What is Meaning? Fundamentals of Formal Semantics

by Portner, Paul H.

• ISBN13: 9781405109185
• ISBN10: 1405109181
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-04
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

What is Meaning? Fundamentals of Formal Semantics is a concise introduction to the field of semantics as it is actually practiced. Through simple examples, pictures, and metaphors, Paul Portner presents the field's key ideas about how language works. explains the fundamental ideas and some of the most significant results of modern semantic theory combines foundational discussion with simplified analyses of complex phenomena to provide readers with a sense of the fascination to be found in the details of the human language includes exercises and thought-provoking questions to facilitate learning

Author Biography

Paul H. Portner is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science at Georgetown University. He is co-editor of Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings (with Barbara H. Partee, Blackwell, 2002) as well as the author of numerous articles on topics such as mood and modality, tense and aspect, and the syntax/semantics interface.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	x
1 The Fundamental Question	1	(27)
1.1 What is a Meaning?	3	(8)
1.2 Meanings are Out in the World	11	(1)
1.3 We Should Think of the Meaning of Sentences in Terms of Truth-Conditions	12	(16)
2 Putting a -leaning Together from Pieces	28	(12)
2.1 Names Refer	29	(1)
2.2 Incomplete Propositions	30	(1)
2.3 Predication is Saturation	31	(2)
2.4 Compositionality	33	(1)
2.5 Syntax and Semantics	34	(6)
3 More about Predicates	40	(21)
3.1 Other Types of Predicates: Adjectives, Predicate Nominals	40	(4)
3.2 Transitive Verbs	44	(1)
3.3 Relative Clauses	45	(3)
3.4 Topicalization	48	(1)
3.5 Sub-atomic Semantics	49	(5)
3.6 Modeling Properties with Sets and Functions	54	(7)
4 Modifiers	61	(17)
4.1 Adjective + N Combination	61	(4)
4.2 More Issues with Adjectives	65	(3)
4.3 Relative Clauses as Modifiers	68	(1)
4.4 Adverbs	69	(5)
4.5 The Form of Meanings and their World-describing Content	74	(4)
5 Complexities of Referring Expressions	78	(34)
5.1 Definite NPs	78	(2)
5.2 Some Subtleties	80	(3)
5.3 A Bit about Indefinite NPs	83	(1)
5.4 Theories of Reference	84	(11)
5.5 Plurals and Mass Terms	95	(4)
5.6 Kinds	99	(3)
5.7 Pronouns and Anaphora	102	(10)
6 Quantifiers	112	(20)
6.1 Generalized Quantifiers: Predicates of Predicates, or Sets of Sets	113	(7)
6.2 NP Conjunction	120	(2)
6.3 Negative Polarity Items	122	(5)
6.4 Quantifiers in Object Position	127	(5)
7 Extensional vs. Intensional Contexts	132	(5)
8 Tense, Aspect, and Modality	137	(24)
8.1 Tense	138	(8)
8.2 Aspect	146	(8)
8.3 Modality	154	(7)
9 Propositional Attitudes	161	(15)
9.1 A Possible Worlds Semantics for Belief and Desire	162	(2)
9.2 Logical Consequences of the Modal Analysis of Propositional Attitude Verbs	164	(2)
9.3 Two Foundational Problems: Coreferential Terms and Logical Truths	166	(4)
9.4 Structure and Meaning	170	(4)
9.5 Or, Have We Reached the Limits of Semantics?	174	(2)
10 The Pragmatics of What's Given	176	(23)
10.1 Indexicality and Deixis	177	(1)
10.2 Presupposition	178	(12)
10.3 Speech Acts	190	(5)
10.4 Focus and Topic	195	(4)
11 The Pragmatics of Inference	199	(7)
11.1 Properties of Implicature	203	(3)
12 Formal Semantics Today	206	(12)
12.1 Diversity within Formal Semantics	206	(7)
12.2 Relationships with Other Varieties of Semantics	213	(1)
12.3 Relationships with Other Fields	214	(4)
Appendix: Answers to Selected Exercises	218	(5)
References	223	(7)
Index	230