The Semantics of Evaluativity

The Semantics of Evaluativity PDF Author: Jessica Rett
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199602476
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
This book focuses on the semantic phenomenon of evaluativity and its consequences across constructions. Evaluativity has traditionally been associated exclusively with the positive construction, a term for sentences with a gradable adjective but with no overt degree morphology. Previous accounts of evaluativity have assumed that it is not part of the inherent meaning of adjectives, but is contributed by a null morpheme. Jessica Rett argues against this analysis, proposing that no null morpheme is required. Instead, evaluativity is explained on the basis of assumptions that speakers and hearers make about the relationship between the simplicity of a situation and the simplicity of the language used to describe that situation; the analysis is couched in recent approaches to Gricean conversational implicature.--Provided by publisher.

The Semantics of Evaluativity

The Semantics of Evaluativity PDF Author: Jessica Rett
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199602476
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Get Book

Book Description
This book focuses on the semantic phenomenon of evaluativity and its consequences across constructions. Evaluativity has traditionally been associated exclusively with the positive construction, a term for sentences with a gradable adjective but with no overt degree morphology. Previous accounts of evaluativity have assumed that it is not part of the inherent meaning of adjectives, but is contributed by a null morpheme. Jessica Rett argues against this analysis, proposing that no null morpheme is required. Instead, evaluativity is explained on the basis of assumptions that speakers and hearers make about the relationship between the simplicity of a situation and the simplicity of the language used to describe that situation; the analysis is couched in recent approaches to Gricean conversational implicature.--Provided by publisher.

Focus, Evaluativity, and Antonymy

Focus, Evaluativity, and Antonymy PDF Author: Sam Alxatib
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030378063
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
This book uncovers properties of focus association with 'only' by examining the interaction between the particle and bare (or “evaluative”) gradable terms. Its empirical building blocks are paradigms involving upward-scalar terms like 'few' and 'rarely', and their downward-scalar antonyms 'many' and 'frequently', an area that has not been studied previously in the literature. The empirical claim is that associations of the former type give rise to unexpected readings, and the proposed theoretical explanation draws on the properties of the latter type of association. In presenting the details, the book deconstructs the so-called scalar presupposition of 'only' and derives it from constraints against its vacuous use. This view is then combined with a semantics of the evaluative adjectives 'many' and 'few' to explain why the unavailable (but expected) meanings of the given constructions are unavailable. The attested (but unexpected) readings of 'only+few/rarely' associations are derived from independently motivated LFs in which the degree expressions are existentially closed. Finally, the book provides new findings, based on the core proposal, about 'only if' constructions, and about the interaction between 'only' and other upward-scalar modified numerals (comparatives, and 'at most'). The book thus provides new data and a new theoretical view of the semantic properties of 'only', and connects it to the semantics of gradable expressions.

Evaluative Semantics

Evaluative Semantics PDF Author: Jean-Pierre Malrieu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134642296
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Evaluation, from connotations to complex judgements of value, is probably the most neglected dimension of meaning. Calling for a new understanding of truth and value, this book is a comprehensive study of evaluation in natural language, at lexical, syntactic and discursive levels. Jean Pierre Malrieu explores the cognitive foundations of evaluation and uses connectionist networks to model evaluative processes. He takes into account the social dimension of evaluation, showing that ideological contexts account for evaluative variability. A discussion of compositionality and opacity leads to the argument that a semantics of evaluation has some key advantages over truth-conditional semantics and as an example Malrieu applies his evaluative semantics to a complex Shakespeare text. His connectionist model yields a mathematical estimation of the consistency of text with ideology, and is particularly useful in the identification of subtle rhetorical devices such as irony.

Interactions of Degree and Quantification

Interactions of Degree and Quantification PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004431519
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Interactions of Degree and Quantification examines connections and semantic parallels between individual and degree quantifiers in the expression of quantity and measurement in human language.

Modification

Modification PDF Author: Marcin Morzycki
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107009758
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
An accessible guide to the linguistic semantics of adjectives, adverbs, gradability, vagueness, comparatives, and modification more generally.

Journal of Slavic Linguistics

Journal of Slavic Linguistics PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Slavic languages
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description


Negatio Contrarii

Negatio Contrarii PDF Author: Maria E. Hoffmann
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Latin language
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description


Thick Concepts

Thick Concepts PDF Author: Simon Kirchin
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0199672342
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
An international team of experts explores the distinction between 'thin' concepts (general, evaluative terms like 'good' and 'bad') and 'thick' concepts (more specific concepts, such as 'brave', or 'rude'). Their essays touch on key debates in metaethics about the evaluative and normative, and raise fascinating questions about how language works.

Dissertation Abstracts International

Dissertation Abstracts International PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertations, Academic
Languages : en
Pages : 532

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Book Description


The Historiography of Generative Linguistics

The Historiography of Generative Linguistics PDF Author: András Kertész
Publisher: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag
ISBN: 3823391569
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Although the past decades have seen a great diversity of approaches to the history of generative linguistics, there has been no systematic analysis of the state of the art. The aim of the book is to fill this gap. Part I provides an unbiased, balanced and impartial overview of numerous approaches to the history of generative linguistics. In addition, it evaluates the approaches thus discussed against a set of evaluation criteria. Part II demonstrates in a case study the workability of a model of plausible argumentation that goes beyond the limits of current historiographical approaches. Due to the comprehensive analysis of the state of the art, the book may be useful for graduate and undergraduate students. However, since it is also intended to enrich the historiography of linguistics in a novel way, the book may also attract the attention of both linguists interested in the history of science, and historians of science interested in linguistics.