The Semantics of Nouns

The Semantics of Nouns PDF Author: Zhengdao Ye
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019873672X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
This volume represents state-of-the-art research on the semantics of nouns. It offers detailed and systematic analyses of scores of individual nouns across many different conceptual domains--'people', 'beings', 'creatures', 'places', 'things', 'living things', and 'parts of the body and parts of the person'. A range of languages, both familiar and unfamiliar, is examined. These include Australian Aboriginal languages (Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara), (Mandarin) Chinese, Danish, English, French, German, Koromu (a Papuan language), Russian, Polish, and Solega (a Dravidian language). Each rigorous and descriptively rich analysis is fully grounded in a unified methodological framework consistently employed throughout the volume, and each chapter not only relates to central theoretical issues specific to the semantic analysis of the domain in question, but also empirically investigates the different types of meaning relations holding between nouns, such as meronymy, hyponymy, taxonomy, and antonymy...

The Semantics of Nouns

The Semantics of Nouns PDF Author: Zhengdao Ye
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019873672X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Get Book

Book Description
This volume represents state-of-the-art research on the semantics of nouns. It offers detailed and systematic analyses of scores of individual nouns across many different conceptual domains--'people', 'beings', 'creatures', 'places', 'things', 'living things', and 'parts of the body and parts of the person'. A range of languages, both familiar and unfamiliar, is examined. These include Australian Aboriginal languages (Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara), (Mandarin) Chinese, Danish, English, French, German, Koromu (a Papuan language), Russian, Polish, and Solega (a Dravidian language). Each rigorous and descriptively rich analysis is fully grounded in a unified methodological framework consistently employed throughout the volume, and each chapter not only relates to central theoretical issues specific to the semantic analysis of the domain in question, but also empirically investigates the different types of meaning relations holding between nouns, such as meronymy, hyponymy, taxonomy, and antonymy...

The semantic transparency of English compound nouns

The semantic transparency of English compound nouns PDF Author: Martin Schäfer
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961100306
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
What is semantic transparency, why is it important, and which factors play a role in its assessment? This work approaches these questions by investigating English compound nouns. The first part of the book gives an overview of semantic transparency in the analysis of compound nouns, discussing its role in models of morphological processing and differentiating it from related notions. After a chapter on the semantic analysis of complex nominals, it closes with a chapter on previous attempts to model semantic transparency. The second part introduces new empirical work on semantic transparency, introducing two different sets of statistical models for compound transparency. In particular, two semantic factors were explored: the semantic relations holding between compound constituents and the role of different readings of the constituents and the whole compound, operationalized in terms of meaning shifts and in terms of the distribution of specifc readings across constituent families. All semantic annotations used in the book are freely available.

The Semantics of Grammar

The Semantics of Grammar PDF Author: Anna Wierzbicka
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027286124
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 629

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Book Description
“The semantics of grammar” presents a radically semantic approach to syntax and morphology. It offers a methodology which makes it possible to demonstrate, on an empirical basis, that syntax is neither “autonomous” nor “arbitrary”, but that it follows from “semantics”. It is shown that every grammatical construction encodes a certain semantic structure, which can be revealed and rigorously stated, so that the meanings encoded in grammar can be compared in a precise and illuminating way, within one language and across language boundaries. The author develops a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primitives), and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language and thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations. Analyzing data from a number of different languages (including English, Russian and Japanese) the author explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She attemps to demonstrate that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.

Semantics - Noun Phrases and Verb Phrases

Semantics - Noun Phrases and Verb Phrases PDF Author: Paul Portner
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110589443
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 628

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Book Description
Gain a deeper understanding of essential research on the semantics of noun phrases and verb phrases. Clear explanations of significant recent research bring complex issues to life, with expert guidance on topics of debate within the field. The book gives readers valuable insights into topics such as definiteness, specificity, genericity aspect, aktionsart and mood. It also discusses directions for future research. Written by a world-class team of authors, these highly cited articles are here in paperback for the first time since their original publication. An essential reference for researchers in the area.

Iceberg Semantics for Mass Nouns and Count Nouns

Iceberg Semantics for Mass Nouns and Count Nouns PDF Author: Fred Landman
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783030427139
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
Iceberg semantics is a new framework of Boolean semantics for mass nouns and count nouns in which the interpretation of a noun phrase rises up from a generating base and floats with its base on its Boolean part set, like an iceberg. The framework is shown to preserve the attractive features of classical Boolean semantics for count nouns; the book argues that Iceberg semantics forms a much better framework for studying mass nouns than the classical theory does. Iceberg semantics uses its notion of base to develop a semantic theory of the differences between mass nouns and count nouns and between different types of mass nouns, in particular between prototypical mass nouns (here called mess mass nouns) like water and mud versus object mass nouns (here called neat mass nouns) like poultry and pottery. The book shows in detail how and why neat mass nouns pattern semantically both with mess mass nouns and with count nouns. Iceberg semantics is a compositional theory and in Iceberg semantics the semantic distinctions defined apply to noun phrases of any complexity. The book studies in depth the semantics of classifier noun phrases (like three glasses of wine) and measure noun phrases (like three liters of wine). The classical wisdom is that classifier interpretations are count. Recent literature has argued compellingly that measure interpretations are mass. The book shows that both connections follow from the basic architecture of Iceberg semantics. Audience: Scholars and students in linguistics - in particular semantics, pragmatics, computational linguistics and syntax – and neighbouring disciplines like logic, philosophy of language, and cognitive science.

