Word Meaning and Syntax

Word Meaning and Syntax PDF Author: Stephen Wechsler
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199279896
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
This book examines the nature of the interface between word meaning and syntax, one of the most controversial and elusive issues in contemporary linguistics. It approaches the interface from both sides of the relation, and surveys a range of views on the mapping between them, with an emphasis on lexical approaches to argument structure. Stephen Wechsler begins by analysing the fundamental problem of word meaning, with discussions of vagueness and polysemy, complemented with a look at the roles of world knowledge and normative aspects of word meaning. He then surveys the argument-taking properties of verbs and other predicators, and presents key theories of lexical semantic structure. Later chapters provide a description of formal theories and frameworks for capturing the mapping from word meaning to syntactic structure, as well as arguments in favour of a lexicalist approach to argument structure. The book will interest scholars of theoretical linguistics, particularly in the fields of syntax and lexical semantics, as well as those interested in psycholinguistics and philosophy of language.

Word Meaning and Syntax

Word Meaning and Syntax PDF Author: Stephen Wechsler
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199279896
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 370

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines the nature of the interface between word meaning and syntax, one of the most controversial and elusive issues in contemporary linguistics. It approaches the interface from both sides of the relation, and surveys a range of views on the mapping between them, with an emphasis on lexical approaches to argument structure. Stephen Wechsler begins by analysing the fundamental problem of word meaning, with discussions of vagueness and polysemy, complemented with a look at the roles of world knowledge and normative aspects of word meaning. He then surveys the argument-taking properties of verbs and other predicators, and presents key theories of lexical semantic structure. Later chapters provide a description of formal theories and frameworks for capturing the mapping from word meaning to syntactic structure, as well as arguments in favour of a lexicalist approach to argument structure. The book will interest scholars of theoretical linguistics, particularly in the fields of syntax and lexical semantics, as well as those interested in psycholinguistics and philosophy of language.

Definitions

Definitions PDF Author: Annabel Cormack
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780815331315
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
The answer to the question "How can we understand and use a definition?" provides new constraints on natural language and on the internal language in which meaning is mentally represented. Most syntax takes the sentence as the basic unit for well-formedness, but definitions force us to focus on words and phrases, and hence to focus on compositional syntax in parallel with compositional semantics. This study examines both dictionary definitions and definitions from textbooks, from the points of view of their syntax, semantics, and use for learning word meaning. The tools used throughout are Principles and Parameters syntax, Relevance theoretic pragmatics, Model theoretic semantics, and the formal theory of definitions. The analyses argue that because phrases can be understood in isolation, some standard syntactic analyses must be modified. 'NP movement' has to be reanalysed as transmission of theta roles. These ideas are then applied to a variety of adjectives which take propositional complements. The final chapter argues that for definitions to be understood, the syntax of the Language of Thought must be close to that of Natural Language in specifiable way.

An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory

An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory PDF Author: Dominique Sportiche
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118470478
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Book Description
An Introduction to Syntactic Analysis and Theory offers beginning students a comprehensive overview of and introduction to our current understanding of the rules and principles that govern the syntax of natural languages. Includes numerous pedagogical features such as 'practice' boxes and sidebars, designed to facilitate understanding of both the 'hows' and the 'whys' of sentence structure Guides readers through syntactic and morphological structures in a progressive manner Takes the mystery out of one of the most crucial aspects of the workings of language – the principles and processes behind the structure of sentences Ideal for students with minimal knowledge of current syntactic research, it progresses in theoretical difficulty from basic ideas and theories to more complex and advanced, up to date concepts in syntactic theory

Syntax

Syntax PDF Author: Robert D. Van Valin (Jr.)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521499156
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 744

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Book Description
An introduction to syntactic theory and analysis.

Modern Syntax

Modern Syntax PDF Author: Andrew Carnie
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139495046
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
This practical coursebook introduces all the basics of modern syntactic analysis in a simple step-by-step fashion. Each unit is constructed so that the reader discovers new ideas, formulates hypotheses and practises fundamentals. The reader is presented with short sections of explanation with examples, followed by practice exercises. Feedback and comment sections follow to enable students to monitor their progress. No previous background in syntax is assumed. Students move through all the key topics in the field including features, rules of combination and displacement, empty categories, and subcategorization. The theoretical perspective in this work is unique, drawing together the best ideas from three major syntactic frameworks (minimalism, HPSG and LFG). Students using this book will learn fundamentals in such a way that they can easily go on to pursue further study in any of these frameworks.

English Syntax

English Syntax PDF Author: Lynn M. Berk
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195123524
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
This clear and highly accessible descriptive grammar of English has a strong semantic and discourse/functional focus. It explains the basics of English syntax while providing readers with a comprehensive view of the richness and complexity of the system. Each structure is discussed in terms of its syntactic features, its meaning, and its uses in discourse.

Analyzing Syntax

Analyzing Syntax PDF Author: Paul Kroeger
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521016544
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Analyzing Syntax: A Lexical-Functional Approach is a comprehensive and accessible 2004 textbook on syntactic analysis, designed for students of linguistics at advanced undergraduate or graduate level. Working within the 'Lexical Functional Grammar' (LFG) approach, it provides students with a framework for analyzing and describing grammatical structure, using extensive examples from both European and non-European languages. Topics covered include: tests for constituency, passivization and other relation-changing processes, reflexive pronouns, the control relation, Topic and Focus, relative clauses and Wh-questions, causative constructions, serial verbs, 'quirky case', and ergativity. As well as building on what linguists have learned about language in general, particular attention is paid to the unique features of individual languages. While its primary focus is on syntactic structure, the book also deals with aspects of meaning, function and word-structure that are directly relevant to syntax. Clearly organised into topics, this textbook is ideal for one-semester courses in syntax and grammatical analysis.

Papers on Syntax

Papers on Syntax PDF Author: Z. Harris
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400984677
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
The selection of papers reprinted here traces the development of syntax from structural linguistics through transformational linguistics to operator gram mar. These three are not opposing views or independent assumptions about language. Rather, they are successive stages of investigation into the word combinations which constitue the sentences of a language in contrast to those which do not. Throughout, the goal has been to find the systemati cities of these combinations, and then to obtain each sentence in a uniform way from its parts. In structural analysis, the parts were words (simple or complex, belonging to particular classes) or particular sequences of these. In transformational analysis, it is found that the parts of a sentence are elementary sentences, whose parts in turn are simple words of particular classes. The relation between these two analyses is seen in the existence of an intermediate stage between the two, presented in paper 4, From Morpheme to Utterance. A further intermediate stage is presented in the writer's String Analysis of Sentence Structure, Papers on Formal Linguistics I, Mouton, The Hague 1962 (though it was developed after transformations, as a syntactic rep resentation for computational analysis). Generalization of both of these analyses leads to operator grammar, in which each sentence is derived in a uniform way as a partial ordering of the originally simple words which enter into it: Each step (least upper bound) of the partial ordering (of a word requiring another) forms a sentence which is a component of the sentence being analyzed.

Introducing Morphology

Introducing Morphology PDF Author: Rochelle Lieber
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521895499
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
A lively introduction to the study of how words are put together.

Coordinating Information and Communications Technology Across the Primary School

Coordinating Information and Communications Technology Across the Primary School PDF Author: Connor Ferris
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317894146
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
This book adopts a new approach to a major area of syntax - the way in which adjectives are bound together with other words in phrases or sentences.