Semantic Interfaces PDF Download

Author: Carlo Cecchetto
Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Information Publica Tion
ISBN:
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
This volume collects original papers--from some of the most prominent linguists in the world--on the theory of meaning (semantics) and its relation to syntax. The debate on syntax-semantics interface, one of the liveliest in the field, is sure to be invigorated by these contributions.

Author: Claudia Maienborn
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110589842
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 632

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Book Description
Explore the exciting research where semantics meets morphology, syntax and pragmatics. In this book, leading researchers use in-depth articles to explain a wide range of topics at these interfaces, including the semantics of intonation, inflection, compounding, argument structure, type shifting, compositionality, implicature, context dependence, deixis and presupposition. Now in paperback for the first time since its original publication, the highly cited material in this book is an ideal starting point for anyone interested in semantics where it crosses over with other dimensions of grammar.

Author: Robert D. van Valin, Jr.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139445375
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Language is a system of communication in which grammatical structures function to express meaning in context. While all languages can achieve the same basic communicative ends, they each use different means to achieve them, particularly in the divergent ways that syntax, semantics and pragmatics interact across languages. This book looks in detail at how structure, meaning, and communicative function interact in human languages. Working within the framework of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG), Van Valin proposes a set of rules, called the 'linking algorithm', which relates syntactic and semantic representations to each other, with discourse-pragmatics playing a role in the linking. Using this model, he discusses the full range of grammatical phenomena, including the structures of simple and complex sentences, verb and argument structure, voice, reflexivization and extraction restrictions. Clearly written and comprehensive, this book will be welcomed by all those working on the interface between syntax, semantics and pragmatics.

Author: Luisa González
Publisher: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Huelva
ISBN: 8418984341
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
Se aborda el análisis de la relación e interdependencia de los componentes sintáctico y semántico del lenguaje con el propósito de poner de manifiesto la necesidad de integrar ambos aspectos en el análisis y descripción de los fenómenos lingüísticos. La obra se compone de nueve trabajos: el primero de ellos es un estudio teórico sobre la naturaleza de la interfaz Sintaxis-Semántica mientras que en los ocho restantes se investiga dicha relación en los niveles oracional, léxico y textual.

Author: Carol Tenny
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401111502
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
All work is work in progress. The ideas developed in this work could be (and probably will be) developed further, revised, and expanded. But it was time to write them down and send them out. Some of these ideas about linking had their origins in my 1987 dissertation. However, this work has grown beyond the dissertation in a number of important ways. The most important of these advances lie in, first, articulating aspectual roles as linguistic objects over which lexical semantic phenomena can be stated, and over which linking generalizations are stated; second, recognizing that syntactic phenomena may be classified as to whether or not they are sensitive to the core event of event structure; and third, recognizing the modularity of aspectual and thematic/conceptual structure, and associating that modularity with a difference between language-specific and universal language generalizations. The three chapters of the book are organized around these ideas. I have tried to state these ideas as strong theses. Where they make strong predictions I have meant them to do so, as a probe for future research. I hope that other researchers will take up the challenge to investigate, test and develop these ideas across a wider realm of languages than I --as one person --can do.

Author: Beth Levin
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262620949
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Besides providing extensive support for David Perlmutter's hypothesis that unaccusativity is syntactically represented but semantically determined, this monograph contributes significantly to the development of a theory of lexical semantic representation and to the elucidation of the mapping from lexical semantics to syntax. Unaccusativity is an extended investigation into a set of linguistic phenomena that have received much attention over the last fifteen years. Besides providing extensive support for David Perlmutter's hypothesis that unaccusativity is syntactically represented but semantically determined, this monograph contributes significantly to the development of a theory of lexical semantic representation and to the elucidation of the mapping from lexical semantics to syntax. Perlmutter's Unaccusative Hypothesis proposes that there are two classes of intransitive verbs - unergatives and unaccusatives - each associated with a distinct syntactic configuration. Unaccusativity begins by isolating the semantic factors that determine whether a verb will be unaccusative or unergative through a careful examination of the behavior of intransitive verbs from a range of semantic classes in diverse syntactic constructions. Notable are the extensive discussions of verbs of motion, verbs of emission, and various types of verbs of change of state. The authors then introduce rules that determine the syntactic expression of the arguments of the verbs investigated and examine the interactions among them. The proper treatment of verbs that systematically show multiple meanings - and hence variable classification as unaccusative or unergative - is also considered. In the final chapter, the authors argue that the distribution of locative inversion, a purported unaccusative diagnostic, is determined instead by discourse considerations. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph No. 26

