguments
5.2 Causative verbs
5.2.1 Identifying embedded situations
5.3 Thematic relations
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
Notes
6. Tense and aspect
Overview
6.1 Talking about events in time
6.2 Tense
6.2.1 Preliminaries
6.2.2 Present, Past and Future
6.2.3 Tense and adverbials
6.3 Aspect
6.3.1 Habituality and simple aspect
6.3.2 Progressive aspect
6.3.3 Perfect aspect
6.3.4 Perfect aspect or tense?
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
7. Modality, scope and quantification
Overview
7.1 Modality
7.1.1 Modal verbs and tense
7.1.2 Epistemic and deontic modality
7.2 Semantic scope
7.3 Quantification
7.3.1 Some basics about sets
7.3.2 Simple quantifiers in terms of sets
7.3.3 Proportional quantifiers
7.3.4 Distributivity and collectivity
7.3.5 Quantifier scope
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
8. Pragmatic inference
Overview
8.1 Some ways of conveying additional meanings
8.2 The Gricean maxims
8.2.1 Quantity implicatures
8.2.2 Scalar implicatures
8.2.3 Relevance implicatures
8.2.4 Manner implicatures
8.3 Relevance Theory
8.4 Presuppositions
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
9. Figurative language
Overview
9.1 Literal and figurative usage
9.2 Metaphor
9.3 Metonymy
9.4 Simile
9.5 Irony
9.6 Hyperbole
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
10. Utterances in context
Overview
10.1 Tailoring utterances to the audience
10.2 Definiteness
10.3 Given and new material
10.3.1 Pseudo-clefts
10.3.2 It-clefts
10.3.3 Passives
10.3.4 Lexical and syntactic converses
10.3.5 Focal stress
10.4 The Question Under Discussion
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
11. Doing things with words
Overview
11.1 Speech acts
11.2 Indicators of speech acts
11.2.1 Syntactic cues and indirect speech acts
11.2.2 Lexical cues
11.2.3 Cues based on conversation structure
11.2.4 Integrating the information
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
Suggested answers to the exercises
Bibliography
Index
Preface
Preface to the third edition
1. Studying meaning
Overview
1.1 Sentences and utterances
1.2 Types of meaning
1.2.1 Denotation, sense, reference and deixis
1.3 Semantics vs. pragmatics
1.3.1 A first outline of semantics
1.3.2 A first outline of pragmatics
Summary
Exercises
2. Sense relations
Overview
2.1 Propositions and entailment
2.2 Compositionality
2.3 Synonymy
2.4 Complementarity, antonymy, converseness and incompatibility
2.5 Hyponymy
2.5.1 Hierarchies of hyponyms
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
Notes
3. Nouns
Overview
3.1 The has-relation
3.1.1 Inferring existence from the has-relation
3.1.2 Hyponymy, prototypes, and the has-relation
3.1.3 Parts can have parts
3.1.4 Spatial parts
3.1.5 Ends and beginnings
3.1.6 Body part terms, metaphor and has-relations
3.2 Count nouns and mass nouns
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
4. Adjectives
Overview
4.1 Gradability
4.1.1 Non-gradable adjectives
4.2 Combining adjective meanings with noun meanings
4.2.1 Non-intersective adjectives with broader denotations
4.2.2 Privative adjectives
4.2.3 Relative adjective meanings
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
5. Verbs
Overview
5.1 Verb types and arguments
5.1.1 Other kinds of arguments
5.2 Causative verbs
5.2.1 Identifying embedded situations
5.3 Thematic relations
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
Notes
6. Tense and aspect
Overview
6.1 Talking about events in time
6.2 Tense
6.2.1 Preliminaries
6.2.2 Present, Past and Future
6.2.3 Tense and adverbials
6.3 Aspect
6.3.1 Habituality and simple aspect
6.3.2 Progressive aspect
6.3.3 Perfect aspect
6.3.4 Perfect aspect or tense?
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
7. Modality, scope and quantification
Overview
7.1 Modality
7.1.1 Modal verbs and tense
7.1.2 Epistemic and deontic modality
7.2 Semantic scope
7.3 Quantification
7.3.1 Some basics about sets
7.3.2 Simple quantifiers in terms of sets
7.3.3 Proportional quantifiers
7.3.4 Distributivity and collectivity
7.3.5 Quantifier scope
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
8. Pragmatic inference
Overview
8.1 Some ways of conveying additional meanings
8.2 The Gricean maxims
8.2.1 Quantity implicatures
8.2.2 Scalar implicatures
8.2.3 Relevance implicatures
8.2.4 Manner implicatures
8.3 Relevance Theory
8.4 Presuppositions
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
9. Figurative language
Overview
9.1 Literal and figurative usage
9.2 Metaphor
9.3 Metonymy
9.4 Simile
9.5 Irony
9.6 Hyperbole
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
10. Utterances in context
Overview
10.1 Tailoring utterances to the audience
10.2 Definiteness
10.3 Given and new material
10.3.1 Pseudo-clefts
10.3.2 It-clefts
10.3.3 Passives
10.3.4 Lexical and syntactic converses
10.3.5 Focal stress
10.4 The Question Under Discussion
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
11. Doing things with words
Overview
11.1 Speech acts
11.2 Indicators of speech acts
11.2.1 Syntactic cues and indirect speech acts
11.2.2 Lexical cues
11.2.3 Cues based on conversation structure
11.2.4 Integrating the information
Summary
Exercises
Recommendations for reading
Suggested answers to the exercises
Bibliography
Index