Pragmatics and the Flexibility of Word Meaning

Pragmatics and the Flexibility of Word Meaning PDF Author: Eniko Nemeth
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 0585474265
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
Recently, the investigation of word meaning in utterances has connected two different fields: lexical semantics and pragmatics. A new linguistic discipline, namely lexical pragmatics, is emerging. The eleven papers of the present book constitute a unit in the sense that they have a common aim: to explore the interaction between lexical semantics and pragmatics. The authors examine phenomena such as productive sense extension, regular polysemy, multifunctionality, implicit arguments and predicates, and non-typical anaphoric pronouns, on the basis of linguistic data, for instance, from English, Norwegian, Russian, and Hungarian, as well as using a great variety of frameworks (optimality framework, two-level semantics, the theory of generative lexicon, cognitive grammar, Gricean theory, and relevance theory.

The Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics

The Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics PDF Author: Chris Cummins
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192509551
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 1125

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Book Description
This handbook is the first to explore the growing field of experimental semantics and pragmatics. In the past 20 years, experimental data has become a major source of evidence for building theories of language meaning and use, encompassing a wide range of topics and methods. Following an introduction from the editors, the chapters in this volume offer an up-to-date account of research in the field spanning 31 different topics, including scalar implicatures, presuppositions, counterfactuals, quantification, metaphor, prosody, and politeness, as well as exploring how and why a particular experimental method is suitable for addressing a given theoretical debate. The volume's forward-looking approach also seeks to actively identify questions and methods that could be fruitfully combined in future experimental research. Written in a clear and accessible style, this handbook will appeal to students and scholars from advanced undergraduate level upwards in a range of fields, including semantics and pragmatics, philosophy of language, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, cognitive science, and neuroscience.

Words and Meanings

Words and Meanings PDF Author: Cliff Goddard
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199668434
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
This book presents cross-linguistic and cross-cultural investigations of word meaning from different domains of the lexicon - concrete, abstract, physical, sensory, emotional, and social. The words they consider are complex, culturally important, and basic, in a range of languages that includes English, Russian, Polish, French, Warlpiri and Malay.

The Role of Data at the Semantics-pragmatics Interface

The Role of Data at the Semantics-pragmatics Interface PDF Author: Enikő Németh T.
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110240262
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
Mouton Series in Pragmatics (MSP) is a timely response to the growing demand for innovative and authoritative monographs and edited volumes from all angles of pragmatics. Recent theoretical work on the semantics/pragmatics interface, applications of evolutionary biology to the study of language, and empirical work within cognitive and developmental psychology and intercultural communication has directed attention to issues that warrant reexamination, as well as revision of some of the central tenets and claims of the field of pragmatics. The series welcomes proposals that reflect this endeavour and exploration within the discipline and neighboring fields such as language philosophy, communication, information science, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition and cognitive science. MSP will provide a forum for authors who represent different subfields of pragmatics including the linguistic, cognitive, social, and intercultural paradigms, and have important and intriguing ideas and research findings to share with scholars who are interested in linguistics in general and pragmatics in particular.

The Meaning and Uses of βασιλεία in the Gospel of Matthew

The Meaning and Uses of βασιλεία in the Gospel of Matthew PDF Author: Tobias Ålöw
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004686959
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
Contrary to the prevailing view that βασιλεία is a verbal noun signifying God’s rule, this study demonstrates how the term’s pragmatic range in Matthew’s Gospel covers both five distinct types of use and their integration into a coherent concept. The study, which is the first to examine all occurrences of βασιλεία in the First Gospel from the perspective of semantic monosemy, extends and enhances our appreciation of the Matthean Zentralbegriff, and engenders a more accurate apprehension of the nature and aims of the Matthean narrative and the theological views it conveys.

Meaning: the Dynamic Turn

Meaning: the Dynamic Turn PDF Author: Jaroslav Peregrin
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004454144
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
This book, based on a conference held in Prague in September 2001, presents a study of the theories of formal semantics of natural language. The collected papers address, from various sides, the foundational questions of the dynamic theories of meaning. It helps to understand more than just the technical side of dynamic semantics.

Multidimensional Semantics of Evaluative Adverbs

Multidimensional Semantics of Evaluative Adverbs PDF Author: Mingya Liu
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1781902712
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Suitable for linguists and philosophers of language, this book provides a multidimensional analysis for the lexical semantics of evaluative adverbs: nonfactive evaluative adverbs trigger a conventional implicature, whereas, factive evaluative adverbs not only trigger a conventional implicature but also a conventional presupposition.

Questions in Dynamic Semantics

Questions in Dynamic Semantics PDF Author: Maria Aloni
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 0080470998
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
The study of questions and answers is challenging for various fields of theoretical linguistics, logic, analytical philosophy, and more recently computer science. Research into questions and answers addresses old and raises new and important questions about the semantics / pragmatics interface and about the dynamics of interpretation. This book brings together current work on the topic as it has been developed in Amsterdam, and congenial academic sites, over the past 15 years. Amsterdam is one of the breeding grounds for the formal study of logic and language, for dynamic semantics, and for the study of questions and answers. It covers the major issues of pragmatic/semantic investigation, including logical relations, context dependence, information structure, and more. It illustrates how semantic/pragmatic stance can be used for problems in other areas of linguistic theorising.

The Semantics of Grammatical Dependencies

The Semantics of Grammatical Dependencies PDF Author: Alastair Butler
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004253181
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The Semantics of Grammatical Dependencies argues that constraints of interaction from semantic evaluations enforce grammatical dependency patterns that recur across natural languages and within constructions at intra and inter sentential levels as well as discourse levels. The book develops along three lines. Firstly, a handle is gained on why languages are structured around localities, with localities functioning as actions of 'reset' to permit the reuse of grammatical resources that maintain a fixed semantic contribution. Secondly, sensitivity is brought to the linear and hierarchical placement of scope information to capture ordering effects like accessibility, crossover and intervention. Thirdly, an interestingly different perspective is reached on what it means to be grammatical: rather than being a destructive feature that bans or filters out bad structure, grammaticality takes on a role of constructive guidance that keeps languages to what are generally unambiguous canonical forms that moreover guarantee required dependencies. The book will be of interest to advanced undergraduate students, post-graduate and research students and all researchers in the formal analysis of the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of natural language.

Interactive Dialogue Sequences in Middle English Drama

Interactive Dialogue Sequences in Middle English Drama PDF Author: Gabriella Mazzon
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027254303
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This book looks at mediaeval English drama using the theoretical frameworks of historical sociopragmatics and dialogue analysis. It focuses on the collection of cycle plays known as the N.Town Plays, preserved in a manuscript from the fifteenth century. The book examines various linguistic markers that are important for the expression of social relations and pragmatic stance: pronouns and terms of address, modal markers, performatives, and sequential structures such as question-answer, imperative-compliance, etc. These elements are examined separately and then brought together to arrive at a more integrated analysis of dramatic dialogue and of the dynamics of interaction it portrays. A separate chapter is devoted to tracing the same mechanisms on a different communication level, i.e. in 'dialogue' with the audience, which is particularly relevant to the instructional purposes of the plays. The book will be useful to students and scholars of pragmatics, historical linguistics, dialogue studies and drama studies.