Lexical Meaning in Context

A Web of Words

Inbunden, Engelska, 2011

1 899 kr

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This is a book about the meanings of words and how they can combine to form larger meaningful units, as well as how they can fail to combine when the amalgamation of a predicate and argument would produce what the philosopher Gilbert Ryle called a 'category mistake'. It argues for a theory in which words get assigned both an intension and a type. The book develops a rich system of types and investigates its philosophical and formal implications, for example the abandonment of the classic Church analysis of types that has been used by linguists since Montague. The author integrates fascinating and puzzling observations about lexical meaning into a compositional semantic framework. Adjustments in types are a feature of the compositional process and account for various phenomena including coercion and copredication. This book will be of interest to semanticists, philosophers, logicians and computer scientists alike.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2011-03-17
Mått152 x 229 x 21 mm
Vikt630 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor346
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781107005396

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Språkvetenskap och lingvistik inom Språk och ordböcker

Preface; Part I. Foundations: 1. Lexical meaning and predication; 2. Types and lexical meaning; 3. Previous theories of prediction; Part II. Theory: 4. Type composition logic; 5. The complex type; 6. Type presuppositions in TCL; Part III. Development: 7. Restricted predication; 8. Rethinking coercion; 9. Other coercions; 10. Syntax and type transformations; 11. Modification, coercion and loose talk; 12. Generalizations and conclusions; Part IV. Coda: References; Index.

'Finally we have a representation of word meaning and how it interacts with more standard compositional semantics. The fundamental basis of Nicholas Asher's theory is that word meanings are lexically simple, but the combination of word meanings involves interesting and complex ways for the types associated with the words to interact. Formal semanticists and computational semanticists now have a theory that is well-enough developed that they can pursue solutions to a broad range of hitherto recalcitrant phenomena.' Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Simon Fraser University and University of Alberta