Natural Language Semantics

Natural Language Semantics discusses fundamental concepts for linguistic semantics. This book combines theoretical explanations of several methods of inquiry with detailed semantic analysis and emphasises the philosophy that semantics is about meaning in human languages and that linguistic meaning is cognitively and functionally motivated.

Keith Allan is Reader in Linguistics at Monash University, and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. He has taught in Britain, Kenya, Nigeria, and the United States. His research and publications focus mainly on aspects of meaning in language and his previous books are Linguistic Meaning (2 volumes, 1986) and Euphemism and Dysphemism: Language Used as Shield and Weapon (co-authored with Kate Burridge, 1991).

Preface.

Symbols Used.

1. Some Fundamental Concepts for Semantics.

2. Words and Worlds and Reference.

3. The Lexicon and The Encyclopedia.

4. Morphology and Listemes.

5. The Power of Words: Connotation and Jargon.

6. Semantic Relations between Sentences.

Predicate Logic, Sets, and Lambda: Tools for Semantic Analysis.

8. Frames, Fields, and Semantic Components.

9. Cognitive Semantics: Backs, Colours, and Classifiers.

10. Using the Typical Denotatum to Identify the Intended Referent.

11. Mood, Tense, Modality, and Thematic Roles.

12. The Semantics of Clause Predicates.

13. Quantifiers in English.

Epilogue.

References.

Index.