Kroeger P.R. Analyzing meaning: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics

3-rd. edition. — Berlin: Language Science Press, 2019. — xiv, 482 p. — (Textbooks in Language Sciences 5). — ISBN 978-3-96110-390-4; ISSN 2364-6209.This book provides an introduction to the study of meaning in human language, from a linguistic perspective. It covers a fairly broad range of topics, including lexical semantics, compositional semantics, and pragmatics. The chapters are organized into six units: (1) Foundational concepts; (2) Word meanings; (3) Implicature (including indirect speech acts); (4) Compositional semantics; (5) Modals, conditionals, and causation; (6) Tense & aspect.
Most of the chapters include exercises which can be used for class discussion and/or homework assignments, and each chapter contains references for additional reading on the topics covered.
As the title indicates, this book is truly an introduction: it provides a solid foundation which will prepare students to take more advanced and specialized courses in semantics and/or pragmatics. It is also intended as a reference for fieldworkers doing primary research on under-documented languages, to help them write grammatical descriptions that deal carefully and clearly with semantic issues. The approach adopted here is largely descriptive and non-formal (or, in some places, semi-formal), although some basic logical notation is introduced. The book is written at level which should be appropriate for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students. It presupposes some previous coursework in linguistics, but does not presuppose any background in formal logic or set theory.Preface.
Abbreviations.
Foundational concepts.
The meaning of meaning.
Semantics and pragmatics.
Three “levels” of meaning.
Relation between form and meaning.
What does mean mean?
Saying, meaning, and doing.
“More lies ahead” (a roadmap).
Referring, denoting, and expressing.
Talking about the world.
Denotational semantics vs. cognitive semantics.
Types of referring expressions.
Sense vs. denotation.
Ambiguity.
Expressive meaning: Ouch and oops.
Independence.
Nondisplaceability.
Immunity.
Scalability and repeatability.
Descriptive ineffability.
Case study: Expressive uses of diminutives.Truth and inference.
Truth as a guide to sentence meaning.
Analytic sentences, synthetic sentences, and contradictions.
Meaning relations between propositions.
Presupposition.
How to identify a presupposition.
Accommodation: A repair strategy.
Pragmatic vs. semantic aspects of presupposition.The logic of truth.
What logic can do for you.
Valid patterns of inference.
Propositional logic.
Propositional operators.
Meaning relations and rules of inference.
Predicate logic.
Quantifiers (an introduction).
Scope ambiguities.Word meanings.
Word senses.Word meanings as construals of external reality.
Lexical ambiguity.
Ambiguity, vagueness, and indeterminacy.
Distinguishing ambiguity from vagueness and indeterminacy.
Polysemy vs. homonymy.
One sense at a time.
Disambiguation in context.
Context-dependent extensions of meaning.
Figurative senses.
How figurative senses become established.
“Facets” of meaning.Lexical sense relations.
Meaning relations between words.
Identifying sense relations.
Synonyms.
Antonyms.
Hyponymy and taxonomy.
Meronymy.
Defining words in terms of sense relations.Components of lexical meaning.Lexical entailments.
Selectional restrictions.
Componential analysis.
Verb meanings.Implicature.
Grice’s theory of implicature.
Sometimes we mean more than we say.
Conversational implicatures.
Grice’s maxims of conversation.
Generalized conversational implicatures.
Distinguishing features of conversational implicatures.
How to tell one kind of inference from another.Pragmatic inference after Grice.Meanings of English words vs. logical operators.
On the ambiguity of and.
On the ambiguity of or.
Explicatures: Bridging the gap between what is said vs. what is implicated.
Implicatures and the semantics/pragmatics boundary.
Why numeral words are special.Indirect speech acts.Performatives.
Indirect speech acts.
Indirect speech acts across languages.Use-conditional meaning.Identifying use-conditional meaning.
Diagnostic properties of use-conditional meaning.
Speaker-oriented adverbs.
Japanese honorifics.
Korean speech style markers.
Other ways of marking politeness.
Discourse particles in German.Compositional semantics.
How meanings are composed.Two simple examples.
Frege on compositionality and substitutivity.
Propositional attitudes.
De dicto vs. de re ambiguity.Modeling compositionality.Why a model might be useful.
Basic concepts in set theory.
Relations and functions.
Operations and relations on sets.
Truth relative to a model.
Rules of interpretation.Quantifiers.Quantifiers as relations between sets.
Quantifiers in logical form.
Two types of quantifiers.
Scope ambiguities.Intensional contexts.When substitutivity fails.
Non-intersective adjectives.
Other intensional contexts.
Subjunctive mood as a marker of intensionality.
Defining functions via lambda abstraction.Modality.
Possibility and necessity.
The range of modal meanings: Strength vs. type of modality.
Are modals polysemous?
Modality as quantification over possible worlds.
A simple quantificational analysis.
Kratzer’s analysis.
Cross-linguistic variation.
On the nature of epistemic modality.
Comparing epistemic vs. root modality.
Is epistemic modality truth conditional?Evidentiality.
Markers that indicate the speaker’s source of information.
Some common types of evidential systems.
Evidentiality and epistemic modality.
Distinguishing evidentiality from tense and modality.
Two types of evidentials.Because.Because as a two-place operator.
Semantic functions of because.
Two words for ‘because’ in German.
Subordinate vs. paratactic because in English.Conditionals.
Conditionals and modals.
Three uses of if.
Degrees of hypotheticality.
English if vs. material implication.
If as a restrictor.
Counterfactual conditionals.
Speech Act conditionals.Tense & aspect.
Aspect and Aktionsart.Situation type (Aktionsart).
Time of speaking, time of situation, and “topic time”.
Grammatical aspect (= “viewpoint aspect”).
Typology of grammatical aspect.
Imperfective aspect in Mandarin Chinese.
Perfect and prospective aspects.
Minor aspect categories.
Interactions between situation type (Aktionsart) and grammatical aspect.
Aspectual sensitivity and coercion effects.Tense.Tense relates topic time to the time of utterance.
Case study: English simple present tense.
Relative tense.
Complex (“absolute-relative”) tense marking.
Sequence of tenses in indirect speech.
Temporal remoteness markers (“metrical tense”).Varieties of the perfect.
Introduction: perfect vs. perfective.
Uses of the perfect.
Tense vs. aspect uses of English have + participle.
The present perfect puzzle.
Distinguishing perfect aspect vs. relative tense.
Arguments for polysemous aspectual senses of the English perfect.
Case study: Perfect aspect in Baraïn (Chadic).
Case study: Experiential -guo in Mandarin.References.
Index.
Name index.
Language index.