The Semantics of Grammar

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Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027286124
Total Pages : 629 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis The Semantics of Grammar by : Anna Wierzbicka

Download or read book The Semantics of Grammar written by Anna Wierzbicka and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1988-01-01 with total page 629 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The semantics of grammar” presents a radically semantic approach to syntax and morphology. It offers a methodology which makes it possible to demonstrate, on an empirical basis, that syntax is neither “autonomous” nor “arbitrary”, but that it follows from “semantics”. It is shown that every grammatical construction encodes a certain semantic structure, which can be revealed and rigorously stated, so that the meanings encoded in grammar can be compared in a precise and illuminating way, within one language and across language boundaries. The author develops a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primitives), and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language and thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations. Analyzing data from a number of different languages (including English, Russian and Japanese) the author explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She attemps to demonstrate that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.

Essays in Semantics and Pragmatics

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Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027285683
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Essays in Semantics and Pragmatics by : Masayoshi Shibatani

Download or read book Essays in Semantics and Pragmatics written by Masayoshi Shibatani and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume reflects the influence of Chuck Fillmore’s ground-breaking work in the fields of semantics and pragmatics. The papers in the volume pay tribute to his pioneering research into the deepest realms of the nature of ‘meaning’.

A Semantic Approach to English Grammar

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199283079
Total Pages : 562 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis A Semantic Approach to English Grammar by : R. M. W. Dixon

Download or read book A Semantic Approach to English Grammar written by R. M. W. Dixon and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-06-30 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows how grammar helps people communicate and looks at the ways grammar and meaning interrelate. The author starts from the notion that a speaker codes a meaning into grammatical forms which the listener is then able to recover: each word, he shows, has its own meaning and each bit of grammar its own function, their combinations creating and limiting the possibilities for different words. He uncovers a rationale for the varying grammatical properties of different words and in the process explains many facts about English - such as why we can say I wish to go, I wish that he would go, and I want to go but not I want that he would go. The first part of the book reviews the main points of English syntax and discusses English verbs in terms of their semantic types including those of Motion, Giving, Speaking, Liking, and Trying. In the second part Professor Dixon looks at eight grammatical topics, including complement clauses, transitivity and causatives, passives, and the promotion of a non-subject to subject, as in Dictionaries sell well. This is the updated and revised edition of A New Approach to English Grammar on Semantic Principles. It includes new chapters on tense and aspect, nominalizations and possession, and adverbs and negation, and contains a new discussion of comparative forms of adjectives. It also explains recent changes in English grammar, including how they has replaced the tabooed he as a pronoun referring to either gender, as in When a student reads this book, they will learn a lot about English grammar in a most enjoyable manner.

Semantics

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Semantics by : Janet Dean Fodor

Download or read book Semantics written by Janet Dean Fodor and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Semantics of Syntax

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226067339
Total Pages : 544 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (673 download)

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Book Synopsis The Semantics of Syntax by : Denis Bouchard

Download or read book The Semantics of Syntax written by Denis Bouchard and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1995-12 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the last thirty years, most linguists and philosophers have assumed that meaning can be represented symbolically and that the mental processing of language involves the manipulation of symbols. Scholars have assembled strong evidence that there must be linguistic representations at several abstract levels—phonological, syntactic, and semantic—and that those representations are related by a describable system of rules. Because meaning is so complex, linguists often posit an equally complex relationship between semantic and other levels of grammar. The Semantics of Syntax is an elegant and powerful analysis of the relationship between syntax and semantics. Noting that meaning is underdetermined by form even in simple cases, Denis Bouchard argues that it is impossible to build knowledge of the world into grammar and still have a describable grammar. He thus proposes simple semantic representations and simple rules to relate linguistic levels. Focusing on a class of French verbs, Bouchard shows how multiple senses can be accounted for by the assumption of a single abstract core meaning along with background information about how objects behave in the world. He demonstrates that this move simplifies the syntax at no cost to the descriptive power of the semantics. In two important final chapters, he examines the consequences of his approach for standard syntactic theories.

