Download or read book Knowledge of Meaning written by Richard K. Larson and published by Bradford Book. This book was released on 1995 with total page 639 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current textbooks in formal semantics are all versions of, or introductions to, the same paradigm in semantic theory: Montague Grammar. Knowledge of Meaning is based on different assumptions and a different history. It provides the only introduction to truth- theoretic semantics for natural languages, fully integrating semantic theory into the modern Chomskyan program in linguistic theory and connecting linguistic semantics to research elsewhere in cognitive psychology and philosophy. As such, it better fits into a modern graduate or undergraduate program in linguistics, cognitive science, or philosophy. Furthermore, since the technical tools it employs are much simpler to teach and to master, Knowledge of Meaning can be taught by someone who is not primarily a semanticist. Linguistic semantics cannot be studied as a stand-alone subject but only as part of cognitive psychology, the authors assert. It is the study of a particular human cognitive competence governing the meanings of words and phrases. Larson and Segal argue that speakers have unconscious knowledge of the semantic rules of their language, and they present concrete, empirically motivated proposals about a formal theory of this competence based on the work of Alfred Tarski and Donald Davidson. The theory is extended to a wide range of constructions occurring in natural language, including predicates, proper nouns, pronouns and demonstratives, quantifiers, definite descriptions, anaphoric expressions, clausal complements, and adverbs. Knowledge of Meaning gives equal weight to philosophical, empirical, and formal discussions. It addresses not only the empirical issues of linguistic semantics but also its fundamental conceptual questions, including the relation of truth to meaning and the methodology of semantic theorizing. Numerous exercises are included in the book.

Download or read book The Meaning of Meaning written by Charles Kay Ogden and published by . This book was released on 1959 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Semantic Theory written by Ruth M. Kempson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1977-09-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to the central topics of linguistic semantics and the philosophy of language, assuming no special knowledge of philosophy or logic.

Download or read book The Semantic Theory of Evolution written by Marcello Barbieri and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1985, The Semantic Theory of Evolution addresses the notion that life is not shaped by the single law of natural selection, but instead by a plurality of laws that resemble grammatical rules in language. This remarkable work presents a semantic theory centering on the concept of the ribotype. Supported by both sound facts and logical arguments, this analysis reaches beyond the established cadre of biological thought to unravel many of life’s mysteries and paradoxes, including the origin of the cell and the nucleus and the evolution of ribosomes.

Download or read book The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory written by Shalom Lappin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 771 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory presents a comprehensive introduction to cutting-edge research in contemporary theoretical and computational semantics. Features completely new content from the first edition of The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory Features contributions by leading semanticists, who introduce core areas of contemporary semantic research, while discussing current research Suitable for graduate students for courses in semantic theory and for advanced researchers as an introduction to current theoretical work

Download or read book Semiotic Principles in Semantic Theory written by Neal R. Norrick and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1981-01-01 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study represents a contribution to the theory of meaning in natural language. It proposes a semantic theory containing a set of regular relational principles. These principles enable semantic theory to describe connections from the lexical reading of a word to its figurative contextual reading, from one variant reading of a polysemous lexical item to another, from the idiomatic to its literal reading or to the literal reading(s) of one or more of its component lexical items. Semiotic theory provides a foundation by supplying principles defining motivated expression-content relations for signs generally. The author argues that regular semantic relational principles must dervive from such semiotic principles, to ensures the psychological reality and generality of the semantic principles.

Download or read book Semantic Theory written by Jerrold J. Katz and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Explorations in Semantic Theory written by Uriel Weinreich and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-11-21 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Semantics Theories written by Claudia Maienborn and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2019-02-19 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback for the first time since its original publication, the material gathered here is perfect for anyone who needs a detailed and accessible introduction to the important semantic theories. Designed for a wide audience, it will be of great value to linguists, cognitive scientists, philosophers, and computer scientists working on natural language. The book covers theories of lexical semantics, cognitively oriented approaches to semantics, compositional theories of sentence semantics, and discourse semantics. This clear, elegant explanation of the key theories in semantics research is essential reading for anyone working in the area.

Download or read book Semantics as Science written by Richard K. Larson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2022-11-22 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Geometry of Meaning written by Peter Gärdenfors and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-01-17 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel cognitive theory of semantics that proposes that the meanings of words can be described in terms of geometric structures.

