Jaszczolt K.M. Default Semantics: Foundations of a Compositional Theory of Acts of Communication

Oxford University Press, 2005. — xx, 279 p. — ISBN: 0-19-926198-9.In this pioneering book Katarzyna Jaszczolt lays down the foundations of an original theory of meaning in discourse, reveals the cognitive foundations of discourse interpretation, and puts forward a new basis for the analysis of discourse processing. She provides a step-by-step introduction to the theory and its application, and explains new terms and formalisms as required. Dr. Jaszczolt unites the precision of truth-conditional, dynamic approaches with insights from neo-Gricean pragmatics into the role of speaker's intentions in communication. She shows that the compositionality of meaning may be understood as merger representations combining information from various sources including word meaning and sentence structure, various kinds of default interpretations, and conscious pragmatic inference.Among the applications the author discusses are constructions that pose problems in semantic analysis such as referring expressions, propositional attitude constructions, presupposition, modality, numerals, and sentential connectives. She proposes solutions to cutting edge problems in the semantics/pragmatics interface - for example, how many levels of meaning should be distinguished; the status of underspecification; how much contextual information should be placed in the representation of the speaker's meaning; whether there are default interpretations; the stage of utterance interpretation at which pragmatic inference begins; and whether compositionality is a necessary feature of the theory of meaning and if so how it is to be defined.The book is for students and researchers in semantics, pragmatics, computational linguistics, and philosophy of language at advanced undergraduate level and aboveFoundations
Meaning Representation: Setting the Scene
The semantics/pragmatics merger
Questioning underspecifcation
Questioning logical form
Questioning what is said
Questioning the middle level of meaning
Representations in rich dynamic semantics
Representations and conscious inference
Default Meanings
Varieties of defaults
Cognitive defaults
Cultural and social defaults
Staying on the semantic track
Limitations
Compositionality and Merger Representations
Compositional meaning
Rethinking compositional semantics
Metacompositionality
Foundations of a formal account
Cognitive principles for merger representations
Some Applications
Defaults for Definite Descriptions
Default referential, non-default referential, and attributive readings
Definite descriptions in merger representations
Definite descriptions, proper names, and indexicals: degrees of referring?
Default Semantics for Propositional Attitude Reports
Context-dependent substitutivity
Degrees of mode of presentation
Merger representations for belief reports
Futurity and English will
Futurity and the uses of will: two interrelated problems
The modality of will
Future as modality
The analysis
Conclusions
Temporality as modality: some open questions and further extensions
Default Semantics for Presupposition as Anaphora
Binding and accommodation
Genuine ambiguity of partial matches?
Presupposition and focus
Other principles for selecting anaphors
Scales and defaults for presuppositional anaphorsThe Myth of Sentential Connectives?
The optimist’s approach to sentential connectives and the Gricean legacy
Summary: the unitary DS account
Future projections
Default Semantics for Number Terms
Number terms and number concepts
Exact value, ‘absolute value’, and default use
Merger representations for CD and CPI 1 readings of cardinal number terms
Summary and further directions
Concluding Remarks and Future Prospects
‘Pragmatic’ truth conditions and dynamic ‘semantics’
The scope of Default Semantics