Semantics
From meaning to text. Volume 1
1st Edition
Published on 6. June 2012
XXI, 436 pages
978-90-272-7343-7 (ISBN)
Description
This book presents an innovative and novel approach to linguistic semantics, beginning with the idea that language can be described as a system for the expression of linguistic Meanings as particular surface forms or Texts. Semantics is specifically that system of rules that ensures a correct transition from a Semantic Representation of the Meaning of a family of synonymous sentences to the Deep Syntactic Representation of a particular sentence. Framed in the terms of Meaning-Text linguistics, this volume discusses in detail the problems of Semantic Representation -including the semantic structure of utterances, the semantics of Causation in English, and communicative, or information, structure. Based on the author's life-long dedication to the study of the semantics and syntax of natural language, this book is a paradigm-shifting contribution to the language sciences whose originality and daring will make it essential reading for linguists, anthropologists, semioticians, and computational linguists.
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06/2012
John Benjamins Publishing Co
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Content
- Semantics
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC Data
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations and Notations
- Organization of Semantics: From Meaning to Text
- General Introduction
- 1 Preliminary Remarks
- 2 The Boundaries of Meaning-Text Semantics
- 2.1 What is Excluded from Linguistic Semantics in SMT
- 2.2 What is Studied by Linguistic Semantics in SMT
- 3 A Short History and the Present State of Meaning-Text Semantics
- 4 The Structure of the Book
- Notes
- Part I. Meaning-Text Approach and Meaning-Text Models
- 1. Some Basic Linguistic Notions
- Notes
- 2. Linguistic Paraphrase
- 1 The Notion of Linguistic Paraphrase
- 2 Characterization of Paraphrases
- 2.1 The Central Place of Paraphrase in Language and Linguistics
- 2.2 Mutual Substitutability of Paraphrases in Text
- 2.3 Linguistic Meaning vs. the Informational Content of Paraphrases
- 2.4 Exactness of Paraphrases
- 2.5 Quasi-linguistic Paraphrases
- 2.6 Typology of Paraphrases
- 3 An Illustration: Paraphrases of an English Sentence
- 4 Semantic Neutralization as a Condition for Paraphrasing
- 4.1 Linguistic Neutralization: General Remarks
- 4.2 Phonological and Morphological Neutralization
- 4.3 Notion of Semantic Neutralization
- 4.4 Two Phenomena Similar to, but Different from, Semantic Neutralization
- Notes
- 3. Meaning-Text Theory and Meaning-Text Linguistic Models
- 1 The Basic Tenet of Meaning-Text Theory
- 2 The Three Postulates of Meaning-Text Theory
- 2.1 Postulate 1 of MTT: Language as a Meaning-Text Correspondence
- 2.2 Postulate 2 of MTT: Linguistic Description as a Functional Model
- 2.3 Postulate 3 of MTT: Multiple Levels of Linguistic Representation
- 3 The Meaning-Text Linguistic Model
- 3.1 The Major Modules of an MTM and the Corresponding Linguistic Representations
- 3.2 The Main Properties of the MTM
- 3.3 Reasons for the Synthetic Orientation of the MTM
- 3.4 Meaning-Text Models within the General Model of Human Linguistic Behavior
- Bibliographical Remarks
- Notes
- Part II. Semantic Representation in a Meaning-Text Linguistic Model
- 4. The Semantic Structure of Utterances
- 1 General Characterization of the Semantic Structure
- 1.1 Substantive Characterization of the Semantic Structure
- 1.2 Formal Characterization of Semantic Structures
- 2 Labels on the Nodes of a Semantic Structure: Semantemes
- 2.1 Substantive Properties of Semantemes
- 2.2 Formal Properties of Semantemes
- 3 Labels on the Arcs of a Semantic Structure: Against Semantic Roles
- 3.1 Non-homogeneity of the SemS that Uses Sem-roles
- 3.2 Infinite Regression Provoked by Sem-roles
- 3.3 Openness of the List of Sem-roles
- 3.4 Inadequacy of Sem-roles
- 4 Specific Conventions Used in Semantic Structures
- 4.1 The Presentation of Grammemes in the SemS
- 4.2 Coordination in the SemS
- 4.3 Operator Semantemes
- 4.4 Questions and Exclamations (Speech Acts)
- 4.5 Some Allowable Parallel Semantic Expressions
- 5 A Sample Semantic Structure
- 6 Semantic Structure in Meaning-Text Correspondence
- 7 The Formal Language of Semantic Structure
- 7.1 The Notion of Formal Language
- 7.2 The Semantic Formal Language of MTT
- Bibliographical Remarks
- Notes
- 5. Semantemes of Causation in Natural Language
- 1 Causation in Natural Language
- 2 The Semanteme 'cause1' [= 'be the cause of']
- 2.1 Introductory Remarks
- 2.2 The Semanteme 'actI.1'
- 2.3 The Semanteme 'entail'
- 2.4 The Decompositions of 'cause1'
- 3 The Semanteme 'cause2' (= 'be the causer of')
- 4 Causative Verbs and Verbs of Causation
- 4.1 Causative Verbs
- 4.2 Verbs of Causation
- Bibliographical Remarks
- Notes
- 6. Semantic-Communicative Structure
- 1 General Characterization of the Semantic-Communicative Structure
- 1.1 The Target of the Sem-CommS
- 1.2 The Means of the Sem-CommS
- 1.3 The Sem-CommS vs. the SemS
- 1.4 Formal Properties of the Sem-CommS
- 2 Semantic-Communicative Dominance
- 2.1 The Notion of Communicative Dominance
- 2.2 The Role of Comm-Dominance in the Meaning-Text Transition
- 3 Semantic-Communicative Oppositions
- 3.1 General Overview of Sem-Comm-Oppositions
- 3.2 Thematicity
- 3.3 Givenness
- 3.4 Focalization
- 3.5 Perspective
- 3.6 Emphasis
- 3.7 Assertivity
- 3.8 Unitariness
- 3.9 Locutionality
- 4 Pairing of SemSs with Sem-CommSs
- 4.1 Well-formedness of Sem-CommS
- 4.2 Communicatively Sensitive Semantemes
- 4.3 Communicatively Sensitive Configurations of Semantemes
- Bibliographical Remarks
- Notes
- References
- Index of Terms, Names & Concepts
- Index of Linguistic Items
- Language Index