Download or read book The Semantics of Metaphor written by Samuel R. Levin and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2019-12-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1977. The Semantics of Metaphor presents a theory for the metaphoric construal of deviant sentences. The theory has two aspects. The first relates to metaphor considered as a productive process of language and describes the mechanisms that operate in its semantic interpretation .This part of the theory is presented in chapters III and IV. The second aspect bears on metaphor considered in the context of poetry and develops a conception of metaphoric truth. This part of the theory is presented in chapters VI and VII. The study is semantic in the sense of dealing with both meaning and truth as these properties pertain to metaphor. Of the remaining chapters, the first isolates certain problems of a pragmatic nature from the central semantic concern, chapter II follows with a survey of recent scholarship on the question of semantic deviance, and chapter V compares the theory expounded in chapters III and IV with three other accounts of metaphor.

Download or read book Language and Meaning in Cognitive Science written by Andy Clark and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-11-12 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summarizes and illuminates two decades of research Gathering important papers by both philosophers and scientists, this collection illuminates the central themes that have arisen during the last two decades of work on the conceptual foundations of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Each volume begins with a comprehensive introduction that places the coverage in a broader perspective and links it with material in the companion volumes. The collection is of interest in many disciplines including computer science, linguistics, biology, information science, psychology, neuroscience, iconography, and philosophy. Examines initial efforts and the latest controversies The topics covered range from the bedrock assumptions of the computational approach to understanding the mind, to the more recent debates concerning cognitive architectures, all the way to the latest developments in robotics, artificial life, and dynamical systems theory. The collection first examines the lineage of major research programs, beginning with the basic idea of machine intelligence itself, then focuses on specific aspects of thought and intelligence, highlighting the much-discussed issue of consciousness, the equally important, but less densely researched issue of emotional response, and the more traditionally philosophical topic of language and meaning. Provides a gamut of perspectives The editors have included several articles that challenge crucial elements of the familiar research program of cognitive science, as well as important writings whose previous circulation has been limited. Within each volume the papers are organized to reflect a variety of research programs and issues. The substantive introductions that accompany each volume further organize the material and provide readers with a working sense of the issues and the connection between articles.

Download or read book Natural Language Semantics written by Brendan S. Gillon and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 731 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Semantic Mechanisms of Humor written by V. Raskin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: GOAL This is the funniest book I have ever written - and the ambiguity here is deliberate. Much of this book is about deliberate ambiguity, described as unambiguously as possible, so the previous sentence is probably the fIrst, last, and only deliberately ambiguous sentence in the book. Deliberate ambiguity will be shown to underlie much, if not all, of verbal humor. Some of its forms are simple enough to be perceived as deliberately ambiguous on the surface; in others, the ambiguity results from a deep semantic analysis. Deep semantic analysis is the core of this approach to humor. The book is the fIrst ever application of modem linguistic theory to the study of humor and it puts forward a formal semantic theory of verbal humor. The goal of the theory is to formulate the necessary and sufficient conditions, in purely semantic terms, for a text to be funny. In other words, if a formal semantic analysis of a text yields a certain set of semantic proptrties which the text possesses, then the text is recognized as a joke. As any modem linguistic theory, this semantic theory of humor attempts to match a natural intuitive ability which the native speaker has, in this particular case, the ability to perceive a text as funny, i. e. , to distinguish a joke from a non-joke.

Download or read book Semantic Perception Theory written by Kekang He and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on an in-depth study of children’s language development theory, this book puts forward the original proposition that semantic perception is the human sixth sense. Presenting a detailed, complete, and scientific argumentation, it asserts that the innateness of semantic perception has a physiological basis and that language acquisition is based on semantic perception, and proposes the idea of a critical period of nurture and language growth. To this end, the book not only contrasts children’s language acquisition processes and the process of adult speech generation and comprehension, but also discusses the ability to read and write, describing this important stage of children’s language development and analyzing semantic perception. Focusing on education and psychology, it also discusses the use of semantic perception theory to instruct teaching and learning. This book is a valuable resource for teachers, researchers, practitioners and graduate students in the fields of educational technology, child development and language learning, as well as anyone interested in children’s language development.

Download or read book The Semantic Theory of Knowledge written by Adam Olech and published by Modernity in Question. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of this book is the analysis of Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz's meta-epistemological project of the semantic theory of knowledge and its implementations to solve certain traditional epistemological problems and their metaphysical consequences. This project claims that cognitive problems need to be approached from the perspective of language. One of the results of this analysis is the thesis that the philosophical-linguistic legitimisation for the meta-epistemological project is the philosophy of Edmund Husserl from his Logical Investigations. This is the philosophy that makes it possible to speak reasonably of a close relation between thinking and language and provides thereby the legitimisation for this project.