A Course in Semantics

2019-09-03
A Course in Semantics

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  • Author: Daniel Altshuler
  • Publisher: MIT Press
  • ISBN: 0262042770
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 249

An introductory text in linguistic semantics, uniquely balancing empirical coverage and formalism with development of intuition and methodology. This introductory textbook in linguistic semantics for undergraduates features a unique balance between empirical coverage and formalism on the one hand and development of intuition and methodology on the other. It will equip students to form intuitions about a set of data, explain how well an analysis of the data accords with their intuitions, and extend the analysis or seek an alternative. No prior knowledge of linguistics is required. After mastering the material, students will be able to tackle some of the most difficult questions in the field even if they have never taken a linguistics course before. After introducing such concepts as truth conditions and compositionality, the book presents a basic symbolic logic with negation, conjunction, and generalized quantifiers, to serve as the basis for translation throughout the book. It then develops a detailed compositional semantics, covering quantification (scope and binding), adverbial modification, relative clauses, event semantics, tense and aspect, as well as pragmatic phenomena, notably deictic pronouns and narrative progression. A Course in Semantics offers a large and diverse set of exercises, interspersed throughout the text; those labeled “Important practice and looking ahead” prepare students for material to come; those labeled “Thinking about ” invite students to think beyond the content of the book.

Semantics

1983-04-28
Semantics

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

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.

Semantics as Science

2022-11-22
Semantics as Science

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

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.

Introduction to Semantics

2013-05-28
Introduction to Semantics

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  • Author: Thomas Ede Zimmermann
  • Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
  • ISBN: 3110314371
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 304

This textbook helps undergraduate students of language and linguistics taking their first steps in one of the core areas of grammar, introducing them to the basic ideas, insights, and techniques of contemporary semantic theory. Requiring no special background knowledge, the book starts with everyday observations about word meaning and use and then hightlights the role of structure in the analysis of the meanings of phrases and clauses, zooming in on the fascinating and vexing question of how speakers manage to meaningfully communicate with sentences and texts they have never come across before. At the same time, the reader becomes acquainted with the modern, functionalist characterization of linguistic meaning in terms of reference (extension) and information (intension), and learns to apply technical tools from formal logic to analyzing the meaning of complex linguistic expressions as being composed by the meanings of their parts. Each of the nine main chapters contains a variety of exercises for self-study and classroom use, with model solutions in the appendix. Extensive English examples provide ample illustration.

Formal Semantics

1992
Formal Semantics

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  • Author: Ronnie Cann
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Semantics
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 2

Meaning and Necessity - A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic

2011-03-23
Meaning and Necessity - A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic

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  • Author: Rudolf Carnap
  • Publisher: Read Books Ltd
  • ISBN: 1446545563
  • Category : Philosophy
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 220

The main purpose of this book is the development of a new method for the semantical analysis of meaning, that is, a new method for analyzing and describing the meanings of linguistic expressions. This method, called the method of extension and intension, is developed by modifying and extending certain customary concepts, especially those of class and property. The method will be contrasted with various other semantical methods used in traditional philosophy or by contemporary authors. These other methods have one characteristic in common. They all regard an expression in a language as a name of a concrete or abstract entity. In contradistinction, the method here proposed takes an expression, not as naming anything, but as possessing an intension and an extension. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics

2006-05-29
Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics

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  • Author: Patrick Griffiths
  • Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
  • ISBN: 0748626883
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 208

An introduction to the linguistic study of meaning, this book outlines the meaning potential (semantics) of English and how language knowledge is put to use (pragmatics). As well as gaining a systematic overview of meaning in English, readers can learn how to argue for analyses. Among the significant concepts introduced are denotation, sense relations, event types, explicature, implicature, presupposition, metaphor, reference, speech acts and (at an elementary level) Generalised Quantifier Theory. Sense relations--such as antonymy and hyponymy--are presented as summarising patterns of entailment. The sense of a word is seen as the contributions it makes to the entailments carried by sentences.

A Semantic Web Primer, third edition

2012-09-07
A Semantic Web Primer, third edition

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  • Author: Grigoris Antoniou
  • Publisher: MIT Press
  • ISBN: 0262304686
  • Category : Computers
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 287

A new edition of the widely used guide to the key ideas, languages, and technologies of the Semantic Web The development of the Semantic Web, with machine-readable content, has the potential to revolutionize the World Wide Web and its uses. A Semantic Web Primer provides an introduction and guide to this continuously evolving field, describing its key ideas, languages, and technologies. Suitable for use as a textbook or for independent study by professionals, it concentrates on undergraduate-level fundamental concepts and techniques that will enable readers to proceed with building applications on their own and includes exercises, project descriptions, and annotated references to relevant online materials. The third edition of this widely used text has been thoroughly updated, with significant new material that reflects a rapidly developing field. Treatment of the different languages (OWL2, rules) expands the coverage of RDF and OWL, defining the data model independently of XML and including coverage of N3/Turtle and RDFa. A chapter is devoted to OWL2, the new W3C standard. This edition also features additional coverage of the query language SPARQL, the rule language RIF and the possibility of interaction between rules and ontology languages and applications. The chapter on Semantic Web applications reflects the rapid developments of the past few years. A new chapter offers ideas for term projects. Additional material, including updates on the technological trends and research directions, can be found at http://www.semanticwebprimer.org.

Type-Logical Semantics

1998-07-24
Type-Logical Semantics

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  • Author: Bob Carpenter
  • Publisher: MIT Press
  • ISBN: 9780262531498
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 616

Based on an introductory course on natural-language semantics, this book provides an introduction to type-logical grammar and the range of linguistic phenomena that can be handled in categorial grammar. It also contains a great deal of original work on categorial grammar and its application to natural-language semantics. The author chose the type-logical categorial grammar as his grammatical basis because of its broad syntactic coverage and its strong linkage of syntax and semantics. Although its basic orientation is linguistic, the book should also be of interest to logicians and computer scientists seeking connections between logical systems and natural language. The book, which stepwise develops successively more powerful logical and grammatical systems, covers an unusually broad range of material. Topics covered include higher-order logic, applicative categorial grammar, the Lambek calculus, coordination and unbounded dependencies, quantifiers and scope, plurals, pronouns and dependency, modal logic, intensionality, and tense and aspect. The book contains more mathematical development than is usually found in texts on natural language; an appendix includes the basic mathematical concepts used throughout the book.

Introducing English Semantics

1998
Introducing English Semantics

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  • Author: Charles W. Kreidler
  • Publisher: Psychology Press
  • ISBN: 0415180643
  • Category : Anglais (Langue) - Sémantique
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 345

Annotation Focusing on the English language, this comprehensive and accessible introduction to semantics explores how languages organize and express meaning through words, parts of words and sentences. This title available in eBook format. Click here for more information. Visit our eBookstore at: www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk.