Introducing English SemanticsIntroducing English Semanticsis a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the study of meaning. Charles W. Kreidler presents the basic principles of this discipline. He explores how languages organize and express meanings through words, parts of words and sentences. Introducing English Semantics: * deals with relations of words to other words, and sentences to other sentences * illustrates the importance of 'tone of voice' and 'body language' in face-to-face exchanges, and the role of context in any communication * makes random comparisons of features in other languages * explores the knowledge speakers of a language must have in common to enable them to communicate * discusses the nature of language; the structure of discourse; the distinction between lexical and grammatical meaning * examines such relations as synonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy; ambiguity; implication; factivity; aspect; and modality Written in a clear, accessible style, Introducing English Semanticswill be an essential text for any student following an introductory course in semantics. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, all technical terms are clearly defined in an accompanying glossary and active participation is encouraged through numerous exercises. |
Contents
The study of meaning | 1 |
11 The systematic study of meaning | 2 |
12 The nature of language | 3 |
13 Language and the individual | 5 |
14 Demonstrating semantic knowledge | 8 |
Language in use | 17 |
21 Pragmatics | 18 |
22 Natural and conventional signs | 19 |
84 Gerund clauses | 163 |
85 Nonfactual clauses | 164 |
86 Verbal nouns | 165 |
87 Comparing types of clauses | 167 |
88 Syntactic ambiguity | 169 |
Speech acts | 175 |
91 The form of sentences and the purpose of utterances | 176 |
92 Analysis of speech acts | 180 |
23 Linguistic signs | 22 |
24 Utterance and sentence | 26 |
25 Prosody | 30 |
26 Nonverbal communication | 35 |
The dimensions of meaning | 41 |
31 Reference and denotation | 42 |
32 Connotation | 44 |
33 Sense relations | 46 |
34 Lexical and grammatical meanings | 49 |
35 Morphemes | 51 |
36 Homonymy and polysemy | 52 |
37 Lexical ambiguity | 55 |
38 Sentence meaning | 56 |
Semantic roles | 61 |
41 Sentence and proposition | 62 |
42 Semantic roles | 66 |
421 Valency zero | 68 |
422 Valency one | 69 |
423 Valency two | 73 |
43 Some changes in valency | 78 |
Lexical relations | 85 |
51 Lexical fields | 87 |
52 Kinship | 90 |
53 Hyponymy | 92 |
54 Synonymy | 96 |
55 Antonymy | 100 |
56 Binary and nonbinary antonyms | 101 |
57 A comparison of four relations | 104 |
58 Converse antonyms | 105 |
59 Symmetry and reciprocity | 107 |
510 Expressions of quantity | 110 |
Transition and transfer predicates | 115 |
61 Transition | 116 |
62 Transfer | 121 |
Reference | 129 |
71 Referents and referring expressions | 131 |
72 Extension and intension | 132 |
73 Some different kinds of referents | 134 |
731 Unique and nonunique referents | 135 |
733 Countable and noncountable referents | 136 |
74 Different ways of referring | 139 |
741 Generic and nongeneric reference | 141 |
742 Specific and nonspecific reference | 142 |
75 Deixis | 144 |
76 Anaphora | 145 |
77 Shifts in ways of referring | 150 |
78 Referential ambiguity | 151 |
Sentences as arguments | 155 |
81 Full statement clauses | 157 |
82 Question clauses | 160 |
83 Infinitive clauses | 161 |
93 Seven kinds of speech acts | 183 |
932 Performative utterances | 185 |
933 Verdictive utterances | 187 |
934 Expressive utterances | 188 |
935 Directive utterances | 189 |
936 Commissive utterances | 192 |
937 Four speech acts compared | 194 |
Aspect | 197 |
101 Generic and specific predications | 199 |
102 Stative predicates and dynamic predicates | 200 |
103 Durative and punctual | 202 |
104 Telic and atelic | 206 |
105 Ingressive continuative egressive aspect | 209 |
1052 Predicates of possession | 210 |
1053 Predicates of cognition | 211 |
1054 Event predicates | 212 |
1055 Nouns and adjectives as predicates | 214 |
1056 Aspectual verbs | 215 |
106 Prospective and retrospective | 219 |
107 Some grammatical expressions of aspect | 220 |
1072 The perfect or retrogressive | 221 |
1073 The progressive | 222 |
Factivity implication and modality | 229 |
111 Factivity | 230 |
112 Implicative predicates | 233 |
113 Modality | 239 |
A variety of predicates | 251 |
121 Attitudinal predicates | 252 |
122 Enabling and preventing | 257 |
123 Perceptual predicates | 260 |
The semantics of morphological relations | 267 |
131 Formal processes of derivation | 269 |
132 Semantic processes in derivation | 270 |
133 Verbs formed from nouns | 272 |
1332 Effective meanings | 275 |
1333 Instrumental meanings | 277 |
1334 Vehicular meanings instrument + transfer | 278 |
134 Verbs from adjectives | 280 |
135 Verbs from verbs | 283 |
136 Adjectives derived from verbs | 285 |
137 Adjectives derived from nouns | 287 |
138 Adjectives derived from adjectives | 289 |
1310 Nouns derived from adjectives | 293 |
1311 Nouns derived from nouns | 294 |
Glossary of technical terms | 297 |
| 305 | |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract action activity addressee adjectives affected affirmative ambiguity anaphoric animal antonyms arguments aspect Attitudinal predicates broke cause Chapter collies communicate concrete context countable noun deictic deixis denotation discourse distinction dogs chase cats durative embedded proposition entity equivalent event example factive focus full clause function words gerund clause goal hyponym illustrated implication inchoative indicates infinitive clause instance interpretation intonation knowledge Lake Ontario language lexemes lexical linguistic meaningful modal verbs morphemes names negative non-countable noun phrase object occur overt subject pairs paralanguage Performative utterances person Phatic plural polysemy possible present pronoun question recognize referring expression relation retrospective S-theme semantic roles sense sentence smoke someone speakers of English specific speech acts spoken statement stative predicates superordinate synonymous synonymy syntactic tacit subject tell tense theme status things transfer true truth two-argument valency verb that expresses verbal noun walk window