Semantics, 2nd Edition

by John I. Saeed (Trinity College, Dublin)

• ISBN13: 9780631226932
• ISBN10: 0631226931
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This second edition of Semantics provides an engaging introduction to semantics for students new to the field. This second edition provides an engaging introduction to semantics for students new to the field. Covers the basic concepts and methods of the field and discusses some of the most important contemporary lines of research. Contains exercises that familiarize the student with the practice of semantic description. Completely revised and updated with an extended discussion of theory.

Author Biography

John I. Saeed is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Trinity College, University of Dublin. He is the author of several books, including Somali Reference Grammar (second edition, 1993) and Somali (1999).

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	xv
Preface	xvii
Abbreviations and Symbols	xix
Part I Preliminaries	1	(50)
Semantics in Linguistics	3	(20)
Introduction	3	(2)
Semantics and Semiotics	5	(1)
Three Challenges in Doing Semantics	6	(1)
Meeting the Challenges	7	(2)
Semantics in a Model of Grammar	9	(2)
Introduction	9	(1)
Word meaning and sentence meaning	10	(1)
Some Important Assumptions	11	(8)
Reference and sense	12	(1)
Utterances, sentences and propositions	12	(3)
Literal and non-literal meaning	15	(2)
Semantics and pragmatics	17	(2)
Summary	19	(4)
Further Reading	19	(1)
Exercises	19	(2)
Notes	21	(2)
Meaning, Thought and Reality	23	(28)
Introduction	23	(2)
Reference	25	(5)
Types of reference	25	(2)
Names	27	(1)
Nouns and noun phrases	28	(2)
Reference as a Theory of Meaning	30	(2)
Mental Representations	32	(8)
Introduction	32	(2)
Concepts	34	(1)
Necessary and sufficient conditions	35	(2)
Prototypes	37	(1)
Relations between concepts	38	(2)
Acquiring concepts	40	(1)
Words, Concepts and Thinking	40	(6)
Linguistic relativity	41	(2)
The language of thought hypothesis	43	(1)
Thought and reality	44	(2)
Summary	46	(5)
Further Reading	47	(1)
Exercises	47	(2)
Notes	49	(2)
Part II Semantic Description	51	(194)
Word Meaning	53	(33)
Introduction	53	(2)
Words and Grammatical Categories	55	(1)
Words and Lexical Items	55	(4)
Problems with Pinning Down Word Meaning	59	(4)
Lexical Relations	63	(8)
Homonymy	63	(1)
Polysemy	64	(1)
Synonymy	65	(1)
Opposites (antonymy)	66	(2)
Hyponymy	68	(2)
Meronymy	70	(1)
Member-collection	71	(1)
Portion-mass	71	(1)
Derivational Relations	71	(2)
Causative verbs	72	(1)
Agentive nouns	73	(1)
Lexical Universals	73	(6)
Colour terms	74	(2)
Core vocabulary	76	(2)
Universal lexemes	78	(1)
Summary	79	(7)
Further Reading	79	(1)
Exercises	80	(3)
Notes	83	(3)
Sentence Relations and Truth	86	(30)
Introduction	86	(2)
Logic and Truth	88	(6)
Necessary Truth, A Priori Truth and Analyticity	94	(4)
Entailment	98	(3)
Presupposition	101	(9)
Introduction	101	(1)
Two approaches to presupposition	102	(2)
Presupposition failure	104	(2)
Presupposition triggers	106	(1)
Presuppositions and context	107	(2)
Pragmatic theories of presupposition	109	(1)
Summary	110	(6)
Further Reading	110	(1)
Exercises	111	(3)
Notes	114	(2)
Sentence Semantics 1: Situations	116	(32)
Introduction	116	(1)
Classifying Situations	117	(18)
Introduction	117	(2)
Verbs and situation types	119	(4)
A system of situation types	123	(1)
Tense and aspect	124	(6)
Comparing aspect across languages	130	(3)
Combining situation type and aspect	133	(2)
Modality and Evidentiality	135	(8)
Modality	135	(3)
Mood	138	(3)
Evidentiality	141	(2)
Summary	143	(5)
Further Reading	143	(1)
Exercises	144	(3)
Notes	147	(1)
Sentence Semantics 2: Participants	148	(33)
Introduction: Classifying Participants	148	(1)
Thematic Roles	149	(5)
Grammatical Relations and Thematic Roles	154	(2)
Verbs and Thematic Role Grids	156	(2)
Problems with Thematic Roles	158	(3)
The Motivation for Identifying Thematic Roles	161	(3)
Voice	164	(10)
Passive voice	164	(4)
Comparing passive constructions across languages	168	(2)
Middle voice	170	(4)
Summary	174	(7)
Further Reading	174	(1)
Exercises	175	(3)
Notes	178	(3)
Context and Inference	181	(38)
Introduction	181	(1)
Deixis	182	(7)
