Semantics
John I. Saeed(Author)
Blackwell Publishers
Published on 11. April 1996
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-0-631-20035-2 (ISBN)
Description
This volume provides an engaging introduction to semantics for readers new to the subject. The book has three sections. Part I is concerned with the place of semantics within linguistics and its relation with the disciplines of philosophy and psychology. Part II introduces central topics in the description of word and sentence meaning. Part III reviews the three main current theoretical approaches to semantics: componential theory, formal semantics and cognitive semantics.The book discusses semantic phenomena from a wide range of languages. Each chapter contains exercises to allow the reader to explorethe issues raised, and suggestions fro further readings.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
references, index
Dimensions
Height: 246 mm
Width: 171 mm
Weight
771 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-631-20035-2 (9780631200352)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
List of Figures. Preface. List of Abbreviations. Part I: Preliminaries: 1. Semantics in Linguistics. Introduction. Semantics and Semiotics. Three Challenges in Doing Semantics. Meeting the Challenges. Semantics in a Model of Grammar. Some Important Assumptions. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. 2. Meaning, Thought and Reality. Introduction. Reference. Reference as a Theory of Meaning. Mental Representations. Words, Concepts and Thinking. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. Part II: Semantic Description: 3. Word Meaning. Introduction. Words and Grammatical Categories. Words and Lexical Items. Problems and Pinning Down Word Meaning. Lexical Relations. Derivational Relations. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. 4. Sentence Relations and Truth. Introduction. Logic and Truth. Necessary Truth, A Priori Truth and Analyticity. Entailment. Presupposition. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. 5. Sentence Semantics 1: Situations. Introduction. Classifying Situations. Modality and Evidentiality. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. 6. Sentence Semantics 2: Participants. Introduction: Classifying Participants. Thematic Roles. Grammatical Relations and Thematic Roles. Verbs and Thematic Role Grids. Problems with Thematic Roles. The Motivation for Identifying Thematic Roles. Voice. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. 7. Context and Inference. Introduction. Deixis. Reference and Context. Knowledge as Context. Information Structure. Inference. Conversational Implicature. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. 8. Functions of Language: Speech as Action. Introduction. Austin's Speech Act Theory. Categorizing Speech Acts. Indirect Speech Acts. Sentence Types. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. Part III: Theoretical Approaches: 9. Meaning Components. Introduction. Lexical Relations in CA. Katz's Semantic Theory. Grammatical Rules and Semantic Components. Components and Conflation Patterns. Jackendoff's Conceptual Structure. Problems with Components of Meaning. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. 10. Formal Semantics. Introduction. Model-Theoretical Semantics. Translating English into Logical Metalanguage. The Semantics of the Logical Metalanguage. Checking the Truth Value of Sentences. Intensionality. Word Meaning: Meaning Postulates. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. 11. Cognitive Semantics. Introduction. Metaphor. Image Schemas. Polysemy. Mental Spaces. Construing a Scene. Summary. Further Reading. Exercises. Notes. References. Index.