The Semantics Of Grammar

Author : Anna Wierzbicka
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 632 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 1988-01-01
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027230195

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The Semantics of Grammar by Anna Wierzbicka Pdf

"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.

Author : Denis Bouchard
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 544 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 1995-12
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0226067335

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The Semantics of Syntax by Denis Bouchard Pdf

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.

Author : R. M. W. Dixon
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 562 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2005-06-30
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780199283071

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A Semantic Approach to English Grammar by R. M. W. Dixon Pdf

Showing how grammar helps people communicate and looking at the ways grammar and meaning interrelate, this work reviews the main points of English syntax and discusses English verbs in terms of their semantic types.

Author : D. R. Dowty
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 441 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2012-12-06
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789400994737

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Word Meaning and Montague Grammar by D. R. Dowty Pdf

The most general goal of this book is to propose and illustrate a program of research in word semantics that combines some of the methodology and results in linguistic semantics, primarily that of the generative semantics school, with the rigorously formalized syntactic and semantic framework for the analysis of natural languages developed by Richard Montague and his associates, a framework in which truth and denotation with respect to a model are taken as the fundamental semantic notions. I hope to show, both from the linguist's and the philosopher's point of view, not only why this synthesis can be undertaken but also why it will be useful to pursue it. On the one hand, the linguists' decompositions of word meanings into more primitive parts are by themselves inherently incomplete, in that they deal only in distinctions in meaning without providing an account of what mean ings really are. Not only can these analyses be made complete by a model theoretic semantics, but also such an account of these analyses renders them more exact and more readily testable than they could ever be otherwise.

Author : Mary Dalrymple
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 426 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0262041715

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Semantics and Syntax in Lexical Functional Grammar by Mary Dalrymple Pdf

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

Author : Peter W. Smith
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2021-04-19
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781501510991

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Morphology-Semantics Mismatches and the Nature of Grammatical Features by Peter W. Smith Pdf

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.

Author : Robert D. Van Valin Jr.
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 330 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2021-05-18
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781527569690

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Challenges at the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface by Robert D. Van Valin Jr. Pdf

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.

Author : Howard Jackson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2014-06-11
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781317901167

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Grammar and Meaning by Howard Jackson Pdf

Grammar and Meaning is an introduction to the study of grammar of contemporary English. It provides an impressive survey of all the main areas of English grammar, from words through to sentences and texts. It introduces and explains the linguistic terms needed to talk about the ways in which language works, from simple terms like adjective to more complex terms like non-finite clause. To meet the needs of both students and scholars, Howard Jackson has produced an innovative approach to the study of English grammar. Instead of concentrating on the formal and theoretical discussion of grammar, as many introductions do, this original analysis examines the 'meanings' we want to express when we use language. Beginning with the question, "What do we talk about?", it goes on to investigate how these meanings are structured in the grammar of English. These notions are closer to our ordinary understanding of what language is doing, and therefore the forms and structures of grammar are more easily grasped. The book is extensively illustrated with examples from real English. With analytical exercises in each chapter and a comprehensive glossary of terms, the book will prove and invaluable aid to students of English language, linguistics and English as a Foreign Language, whilst also being accessible to anyone who studies English grammar as part of their course.

Author : Nick Riemer
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 477 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2010-03-25
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780521851923

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Introducing Semantics by Nick Riemer Pdf

An introduction to the study of meaning in language for undergraduate students.

Author : Anna Wierzbicka
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 629 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 1988-01-01
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027286123

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The Semantics of Grammar by Anna Wierzbicka Pdf

“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.

Author : N.J. Enfield
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2013-04-15
Category : Foreign Language Study
ISBN : 9781135144616

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Linguistic Epidemiology by N.J. Enfield Pdf

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.

Author : Johan Van Der Auwera
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2014-01-21
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781317933472

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The Semantics of Determiners (RLE Linguistics B: Grammar) by Johan Van Der Auwera Pdf

This book is a collection of linguistic and philosophical papers dealing with the semantic problems of determiners. The language under investigation is mostly English, although a few papers deal with French and German, and, to a lesser extent, with Dutch, Polish, Russian and Hebrew. The majority of the contributions focus on the semantics of the definite and indefinite articles, leading into discussions of anaphoricness, specificness, opacity and transparency, referentiality and attributiveness and genericness. The relation of the determiners to other parts of grammar, in particular relativisation and predication, is also investigated. Some attention is also given to quantifiers. In the spirit of pluralism, there is no single paradigm unifying all the papers, rather, the volume reflects elements of the Extended Standard Theory, Generative Semantics, Montague Grammar, (Gricean) Pragmatics and Speech Act Theory.

Author : Howard Jackson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 1990
Category : English language
ISBN : UCSC:32106016477082

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Grammar and Meaning by Howard Jackson Pdf

Grammar and Meaning is an introduction to the study of grammar of contemporary English. It provides an impressive survey of all the main areas of English grammar, and introduces and explains the linguistic terms needed to illustrate the ways in which language works. Unlike many studies of grammar that are available, this text adopts an innovative approach to the study of English grammar, examining the 'meanings' people want to express when using language. These notions are closer to our ordinary understanding of what language is doing, and therefore the forms and structures of grammar are more easily grasped.

Author : Carlos Gussenhoven
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2014-10-09
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783110859263

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On the Grammar and Semantics of Sentence Accents by Carlos Gussenhoven Pdf

Author : Jianhua Hu
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 207 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2019-06-06
Category : Foreign Language Study
ISBN : 9781000008661

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Prominence and Locality in Grammar by Jianhua Hu Pdf

This book challenges the current consensus on the analysis of wh-questions and reflexives from the perspective of the syntax-semantics interface. An integrated approach incorporating analyses of the interaction between different levels of linguistic knowledge is proposed. It argues that the derivation and interpretation of wh-questions and reflexives are not purely syntactic in nature but are regulated by principles operating at the syntax-semantics interface. Two general principles underlying our knowledge of language and cognition are proposed in this work. One is the Principle of Locality, and the other is the Principle of Prominence. It shows that although wh-quantification and reflexivization belong to two different domains of study in generative grammar, their derivation and interpretation are basically constrained by the complex interaction between prominence and locality in grammar. The first part of the book discusses how wh-questions are formed and interpreted in Chinese and English and shows that the formation and interpretation of wh-questions are constrained by the interaction between prominence and locality. It is shown that in wh-interpretation prominence is used to define the set generators so as to licence other wh-words in the pair-list reading in multiple wh-questions. It also discusses wh-island effects in English and Chinese, and unlike previous claims made in the literature (cf. Huang 1982a, 1982b), it argues that the so-called wh-island effects in English are also observed in Chinese. The second part of the book investigates the role that prominence and locality play in reflexive binding. It is shown that in reflexive binding, the binding domain of the reflexive is defined by prominence. It proposes a unified account for both the noncontrastive compound reflexive and the bare reflexive in Chinese and shows that they are constrained by the same reflexive binding condition proposed in this work, though they employ different definitions of the most prominent NPs to determine their binding domains. Prominence and Locality in Grammar: The Syntax and Semantics of Wh-Quesitons and Reflexives is an important theoretical contribution to the syntax-semantics interface studies and can serve as a valuable text for graduate students and scholars in the field of Chinese, linguistics, and cognitive science.