English General Nouns

English General Nouns PDF Author: Michaela Mahlberg
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027222916
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
This book proposes an innovative approach to general nouns. General nouns are defined as high-frequency nouns that are characterized by their textual functions. Although the concept is motivated by Halliday & Hasan (1976), the corpus theoretical approach adopted in the present study is fundamentally different and set in a linguistic framework that prioritizes lexis. The study investigates 20 nouns that are very frequent in mainstream English, as represented by the Bank of English Corpus. The corpus-driven approach to the data involves a critical discussion of descriptive tools, such as patterns, semantic prosodies, and primings of lexical items, and the concept of? local textual functions? is put forward to characterize the functions of the nouns in texts. The study not only suggests a characterization of general nouns, but also stresses that functions of lexical items and properties of texts are closely linked. This link requires new ways of describing language.

Semantic Plurality

Semantic Plurality PDF Author: Laure Gardelle
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027261741
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This monograph proposes a comparative approach to all the ways of denoting ‘more than one’ entity, from collective and aggregate nouns (with the first-ever typology), to count plurals, partly substantivised adjectives and conjoined NPs. This semantic feature approach to plurality, which cuts across number, the count/non-count distinction, and lexical/NP levels, reveals a very consistent Scale of Unit Integration, which establishes clear-cut boundaries for collective nouns, and accommodates cases such as three elephant, cattle or a chain of islands. The study also offers a refined understanding of aggregate nouns (a category nearly as large as that of collective nouns) and quantification in pseudo-partitives, develops Guillaume’s notion of ‘internal plurality’, and proposes the innovative concept of ‘hyperonyms of plural classes’ (e.g. furniture). The Animacy Hierarchy is also found to be influential, beyond hybrid agreement. The book aims to be accessible to scholars of any theoretical background interested in these topics.

Understanding Semantics

Understanding Semantics PDF Author: Sebastian Loebner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134647158
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
This series provides approachable, yet authoritative, introductions to all the major topics in linguistics. Ideal for students with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics, each book carefully explains the basics, emphasising understanding of the essential notions rather than arguing for a particular theoretical position. Understanding Semantics offers a complete introduction to linguistic semantics. The book takes a step-by-step approach, starting with the basic concepts and moving through the central questions to examine the methods and results of the science of linguistic meaning. Understanding Semantics unites the treatment of a broad scale of phenomena using data from different languages with a thorough investigation of major theoretical perspectives. It leads the reader from their intuitive knowledge of meaning to a deeper understanding of the use of scientific reasoning in the study of language as a communicative tool, of the nature of linguistic meaning, and of the scope and limitations of linguistic semantics. Ideal as a first textbook in semantics for undergraduate students of linguistics, this book is also recommended for students of literature, philosophy, psychology and cognitive science.

Emotive Signs in Language and Semantic Functioning of Derived Nouns in Russian

Emotive Signs in Language and Semantic Functioning of Derived Nouns in Russian PDF Author: Bronislava Volek
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027215294
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
This monograph is intended as a contribution to the integral description of language and verbal communication. Chapter I and Chapters VII and VIII are concerned with general problems of emotivity and expressivity in language as such and on all linguistic levels. These chapters describe emotivity from a new semiotic perspective and suggest a typology of emotive signs and meanings. Chapter II discusses general methodology of investigating and "measuring" emotive meaning in the area of word-formation (with examples from Russian). Chapters III, IV and V treat Russian diminutives fromgeneral-structural, lexical-contextual and pragmatic perspectives, while Chapter VI presents a comparison of the semantic structures of the various types of emotive noun derivatives which exist in Russian. The book thus begins with a general treatment on emotivity, goes on to consider the specific case of emotive noun-formation, giving special attention to the Russian diminutives, and then returns, by way of a comparison of the semantic structures of various types of emotive nouns, to more general problems of emotivity in language and to semiotic typology.

Semantics of Complex Words

Semantics of Complex Words PDF Author: Laurie Bauer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319141023
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
This volume offers a valuable overview of recent research into the semantic aspects of complex words through different theoretical frameworks. Contributions by experts in the field, both morphologists and psycholinguists, identify crucial areas of research, present alternative and complementary approaches to their examination from the current level of knowledge, and indicate perspectives of research into the semantics of complex words by raising important questions that need to be investigated in order to get a more comprehensive picture of the field. Recent decades have seen both extensive and intensive development of various theories of word-formation, however, the semantic aspects of complex words have, with a few notable exceptions, been rather neglected. This volume fills that gap by offering articles written by leading experts in the field from various theoretical backgrounds.