Number Constructions And Semantics


Number Constructions And Semantics
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Number Constructions And Semantics


Number Constructions And Semantics
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Author : Anne Storch
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Release Date : 2014-03-19

Number Constructions And Semantics written by Anne Storch and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing Company this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2014-03-19 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


This book is the outcome of several decades of research experience, with contributions by leading scholars based on long-term field research. It combines approaches from descriptive linguistics, anthropological linguistics, socio-historical studies, areal linguistics, and social anthropology. The key concern of this ground-breaking volume is to investigate the linguistic means of expressing number and countable amounts, which differ greatly in the world’s languages. It provides insights into common number-marking devices and their not-so-common usages, but also into phenomena such as the absence of plurals, or transnumeral forms. The different contributions to the volume show that number is of considerable semantic complexity in many languages worldwide, expressing all kinds of extendedness, multiplicity, salience, size, and so on. This raises a number of challenging questions regarding what exactly is described under the slightly monolithic label of ‘number’ in most descriptive approaches to the languages of the world.



The Semantic Variability Of Absolute Constructions


The Semantic Variability Of Absolute Constructions
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Author : G.T. Stump
language : en
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Release Date : 2012-12-06

The Semantic Variability Of Absolute Constructions written by G.T. Stump and has been published by Springer Science & Business Media this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2012-12-06 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


The goal of this book is to investigate the semantics of absolute constructions in English; specifically, my object is to provide an explanation for the semantic variability of such constructions. As has been widely noted in traditional grammatical studies of English, free adjuncts and absolute phrases have the ability to playa number of specific logical roles in the sentences in which they appear; yet, paradoxically, they lack any overt indication of their logical connection to the clause which they modify. How, then, is the logical function of an absolute construction determined? In attempting to answer this question, one must inevitably address a number of more general issues: Is the meaning assigned to a linguistic expression necessarily determined by linguistic rules, or can the grammar of a language in some cases simply underdetermine the interpretation of expressions? Are the truthconditions of a sentence ever sensitive to the inferences of language users? If so, then is it possible to maintain the validity of any really substantive version of the Compositionality Principle? These are, of course, issues of great inherent interest to anyone concerned with the formal syntax and semantics of natural language, with the philosophy of language, or with language processing. The descriptive framework assumed throughout is the semantic theory developed by Richard Montague (1970a, 1970b, 1973) and his followers. (For a very thorough introduction to Montague semantics, the reader may refer to Dowty, Wall and Peters (1981 ).



Give Constructions Across Languages


Give Constructions Across Languages
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Author : Myriam Bouveret
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Release Date : 2021-03-15

Give Constructions Across Languages written by Myriam Bouveret and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing Company this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2021-03-15 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


This cognitive contrastive study of ten languages (Chinese, Dalabon, English, French, Spanish, Romanian, Kurdish, Khmer, Polish, Tibetan) focuses on the concept of giving from six main points of view, namely argument structure, lexical semantics and event structure, role marking in the three argument construction and in other constructions, lexicalization, grammaticalization and constructionalization of the verb from a cognitive construction grammar point of view, and central and extended meanings. It is proposed that a continuum approach to grammar and lexicon is needed in order to describe the typological and historical facts. The volume argues for a concrete and abstract transfer ‘cluster model’ involving coverage of lexical and grammatical extension or bleaching phenomena and that the semantic extensions (metaphorical and otherwise) exploit various portions of this schema. The volume is deeply anchored in the Cognitive Construction Grammar theoretical movement, and proposes analyses of constructional phenomena to illustrate a grammar to lexicon continuum, in synchrony and diachrony: language change, grammaticalization chains, constructionalization analysis, and an invariant hypothesis of giving as a basic activity in human cognition.



The Syntax And Semantics Of Split Constructions


The Syntax And Semantics Of Split Constructions
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Author : A. Butler
language : en
Publisher: Springer
Release Date : 2004-04-07

The Syntax And Semantics Of Split Constructions written by A. Butler and has been published by Springer this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2004-04-07 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


Split constructions are very widespread in natural languages. The separation of the semantic restriction of a quantifier from that quantifier is a typical example of such a construction. This study addresses the problem that such discontinuous strings exhibit a number of locality constraints, including intervention effects. These are shown to follow from the interaction of a minimalist syntax with a semantics that directly assigns a model-theoretic interpretation to syntactic logical forms. The approach is shown to have wide empirical coverage and a conceptual simplicity. The book will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of syntax and semantics.



The Semantic Variability Of Absolute Constructions


The Semantic Variability Of Absolute Constructions
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Author : Gregory Stump
language : en
Publisher: Springer
Release Date : 1984-12-31

The Semantic Variability Of Absolute Constructions written by Gregory Stump and has been published by Springer this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1984-12-31 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


The goal of this book is to investigate the semantics of absolute constructions in English; specifically, my object is to provide an explanation for the semantic variability of such constructions. As has been widely noted in traditional grammatical studies of English, free adjuncts and absolute phrases have the ability to playa number of specific logical roles in the sentences in which they appear; yet, paradoxically, they lack any overt indication of their logical connection to the clause which they modify. How, then, is the logical function of an absolute construction determined? In attempting to answer this question, one must inevitably address a number of more general issues: Is the meaning assigned to a linguistic expression necessarily determined by linguistic rules, or can the grammar of a language in some cases simply underdetermine the interpretation of expressions? Are the truthconditions of a sentence ever sensitive to the inferences of language users? If so, then is it possible to maintain the validity of any really substantive version of the Compositionality Principle? These are, of course, issues of great inherent interest to anyone concerned with the formal syntax and semantics of natural language, with the philosophy of language, or with language processing. The descriptive framework assumed throughout is the semantic theory developed by Richard Montague (1970a, 1970b, 1973) and his followers. (For a very thorough introduction to Montague semantics, the reader may refer to Dowty, Wall and Peters (1981 ).



