The Semantics of Syntax

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Release : 1995-12
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
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Book Rating : 339/5 ( reviews)

The Semantics of Syntax - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Semantics of Syntax write by Denis Bouchard. This book was released on 1995-12. The Semantics of Syntax available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. During the last thirty years, most linguists and philosophers have assumed that meaning can be represented symbolically and that the mental processing of language involves the manipulation of symbols. Scholars have assembled strong evidence that there must be linguistic representations at several abstract levels—phonological, syntactic, and semantic—and that those representations are related by a describable system of rules. Because meaning is so complex, linguists often posit an equally complex relationship between semantic and other levels of grammar. The Semantics of Syntax is an elegant and powerful analysis of the relationship between syntax and semantics. Noting that meaning is underdetermined by form even in simple cases, Denis Bouchard argues that it is impossible to build knowledge of the world into grammar and still have a describable grammar. He thus proposes simple semantic representations and simple rules to relate linguistic levels. Focusing on a class of French verbs, Bouchard shows how multiple senses can be accounted for by the assumption of a single abstract core meaning along with background information about how objects behave in the world. He demonstrates that this move simplifies the syntax at no cost to the descriptive power of the semantics. In two important final chapters, he examines the consequences of his approach for standard syntactic theories.

The Semantics of Grammar

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Release : 1988-01-01
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
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Book Rating : 124/5 ( reviews)

The Semantics of Grammar - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Semantics of Grammar write by Anna Wierzbicka. This book was released on 1988-01-01. The Semantics of Grammar available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. “The semantics of grammar” presents a radically semantic approach to syntax and morphology. It offers a methodology which makes it possible to demonstrate, on an empirical basis, that syntax is neither “autonomous” nor “arbitrary”, but that it follows from “semantics”. It is shown that every grammatical construction encodes a certain semantic structure, which can be revealed and rigorously stated, so that the meanings encoded in grammar can be compared in a precise and illuminating way, within one language and across language boundaries. The author develops a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primitives), and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language and thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations. Analyzing data from a number of different languages (including English, Russian and Japanese) the author explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She attemps to demonstrate that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.

Between Syntax and Semantics

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Release : 2010-04-15
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
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Book Rating : 580/5 ( reviews)

Between Syntax and Semantics - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Between Syntax and Semantics write by C.T. James Huang. This book was released on 2010-04-15. Between Syntax and Semantics available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This indispensable volume contains articles that represent the best of Huang's work on the syntax-semantics interface over the last two decades. It includes three general topics: (a) questions, indefinites and quantification, (b) anaphora, (c) lexical structure and the syntax of events.

Studies in Syntax and Semantics

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Release : 2012-12-06
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
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Book Rating : 077/5 ( reviews)

Studies in Syntax and Semantics - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Studies in Syntax and Semantics write by F. Kiefer. This book was released on 2012-12-06. Studies in Syntax and Semantics available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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).

Semantics and Syntax in Lexical Functional Grammar

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Release : 1999
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
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Book Rating : 713/5 ( reviews)

Semantics and Syntax in Lexical Functional Grammar - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Semantics and Syntax in Lexical Functional Grammar write by Mary Dalrymple. This book was released on 1999. Semantics and Syntax in Lexical Functional Grammar available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This introduction to and overview of the "glue" approach is the first book to bring together the research of the major contributors to the field. A new, deductive approach to the syntax-semantics interface integrates two mature and successful lines of research: logical deduction for semantic composition and the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) approach to the analysis of linguistic structure. It is often referred to as the "glue" approach because of the role of logic in "gluing" meanings together. The "glue" approach has attracted significant attention from, among others, logicians working in the relatively new and active field of linear logic; linguists interested in a novel deductive approach to the interface between syntax and semantics within a nontransformational, constraint-based syntactic framework; and computational linguists and computer scientists interested in an approach to semantic composition that is grounded in a conceptually simple but powerful computational framework.This introduction to and overview of the "glue" approach is the first book to bring together the research of the major contributors to the field. Contributors Richard Crouch, Mary Dalrymple, John Fry, Vineet Gupta, Mark Johnson, Andrew Kehler, John Lamping, Dick Oehrle, Fernando Pereira, Vijay Saraswat, Josef van Genabith