Semantics and Syntax in Lexical Functional Grammar

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262041713
Total Pages : 426 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (417 download)

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Book Synopsis Semantics and Syntax in Lexical Functional Grammar by : Mary Dalrymple

Download or read book Semantics and Syntax in Lexical Functional Grammar written by Mary Dalrymple and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introduction to and overview of the "glue" approach is the first book to bring together the research of the major contributors to the field. A new, deductive approach to the syntax-semantics interface integrates two mature and successful lines of research: logical deduction for semantic composition and the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) approach to the analysis of linguistic structure. It is often referred to as the "glue" approach because of the role of logic in "gluing" meanings together. The "glue" approach has attracted significant attention from, among others, logicians working in the relatively new and active field of linear logic; linguists interested in a novel deductive approach to the interface between syntax and semantics within a nontransformational, constraint-based syntactic framework; and computational linguists and computer scientists interested in an approach to semantic composition that is grounded in a conceptually simple but powerful computational framework.This introduction to and overview of the "glue" approach is the first book to bring together the research of the major contributors to the field. Contributors Richard Crouch, Mary Dalrymple, John Fry, Vineet Gupta, Mark Johnson, Andrew Kehler, John Lamping, Dick Oehrle, Fernando Pereira, Vijay Saraswat, Josef van Genabith

Natural Language Semantics

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Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262039206
Total Pages : 731 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Natural Language Semantics by : Brendan S. Gillon

Download or read book Natural Language Semantics written by Brendan S. Gillon and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 731 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to natural language semantics that offers an overview of the empirical domain and an explanation of the mathematical concepts that underpin the discipline. This textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of those approaches to natural language semantics that use the insights of logic. Many other texts on the subject focus on presenting a particular theory of natural language semantics. This text instead offers an overview of the empirical domain (drawn largely from standard descriptive grammars of English) as well as the mathematical tools that are applied to it. Readers are shown where the concepts of logic apply, where they fail to apply, and where they might apply, if suitably adjusted. The presentation of logic is completely self-contained, with concepts of logic used in the book presented in all the necessary detail. This includes propositional logic, first order predicate logic, generalized quantifier theory, and the Lambek and Lambda calculi. The chapters on logic are paired with chapters on English grammar. For example, the chapter on propositional logic is paired with a chapter on the grammar of coordination and subordination of English clauses; the chapter on predicate logic is paired with a chapter on the grammar of simple, independent English clauses; and so on. The book includes more than five hundred exercises, not only for the mathematical concepts introduced, but also for their application to the analysis of natural language. The latter exercises include some aimed at helping the reader to understand how to formulate and test hypotheses.

Language at Large

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004207686
Total Pages : 630 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Language at Large by : Alexandra Aikhenvald

Download or read book Language at Large written by Alexandra Aikhenvald and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-07-27 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume brings together important essays on syntax and semantics by Aikhenvald and Dixon, highlighting their expertise in various fields of linguistics. The first part focusses on linguistic typology, covering case markers used on verbs, argument-determined constructions, unusual meanings of causatives, the semantic basis for a typology, word-class-changing derivations, speech reports and semi-direct speech. The second part concentrates on documentation and analysis of previously undescribed languages, from South America and Indigenous Australia. The third part addresses a variety of issues in grammar and lexicography of English. This includes pronouns with transferred reference, comparative constructions, features of the noun phrase, and the discussion of 'twice'. The treatment of Australian Aboriginal words in dictionaries is discussed in the final chapter.