Constructions In Use


Constructions In Use
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Author : Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
language : en
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Release Date : 2017-07-03

Constructions In Use written by Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf and has been published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2017-07-03 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


Semantics is one of the core disciplines of philosophy of language. There are basically two strands of established theories: use-based and truth-conditional, with the latter being the dominant variety. This dominance has been questioned recently by linguists who embrace a research paradigm that is known as construction grammar. As construction grammar is use-based, it seems natural to suppose that its success is indirect support for use-based semantics in philosophy. This is true. But there's still a lot to do. Although there are use-based theories that fit quite well with current research in linguistics, they are far from being perfect. In particular, the most popular theory in that area is still tied to some of the main motivations behind truth-conditional semantics. 'Constructions in Use' offers an alternative by proposing to let this legacy go. Instead, it argues that philosophical semantics is best off if it goes for an entirely use-based theory. This series explores issues of mental representation, linguistic structure and representation, and their interplay. The research presented in this series is grounded in the idea explored in the Collaborative Research Center 'The structure of representations in language, cognition and science' (SFB 991) that there is a universal format for the representation of linguistic and cognitive concepts.



The Grammar Of Adverbials


The Grammar Of Adverbials
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Author : Renate Bartsch
language : en
Publisher: North-Holland
Release Date : 1976

The Grammar Of Adverbials written by Renate Bartsch and has been published by North-Holland this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1976 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


Interesting observations and problems emerge as the author pursues a complete calculus of an adverbial logic. Author Bartsch establishes a total of 18 adverbial subcategories and proposes an equal number of logico-semantic basic constructions in a predicate logical notation to explain them. The logico-semantic basic constructions bring out certain aspects of adverbial semantics, insofar as they can be specified by predicate logical means. However, for a logical and linguistic analysis of adverbials to be complete, sentence semantic analysis - provided it is carried out in a clear-cut manner with clear paraphrasing criteria, unambiguous notation and complete interpretation rules - must be supplemented by and combined with 'word semantics' and syntax in a more elaborate way. The topic of adverbial semantics is a complicated and rewarding field, and this book contains enough suggestions, challenging hypotheses and stimulating observations, so that anybody directly concerned with the study of adverbials will want to have a look.



Patient Subject Constructions In Mandarin Chinese


Patient Subject Constructions In Mandarin Chinese
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Author : Xiaoling He
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Release Date : 2019-06-15

Patient Subject Constructions In Mandarin Chinese written by Xiaoling He and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing Company this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2019-06-15 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


As a distinctive syntactic structure in Mandarin Chinese, the Patient-Subject Construction (PSC) is one of the most interesting but least well-understood structures in the language. This book offers a comprehensive account of the history, structure, meaning and use of the PSC. Unlike previous descriptions which were framed in terms of pre-existing grammatical notions such as ‘topicalization’, ‘passivization’ and ‘ergativization’, this book offers a fresh look at the PSC, in which its syntactic and semantic as well as its discourse functions are examined within the system of major construction-types of the language as a whole. The PSC, being low in transitivity, serves primarily the function of backgrounding in discourse. Typologically, the PSC bears a resemblance to middle constructions in Indo-European and other languages, raising interesting questions about ways to understand congruent and divergent syntactic structures across the world’s languages. This book will be of interest to students of Chinese Linguistics as well as Language Typology.



Pseudo Coordination And Multiple Agreement Constructions


Pseudo Coordination And Multiple Agreement Constructions
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Author : Giuliana Giusti
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Release Date : 2022-03-16

Pseudo Coordination And Multiple Agreement Constructions written by Giuliana Giusti and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing Company this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2022-03-16 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


Verbal Pseudo-Coordination (as in English ‘go and get’) has been described for a number of individual languages, but this is the first edited volume to emphasize this topic from a comparative perspective, and in connection to Multiple Agreement Constructions more generally. The chapters include detailed analyses of Romance, Germanic, Slavic and other languages. These contributions show important cross-linguistic similarities in these constructions, as well as their diversity, providing insights into areas such as the morphology-syntax and syntax-semantics interfaces, dialectal variation and language contact. This volume establishes Pseudo-Coordination as a descriptively important and theoretically challenging cross-linguistic phenomenon among Multiple Agreement Constructions and will be of interest to specialists in individual languages as well as typologists and theoreticians, serving as a foundation to promote continued research.



A Semantics For The English Existential Construction


A Semantics For The English Existential Construction
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Author : Louise McNally
language : en
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Release Date : 1997

A Semantics For The English Existential Construction written by Louise McNally and has been published by Taylor & Francis this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 1997 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.


Proposes a new semantics for English statements beginning with there, which adopts the generally rejected characterization of them as subject-predicate prepositions in which the subject is a property or description of an individual and the predicate affirms the instantiation of the property of des