Wildgen Wolfgang. Process, Image, and Meaning: A realistic model of the meaning of sentences and narrative texts

John Benjamins, 1994. — xii, 281 pages.— (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series). — ISBN: 902725043X / 1-55619-299-1.The general topic of this book is the development of a “realistic” model of meaning; it has to account for the ecological basis of meaning in perception, action, and interaction, and is realistic in the sense of “scientific realism”, i.e. it is based on the most successful paradigm of modern science: dynamical systems theory. In Part One a model of sentences is put forward. The first chapter outlines the philosophical background of a theory of meaning. Chapter 2 gives a very short summary of recent proposals for a semantic model which considers image-like schemata. In Chapter 3 a realistic model of valence and basic predication is developed in detail. Chapter 4 treats multistability in meaning and the application of chaos theory and dissipative structures in semantics. Chapter 5 outlines the global framework of a stratified universe of meanings, and Chapter 6 prepares the way for Part Two: the analysis of narrative texts. Oral narratives of personal experience are the prototypical form in which experienced events are organized with the aim of remaking a piece of reality. In Chapter 7 a discrete grammar based on vectorial schemata is developed. Chapters 8 and 9 elaborate the “syntax of narratives” in Chapter 7. Chapter 10 progress to conversational dynamics.The Meaning of Sentences
Meaning and Reality
Concepts of Meaning
Meaning and Imagination
Meaning and the Impact of Dynamical Systems Theory for Semantics
Ecological Realism And Cognitive Meaning
Levels Of Analysis In A Realistic Semantics
The Relevance Of Einstein's Relativity Principle And Quantum Dynamics For A Theory Of Meaning
A Critical Review Of Some Proposals For A Semantics Using Image- And Process-Schemata
Talmy's Imaging Systems and His "Force Dynamics"
The Image Schemata Proposed by George Lakoff
Techniques of Imaginistic Representation By Langacker
Spatial Domains and Matrices (Proposals by Langacker and Talmy)
A Criticism of Imaginistic Representations in the Style of Talmy, Lakoff and Langacker
The Representation of Motion Verbs in Situation Semantics
Process and Image Schemata in the Lexicon and in Basic Syntax
Order Phenomena in the Ecology of Man
Ransitions Between Equilibrium Phases and Semantic Schemata
The Meaning of Verbs
Predication and Basic Syntax
Syntactic Constituency and Stable Dynamic Schemata
Multistability, Chaos and Dissipative Structures in Meaning
Ambiguity and Multistability in Linguistic Meaning (in relation to perceptual multistability)
Chaotic Dynamics in The Syntax and Semantics of Nominal Structures
Dissipative Processes and Vagueness in Meaning
Collective Images and Cultural Symbols: Speculations about Archetypes
Global Representational Spaces
Two Basic Principles
A Short Description of the Principal Domains
The Impact of Modality and Propositional Attitudes
Between Sentences And Narrative Texts
Negation
Conjunction and Quantification
Dynamic Consequence and Implication
The Meaning of Oral Narratives
Narrative Analysis and an Imaginistic Syntax of Texts
How to Account for the "Reality Patterns" in Oral Narratives
Some Notions from Discrete Dynamics
The Basic Vocabulary of Imaginistic Units
The Basic Syntax of Imaginistic Units
Three Types of Narratives and Their Imaginistic Structure
The Imaginistic Representation Of Negation, Conjunction and Anaphors
The Semantic Interpretation of Imaginistic Syntax
A Semantic Interpretation of the Basic Vector Space
The Semantic Interpretation of the Imaginistic Units (1-20)
The Interpretation of Syntactic Principles in A Semantic Component
Information Based Analysis of Textual Dynamics
Language and the Flow of Information
The Encoding of Imaginistic Information in an Attribute-Value Notation
Textual Dynamics Beyond Imaginistic Syntax
Conversational Dynamics and the Pragmatics of Narratives
Conversational Dynamics and the Place of Narratives in the Conversational Frame
The Internal Pragmatics of Oral Narratives