On the Grammar and Semantics of Sentence Accents

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110859262
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis On the Grammar and Semantics of Sentence Accents by : Carlos Gussenhoven

Download or read book On the Grammar and Semantics of Sentence Accents written by Carlos Gussenhoven and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-10-09 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Metasemantics

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0199669597
Total Pages : 378 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis Metasemantics by : Alexis Burgess

Download or read book Metasemantics written by Alexis Burgess and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metasemantics comprises new work on the philosophical foundations of linguistic semantics, by a diverse group of established and emerging experts in the philosophy of language, metaphysics, and the theory of content. The science of semantics aspires to systematically specify the meanings of linguistic expressions in context. The paradigmatic metasemantic question is accordingly: what more basic or fundamental features of the world metaphysically determine these semantic facts? Efforts to answer this question inevitably raise others. Where are the boundaries of semantics? What is the essence of the meaning relation? Which framework should we use for semantic theorizing? What are the intrinsic natures of semantic values? Are the semantic facts metaphysically determinate? What is semantic competence? Metasemantic inquiry has long been recognized as a central part of the philosophy of language, but recent developments in metaphysics and semantics itself now allow us to approach these classic questions with an unprecedented degree of precision. The essays collected here provide promising new perspectives on old problems, pose questions that suggest novel research projects, and taken together, greatly sharpen our understanding of linguistic representation.

Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 9789027979643
Total Pages : 214 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (796 download)

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Book Synopsis Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar by : Noam Chomsky

Download or read book Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar written by Noam Chomsky and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 1972 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No detailed description available for "Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar".

Morphology-Semantics Mismatches and the Nature of Grammatical Features

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Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 1501511122
Total Pages : 281 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis Morphology-Semantics Mismatches and the Nature of Grammatical Features by : Peter W. Smith

Download or read book Morphology-Semantics Mismatches and the Nature of Grammatical Features written by Peter W. Smith and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2021-04-19 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hybrid nouns have a morphological shape that doesn’t match their semantic interpretation. Such nouns pose clear and interesting questions for the nature of grammatical features. For instance, how does a single feature contribute distinct information values to different components of the grammar? Furthermore, what does this observation reveal about the syntax, often taken to mediate between the morphology and the semantics? This book studies hybrid nouns and argues that a single grammatical feature is comprised of two halves, a semantic half and a morphological half, that coexist in the syntax before being sent to the respective interfaces. Viewing features in this way allows us a new look at numerous types of hybrid nouns, such as Imposter constructions, nouns of collection, as well as nouns like ‘furniture’ that straddle the mass-count distinction. Moreover, the study of the agreement patterns of hybrid nouns shows that semantic features behave differently to morphological features under agreement, providing a novel insight into the nature of the mechanism that underlies morphosyntactic agreement.

Linguistic Epidemiology

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135144613
Total Pages : 412 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (351 download)

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Book Synopsis Linguistic Epidemiology by : N.J. Enfield

Download or read book Linguistic Epidemiology written by N.J. Enfield and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important new study examines in detail a semantic-pragmatic pattern surrounding the basic verb 'acquire' in nearly 30 Southeast Asian languages, concentrating on Lao, Vietnamese, Khmer, Kmhmu, Hmong, and varieties of Chinese. The book makes a significant contribution to empirical work on semantic and grammatical change in a linguistic area, as well as representing theoretical advances in cognitive semantics. Gricean pragmatics, semantic change, grammaticalization, language contact, and areal linguistics. The book also examines how changes in the speech of individuals actually become changes in large-scale public convention, 'language contact' is reconsidered, and traditional distinctions such as that between 'internal' and 'external' linguistic mechanisms are challenged. This groundbreaking new book is for specialists in Southeast Asian linguistics as well as scholars of descriptive semantics and pragmatics, grammaticalisation, linguistic change and evolution, areal linguistics and language contact, history and linguistic anthropology.

Challenges at the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface

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Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1527569691
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (275 download)

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Book Synopsis Challenges at the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface by : Robert D. Van Valin Jr.

