Free eBooks Lexical Semantics (Cambridge Textbooks In Linguistics) Available To Downloads
Lexical Semantics is about the meaning of words. Although obviously a central concern of linguistics, the semantic behaviour of words has been unduly neglected in the current literature, which has tended to emphasize sentential semantics and its relation to formal systems of logic. In this textbook D. A. Cruse establishes in a principled and disciplined way the descriptive and generalizable facts about lexical relations that any formal theory of semantics will have to encompass. Among the topics covered in depth are idiomaticity, lexical ambiguity, synonymy, hierarchical relations such as hyponymy and meronymy, and various types of oppositeness. Syntagmatic relations are also treated in some detail. The discussions are richly illustrated by examples drawn almost entirely from English. Although a familiarity with traditional grammar is assumed, readers with no technical linguistic background will find the exposition always accessible. All readers with an interest in semantics will find in this original text not only essential background but a stimulating new perspective on the field.
Series: Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics
Paperback: 328 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (September 26, 1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0521276438
ISBN-13: 978-0521276436
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,324,938 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #357 in Books > Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Semantics #3448 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Linguistics #5535 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Linguistics
A mature science, like Physics, has a panoply of formalisms, apparati, and methods for making epistemic progress. But in a newer science, like semantics, how do you even get off the ground?Cruse here provides a marvelous exposition of the methods employed by semanticists, and some results obtainable from them. His intellectual honesty is such that he never claims more for them than what is warrented--he never tried to make too much stew from one oyster. There are vast areas of semantics and linguistics which just can't be formalized. But Cruse here shows us how at least to get started.The approach he describes is one he calls a "contextual" approach--"the semantic properties of a lexical item are fully reflected in appropriate aspects of the relations it contracts with actual and potential contexts". Astute readers will note the perhaps surprising agreement here between Cruse and Quinian Holism. To get a grip on the meaning of a word, the best way is to systematically examing sentences which contain that word, and see if the sentences seem intuitively "wrong" somehow or "right".For example, it tells us something about the meaning of the word "light" that the sentnece "It was too light for me to lift" seems wrong somehow. Certain readers might at first consider this intuition-based method to be hopelessly unscientific, but as Cruse points out, every measurement, at some point, depends upon human judgements--e.g. when measuring temperature, you have to judge which line on the thermometer is closest to the mercury. Indeed, that is what a measuring device does--makes quantities easier to make judment calls about. A great insight. Cruse developes analogous "measuring instruments" to help with investigating what words mean.
Lexical Semantics (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) Semantics in Generative Grammar (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics) Conversation Analysis (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics) Semantics, Second Edition (Palgrave Modern Linguistics) Phonology in Generative Grammar (Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics, No. 7) Introducing Phonology (Cambridge Introductions to Language and Linguistics) The Politics of the European Union (Cambridge Textbooks in Comparative Politics) Set Theory: A First Course (Cambridge Mathematical Textbooks) Semantics with Applications: An Appetizer (Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science) Brahms and Bruckner as Artistic Antipodes: Studies in Musical Semantics Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought.) Computational Semantics with Functional Programming Two-Dimensional Semantics Building Language Skills and Cultural Competencies in the Military (Languages and Linguistics Series) Language Variation And Change In A Modernising Arab State: The Case Of Bahrain (Library of Arabic Linguistics, Monograph 7) Lang & Linguistic In Bahrain Mon (Library of Arabic Linguistics) Reading Mahler (Studies in German Literature Linguistics and Culture) El español en contacto con otras lenguas (Georgetown Studies in Spanish Linguistics) (Spanish Edition) Linguistics for Non-Linguists: A Primer with Exercises (5th Edition) Sonido y sentido: Teoría y práctica de la pronunciación del español con audio CD (Georgetown Studies in Spanish Linguistics) (Spanish Edition)