Spatial deixis	182	(4)
Grammaticalization of context	186	(1)
Extensions of spatial deixis	186	(1)
Person deixis	187	(1)
Social deixis	188	(1)
Reference and Context	189	(1)
Knowledge as Context	190	(6)
Discourse as context	191	(1)
Background knowledge as context	192	(1)
Mutual knowledge	193	(1)
Giving background knowledge to computers	194	(2)
Information Structure	196	(6)
The information status of nominals	196	(3)
Focus and topic	199	(2)
Information structure and comprehension	201	(1)
Inference	202	(2)
Conversational Implicature	204	(6)
Grice's maxims of conversational cooperation	204	(3)
Generalizing the Gricean maxims	207	(1)
Relevance theory	208	(2)
Summary	210	(9)
Further Reading	212	(1)
Exercises	212	(5)
Notes	217	(2)
Functions of Language: Speech as Action	219	(26)
Introduction	219	(3)
Austin's Speech Act Theory	222	(6)
Introduction	222	(2)
Evaluating performative utterances	224	(1)
Explicit and implicit performatives	225	(1)
Statements as performatives	226	(1)
Three facets of a speech act	227	(1)
Categorizing Speech Acts	228	(2)
Indirect Speech Acts	230	(7)
Introduction	230	(2)
Understanding indirect speech acts	232	(2)
Indirect acts and politeness	234	(3)
Sentence Types	237	(2)
Summary	239	(6)
Further Reading	240	(1)
Exercises	240	(2)
Notes	242	(3)
Part III Theoretical Approaches	245	(140)
Meaning Components	247	(45)
Introduction	247	(1)
Lexical Relations in CA	248	(2)
Binary features	249	(1)
Redundancy rules	249	(1)
Katz's Semantic Theory	250	(4)
Introduction	250	(1)
The Katzian dictionary	251	(1)
Projection rules	251	(3)
Grammatical Rules and Semantic Components	254	(8)
The methodology	254	(3)
Thematic roles and linking rules	257	(5)
Components and Conflation Patterns	262	(4)
Jackendoff's Conceptual Structure	266	(10)
Introduction	266	(1)
The semantic components	267	(2)
Localist semantic fields	269	(1)
Complex events and states	270	(1)
THINGS: Semantic classes of nominals	271	(1)
Cross-category generalizations	272	(1)
Processes of semantic combination	273	(3)
Pustejovsky's Generative Lexicon	276	(7)
Event Structure	277	(4)
Qualia structure	281	(2)
Problems with Components of Meaning	283	(1)
Summary	284	(8)
Further Reading	285	(1)
Exercises	285	(5)
Notes	290	(2)
Formal Semantics	292	(50)
Introduction	292	(3)
Model-Theoretical Semantics	295	(1)
Translating English into a Logical Metalanguage	296	(6)
Introduction	296	(1)
Simple statements in predicate logic	296	(2)
Quantifiers in predicate logic	298	(3)
Some advantages of predicate logic translation	301	(1)
The Semantics of the Logical Metalanguage	302	(3)
Introduction	302	(1)
The semantic interpretation of predicate logic symbols	303	(1)
The domain	304	(1)
The denotation assignment function	304	(1)
Checking the Truth Value of Sentences	305	(5)
Evaluating a simple statement	306	(1)
Evaluating a compound sentence with ^ `and'	306	(2)
Evaluating sentences with the quantifiers A and E	308	(2)
Word Meaning: Meaning Postulates	310	(2)
Natural Language Quantifiers and Higher Order Logic	312	(8)
Restricted quantifiers	313	(1)
Generalized quantifiers	314	(2)
The strong/weak distinction and existential there sentences	316	(2)
Monotonicity and negative polarity items	318	(2)
Section summary	320	(1)
Intensionality	320	(7)
Introduction	320	(2)
Modality	322	(2)
Tense and aspect	324	(3)
Dynamic Approaches to Discourse	327	(7)
Anaphora in and across sentences	327	(2)
Donkey sentences	329	(1)
DRT and discourse anaphora	329	(5)
Summary	334	(8)
Further Reading	335	(1)
Exercises	336	(3)
Notes	339	(3)
Cognitive Semantics	342	(43)
Introduction	342	(3)
Metaphor	345	(7)
Introduction	345	(2)
Metaphor in cognitive semantics	347	(1)
Features of metaphor	348	(3)
The influence of metaphor	351	(1)
Metonymy	352	(1)
Image Schemas	353	(4)
Containment schema	354	(1)
Path schema	355	(1)
Force schemas	356	(1)
Polysemy	357	(7)
Prepositions	358	(4)
Modal verbs	362	(2)
Mental Spaces	364	(10)
Connections between spaces	365	(3)
Referential opacity	368	(3)
Presupposition	371	(2)
Section summary	373	(1)
Langacker's Cognitive Grammar	374	(11)
Nouns, verbs and clauses	374	(2)
Construal	376	(2)
Summary	378	(1)
Further Reading	379	(1)
Exercises	379	(3)
Notes	382	(3)
References	385	(21)
Index	406