Author: Maria Aloni
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 131655273X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 1327

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Book Description
Formal semantics - the scientific study of meaning in natural language - is one of the most fundamental and long-established areas of linguistics. This Handbook offers a comprehensive, yet compact guide to the field, bringing together research from a wide range of world-leading experts. Chapters include coverage of the historical context and foundation of contemporary formal semantics, a survey of the variety of formal/logical approaches to linguistic meaning and an overview of the major areas of research within current semantic theory, broadly conceived. The Handbook also explores the interfaces between semantics and neighbouring disciplines, including research in cognition and computation. This work will be essential reading for students and researchers working in linguistics, philosophy, psychology and computer science.

Author: Koen Van Hooste
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110720361
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
Instruments constitute a classic member of the thematic role inventory, yet they are usually analyzed only peripherally, taking a back seat to the more studied members such as Agent and Patient. This dissertation investigates the semantic reality behind the label instrument from the functionalist perspective of Role & Reference Grammar. Starting from a theoretical investigation of what instrumentality truly means when contrasted with related concepts like comitatives, this book explores the morphosyntactic realization of instruments across a wide range of typologically diverse languages. Apart from the standard occurrences of instruments that come to mind from languages such as Latin, German or English, this book delves into several less common constructions that feature the instrument relation. Such constructions include, amongst others, passives with instruments and particularly the Instrument-Subject Alternation, a construction where the instrument seemingly appears as the subject of the sentence. This construction displays variation along three dimensions: 1) The instrument can vary from a very simple tool to a complicated machine, 2) the predicate can vary substantially and 3) languages differ widely with respect to the construction's acceptability. This makes for a complex playing field where the animacy of the instrument but also the aktionsart class of the predicate play a major role. The last section of this book deals with linking the semantics of instruments and related concepts to their morphosyntactic realizations, including the various encoding strategies that are available in any given language. This book also features a concise introduction to Role & Reference Grammar. Dissertations in Language and Cognition: This series explores issues of mental representation, linguistic structure and representation, and their interplay. The research presented in this series is grounded in the idea explored in the Collaborative Research Center 'The structure of representations in language, cognition and science' (SFB 991) that there is a universal format for the representation of linguistic and cognitive concepts.

Author: Jörg Meibauer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1614510849
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
While lying has been a topic in the philosophy of language, there has been a lack of genuine linguistic analysis of lying. Exploring lying at the semantics-pragmatics interface, this book takes a contextualist stand by arguing that untruthful implicatures and presuppositions are part of the total signification of the act of lying.

Author: I. Comorovski
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401586888
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Interrogative Phrases and the Syntax-Semantics Interface starts by analyzing the interpretation of interrogative phrases in single and multiple constituent questions, including their interpretation under adverbs of quantification. The results are then put to work in a novel approach to some of the constraints on dependencies between fronted interrogative phrases and the associated gaps: superiority, weak crossover, as well as the so-called `weak islands' (the WH-island, the negative island and the Factive Island). It is argued that the possibility of fronting an interrogative phrase out of these configurations is determined by a semantic/pragmatic condition on questions, which requires them to be answerable. The analysis is worked out principally on Romanian, a language which allows multiple wh-fronting. The results are then extended to English. Audience: Researchers and students in syntax, semantics and their interface, as well as linguists studying the relation between the acceptability of sentences and the larger discourse context.