Semantics

Semantics PDF Author: James R. Hurford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521289498
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
Introduces the major elements of semantics in a simple, step-by-step fashion. Sections of explanation and examples are followed by practice exercises with answers and comment provided.

Natural Language Semantics

Natural Language Semantics PDF Author: Brendan S. Gillon
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262350777
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 731

Book Description
An introduction to natural language semantics that offers an overview of the empirical domain and an explanation of the mathematical concepts that underpin the discipline. This textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of those approaches to natural language semantics that use the insights of logic. Many other texts on the subject focus on presenting a particular theory of natural language semantics. This text instead offers an overview of the empirical domain (drawn largely from standard descriptive grammars of English) as well as the mathematical tools that are applied to it. Readers are shown where the concepts of logic apply, where they fail to apply, and where they might apply, if suitably adjusted. The presentation of logic is completely self-contained, with concepts of logic used in the book presented in all the necessary detail. This includes propositional logic, first order predicate logic, generalized quantifier theory, and the Lambek and Lambda calculi. The chapters on logic are paired with chapters on English grammar. For example, the chapter on propositional logic is paired with a chapter on the grammar of coordination and subordination of English clauses; the chapter on predicate logic is paired with a chapter on the grammar of simple, independent English clauses; and so on. The book includes more than five hundred exercises, not only for the mathematical concepts introduced, but also for their application to the analysis of natural language. The latter exercises include some aimed at helping the reader to understand how to formulate and test hypotheses.

Understanding Semantics

Understanding Semantics PDF Author: Sebastian Loebner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134647158
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Book Description
This series provides approachable, yet authoritative, introductions to all the major topics in linguistics. Ideal for students with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics, each book carefully explains the basics, emphasising understanding of the essential notions rather than arguing for a particular theoretical position. Understanding Semantics offers a complete introduction to linguistic semantics. The book takes a step-by-step approach, starting with the basic concepts and moving through the central questions to examine the methods and results of the science of linguistic meaning. Understanding Semantics unites the treatment of a broad scale of phenomena using data from different languages with a thorough investigation of major theoretical perspectives. It leads the reader from their intuitive knowledge of meaning to a deeper understanding of the use of scientific reasoning in the study of language as a communicative tool, of the nature of linguistic meaning, and of the scope and limitations of linguistic semantics. Ideal as a first textbook in semantics for undergraduate students of linguistics, this book is also recommended for students of literature, philosophy, psychology and cognitive science.

An Advanced Introduction to Semantics

An Advanced Introduction to Semantics PDF Author: Igor Mel'čuk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108481620
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 451

Book Description
Presents, in simple and clear terms, the way in which humans express their ideas by talking.

Lexical Semantics

Lexical Semantics PDF Author: D. A. Cruse
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521276436
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
Lexical Semantics is about the meaning of words. Although obviously a central concern of linguistics, the semantic behaviour of words has been unduly neglected in the current literature, which has tended to emphasize sentential semantics and its relation to formal systems of logic. In this textbook D. A. Cruse establishes in a principled and disciplined way the descriptive and generalizable facts about lexical relations that any formal theory of semantics will have to encompass. Among the topics covered in depth are idiomaticity, lexical ambiguity, synonymy, hierarchical relations such as hyponymy and meronymy, and various types of oppositeness. Syntagmatic relations are also treated in some detail. The discussions are richly illustrated by examples drawn almost entirely from English. Although a familiarity with traditional grammar is assumed, readers with no technical linguistic background will find the exposition always accessible. All readers with an interest in semantics will find in this original text not only essential background but a stimulating new perspective on the field.

Abstract Objects and the Semantics of Natural Language

Abstract Objects and the Semantics of Natural Language PDF Author: Friederike Moltmann
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199608741
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Book Description
Friederike Moltmann presents an original approach to philosophical issues to do with abstract objects. She focuses on natural language, and finds that reference to abstract objects such as properties, numbers, and propositions is much more restricted than is generally thought, and she offers a substantially new ontological picture.

Semantics as Science

Semantics as Science PDF Author: Richard K. Larson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262539950
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 497

Book Description
An introductory linguistics textbook that takes a novel approach: studying linguistic semantics as an exercise in scientific theory construction. This introductory linguistics text takes a novel approach, one that offers educational value to both linguistics majors and nonmajors. Aiming to help students not only grasp the fundamentals of the subject but also engage with broad intellectual issues and develop general intellectual skills, Semantics as Science studies linguistic semantics as an exercise in scientific theory construction. Semantics offers an excellent medium through which to acquaint students with the notion of a formal, axiomatic system—that is, a system that derives results from a precisely articulated set of assumptions according to a precisely articulated set of rules. The book develops semantic theory through the device of axiomatic T-theories, first proposed by Alfred Tarski more than eighty years ago, introducing technical elaboration only when required. It adopts Japanese as its core object of study, allowing students to explore and investigate the real empirical issues arising in the context of non-English structures, a non-English lexicon and non-English meanings. The book is structured as a laboratory science text that poses specific empirical questions, with 25 short units, each of which can be covered in one class session. The layout is engagingly visual, designed to help students understand and retain the material, with lively illustrations, examples, and quotations from famous scholars.

Introducing Semantics

Introducing Semantics PDF Author: Nick Riemer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521851920
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 477

Book Description
An introduction to the study of meaning in language for undergraduate students.

Semantics

Semantics PDF Author: Ronnie Cann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521819626
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
The study of meaning in language has developed dramatically over the last fifty years. Semantics is distinctive as it not only presents a general introduction to the topic, including the most recent developments, but it also provides a unique perspective for addressing current issues. It opens by introducing readers to the study of logic (natural deduction) as the background against which developments have taken place. This demonstrates the link between semantics and the study of reasoning and how this view can provide new solutions to the puzzles that have plagued the approaches presented in other textbooks. The major subject areas of semantics are discussed, including quantification, anaphora and discourse, tense and aspect, ellipsis and context, and word meaning. The book also presents state-of-the-art research in topics at the forefront of semantics.

What is Meaning

What is Meaning PDF Author: Paul H. Portner
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9781405109185
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
What is Meaning? Fundamentals of Formal Semantics is a concise introduction to the field of semantics as it is actually practiced. Through simple examples, pictures, and metaphors, Paul Portner presents the field’s key ideas about how language works. Explains the fundamental ideas and some of the most significant results of modern semantic theory Combines foundational discussion with simplified analyses of complex phenomena to provide readers with a sense of the fascination to be found in the details of the human language Includes exercises and thought-provoking questions to facilitate learning
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