Download or read book Challenges at the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface written by Robert D. Van Valin Jr. and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together recent scholarship addressing a number of significant issues in linguistic theory and description, including verb classification, case marking, comparative constructions, noun phrase structure, clause linkage and reference-tracking in discourse. These topics are discussed with respect to a wide range of languages, including Bamunka (Bantu), Biblical Hebrew, Japanese, Persian, Pitjantjatjara (Australia), Russian and Taiwan Sign Language. The theoretical perspective employed in these analyses is that of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), a theory which strives to describe language structure and grammatical phenomena in terms of the interaction of syntax, semantics and discourse-pragmatics. RRG differs from other parallel-architecture, constructionally-oriented theories in important ways, particularly with respect to the ability to formulate cross-linguistic generalizations. The ability of RRG to facilitate the formulation of cross-linguistic generalizations is exemplified well in the contributions to this volume. As such, this text makes important theoretical and descriptive contributions to contemporary linguistic discussions.

Perspectives on Semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse

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Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9789027251091
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Perspectives on Semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse by : Ferenc Kiefer

Download or read book Perspectives on Semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse written by Ferenc Kiefer and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2001-01-01 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor Ferenc Kiefer of the Linguistics Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was instrumental in bringing early transformational grammar to Europe. His extensive work contributes substantially to making a connection between the grammatical theory and other areas of linguistics. The 17 essays in this book celebrate his career by continuing to explore inter-area research in linguistics: pragmatics in grammar (de Groot, van Riemsdijk, Dressler & Barbaresi, Comrie), semantic compositionality and pragmatics (Wunderlich, Partee, Borschev, Szabo, Bach), logical structures and universals in semantics and pragmatics (van der Auwera, Bultinck, Burton-Roberts, Harnish, Wierzbicka) dialogue and thematic structure (Jonasson, Doherty, Hajicova, Panevova, Sgall, Allwood, Fraser).

Semantic Structure in English

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Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 9027266522
Total Pages : 470 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Semantic Structure in English by : Jim Feist

Download or read book Semantic Structure in English written by Jim Feist and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2016-09-07 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Syntax puts our meaning (“semantics”) into sentences, and phonology puts the sentences into the sounds that we hear and there must, surely, be a structure in the meaning that is expressed in the syntax and phonology. Some writers use the phrase “semantic structure”, but are referring to conceptual structure; since we can express our conceptual thought in many different linguistic ways, we cannot equate conceptual and semantic structures. The research reported in this book shows semantic structure to be in part hierarchic, fitting the syntax in which it is expressed, and partly a network, fitting the nature of the mind, from which it springs. It is complex enough to provide for the emotive and imaginative dimensions of language, and for shifts of standard meanings in context, and the “rules” that control them. Showing the full structure of English semantics requires attention to many currently topical issues, and since the underlying theory is fresh, there are fresh implications for them. The most important of those issues is information structure, which is given full treatment, showing its overall structure, and its relation to semantics and the whole grammar of English. As of October 2024, this e-book is Open Access under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Analyzing meaning

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Publisher : Language Science Press
ISBN 13 : 3961101361
Total Pages : 502 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (611 download)

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Book Synopsis Analyzing meaning by : Paul R. Kroeger

Download or read book Analyzing meaning written by Paul R. Kroeger and published by Language Science Press. This book was released on 2019 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an introduction to the study of meaning in human language, from a linguistic perspective. It covers a fairly broad range of topics, including lexical semantics, compositional semantics, and pragmatics. The chapters are organized into six units: (1) Foundational concepts; (2) Word meanings; (3) Implicature (including indirect speech acts); (4) Compositional semantics; (5) Modals, conditionals, and causation; (6) Tense & aspect. Most of the chapters include exercises which can be used for class discussion and/or homework assignments, and each chapter contains references for additional reading on the topics covered. As the title indicates, this book is truly an INTRODUCTION: it provides a solid foundation which will prepare students to take more advanced and specialized courses in semantics and/or pragmatics. It is also intended as a reference for fieldworkers doing primary research on under-documented languages, to help them write grammatical descriptions that deal carefully and clearly with semantic issues. The approach adopted here is largely descriptive and non-formal (or, in some places, semi-formal), although some basic logical notation is introduced. The book is written at level which should be appropriate for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students. It presupposes some previous coursework in linguistics, but does not presuppose any background in formal logic or set theory.