Semantics in Generative Grammar

Semantics in Generative Grammar PDF

Author: Irene Heim

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1998-01-07

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9780631197126

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Written by two of the leading figures in the field, this is a lucid and systematic introduction to semantics as applied to transformational grammars of the "Government-Binding" model. It covers the fundamental constructions thoroughly with analyses, but goes well beyond that core, providing extensive discussion of quantification, binding and anaphora, and ellipsis. With exercises and guides to further reading, the volume will be a key text for graduate level and advanced undergraduate introductory courses in semantics.

Semantics in Generative Grammar

Semantics in Generative Grammar PDF

Author: Irene Heim

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1998-01-02

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9780631197133

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Written by two of the leading figures in the field, this is a lucid and systematic introduction to formal semantics.

Focus Structure in Generative Grammar

Focus Structure in Generative Grammar PDF

Author: Carsten Breul

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2004-01-01

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 9789027227928

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The notion of focus structure in this work refers to the distinction between categorical, thetic and identificational sentences. The central claim is that the syntactic representation of every sentence has to encode which of these types of focus structure is realized. This claim is discussed in great detail with respect to syntax, intonation and semantics within the framework of the Minimalist Program. It is shown that the incorporation of focus structure into syntax offers new perspectives for a solution of vexing problems in syntax and semantics. For example, fronting (preposing, 'topicalisation') is treated as a syntactic operation which clearly belongs to core grammar, i.e. is not optional or 'stylistic'; the semantic notion of quantifier raising is dispensed with in favour of a focus structural treatment of phenomena which gave rise to it. The book appeals to generative linguists and to functional linguists who do not believe in an unbridgeable gap between the formal and functional analysis of language.

Word Meaning and Montague Grammar

Word Meaning and Montague Grammar PDF

Author: D. R. Dowty

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 9400994737

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The most general goal of this book is to propose and illustrate a program of research in word semantics that combines some of the methodology and results in linguistic semantics, primarily that of the generative semantics school, with the rigorously formalized syntactic and semantic framework for the analysis of natural languages developed by Richard Montague and his associates, a framework in which truth and denotation with respect to a model are taken as the fundamental semantic notions. I hope to show, both from the linguist's and the philosopher's point of view, not only why this synthesis can be undertaken but also why it will be useful to pursue it. On the one hand, the linguists' decompositions of word meanings into more primitive parts are by themselves inherently incomplete, in that they deal only in distinctions in meaning without providing an account of what mean ings really are. Not only can these analyses be made complete by a model theoretic semantics, but also such an account of these analyses renders them more exact and more readily testable than they could ever be otherwise.

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax PDF

Author: Marcel den Dikken

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-07-25

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1107354587

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Syntax – the study of sentence structure – has been at the centre of generative linguistics from its inception and has developed rapidly and in various directions. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax provides a historical context for what is happening in the field of generative syntax today, a survey of the various generative approaches to syntactic structure available in the literature and an overview of the state of the art in the principal modules of the theory and the interfaces with semantics, phonology, information structure and sentence processing, as well as linguistic variation and language acquisition. This indispensable resource for advanced students, professional linguists (generative and non-generative alike) and scholars in related fields of inquiry presents a comprehensive survey of the field of generative syntactic research in all its variety, written by leading experts and providing a proper sense of the range of syntactic theories calling themselves generative.

Metasemantics

Metasemantics PDF

Author: Alexis Burgess

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 0199669597

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Metasemantics presents new work on the philosophical foundations of linguistic semantics. Experts in the philosophy of language, metaphysics, and the theory of content provide new perspectives on old problems about linguistic meaning, pose questions that suggest novel research projects, and sharpen our understanding of linguistic representation.

Studies in Syntax and Semantics

Studies in Syntax and Semantics PDF

Author: F. Kiefer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 9401017077

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In the last decade a profound change has occurred in linguistic science. Not only have old problems been tackled from an entirely new point of view but also quite a few new fields of linguistic research have been opened. The common characteristic of the majority of the theories and methods developed recently is the search for a more adequate description of language. Adequacy does not mean simply that the theory must conform to the facts. It must also meet the general requirements of present-day theories: coherence, clear-cut notions, rigor of presentation. It has also become abundantly clear that linguistic research cannot be content with the registration and classification of linguistic phenomena. In one way or another linguistics must try to explain the deep-seated regularities in language which in general do not appear on the surface in some straightforward way. Therefore, we find the attribute 'deep' very often in contemporary linguistic literature. Linguistic theories seek an explanation for the observed facts in terms of a system of hypotheses about the functioning of language. As research proceeds these will undergo essential changes. Some of them will be waived, others com plemented. The papers of the present volume follow these general principles of linguistic theory though they may differ from each other in the way of presentation considerably. Some of the papers make use of the framework of transformational-generative grammar (e. g. Kuroda; Perlmutter), others approach the pertinent problem from a different angle (e. g. Dupraz and Rouault; Apresyan, Mel'cuk, and Zolkovski).