Search results for Semantics and pragmatics

Summary

One of the most striking aspects of human language is the complexity of the meanings that it conveys. No other animal possesses a mode of expression that allows it to articulate intricate emotions, describe distant times and places, study molecules and galaxies, or discuss the production of sophisticated tools, weapons and cures. The complex meanings of natural language make it an efficient, general-purpose instrument of human thought and communication. But what are meanings? And how does language convey them?

To illustrate one aspect of the problem, let us consider a phrase in one of Bob Dylan's famous love songs. The phrase opens the song's refrain by describing a woman, whose identity is not disclosed. It goes like this:

(1.1) sad-eyed lady of the lowlands, where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes

If we want to restate the meaning of this phrase in simpler terms, we can do it as follows:

(1.2) There's a lady. That lady has sad eyes. She is from the lowlands. Some prophet also has sad eyes. That prophet says “no man comes to the lowlands”.

Without doubt, this way of paraphrasing Dylan's verse robs it of much of its poetic value. But at the same time it also highlights a remarkable property of meaning in natural language. When we hear a long expression like (1.1), we immediately draw from it all sorts of simple conclusions. This happens even in cases where we miss information that is important for understanding the “true meaning” of what is being said. Dylan's song only gives vague clues about the identity of the lady. Yet upon hearing the refrain we unfailingly draw from (1.1) the conclusions in (1.2). The converse is true as well: when Dylan invented his description of the sad-eyed lady, he must have implicitly assumed the statements in (1.2) as part of its meaning. This kind of back-and-forth reasoning occurs whenever we think and converse. When we hear, utter or think of an expression, we instinctively relate it to other phrases that we consider obvious conclusions. Drawing such trivial-looking inferences using our language is one of the abilities that characterize us as linguistic creatures. No other animal has this linguistic ability, and no current technology can accurately mimic it.

Introducing some of the foundational concepts, principles and techniques in the formal semantics of natural language, Elements of Formal Semantics outlines the mathematical principles that underlie linguistic meaning. Making use of a wide range of concrete English examples, the book presents the most useful tools and concepts of formal semantics in an accessible style and includes a variety of practical exercises so that readers can learn to utilise these tools effectively. For readers with an elementary background in set theory and linguistics or with an interest in mathematical modelling, this fascinating study is an ideal introduction to natural language semantics. Designed as a quick yet thorough introduction to one of the most vibrant areas of research in modern linguistics today this volume reveals the beauty and elegance of the mathematical study of meaning.

Summary

This chapter introduces some of the elementary mathematical techniques in formal semantics. We systematize models by organizing denotations in domains of different types. This general type system allows models to describe sets, as well as relations and other operators with multiple arguments. Denotations of complex expressions are compositionally derived by a uniform semantic operation of function application. The resulting semantic framework is demonstrated by treating modified noun phrases (a tall man), reflexive pronouns (herself) and coordinations between different phrases. We avoid excess notation by defining denotations set-theoretically and introducing lambda-style shorthand when convenient.

This chapter systematically explains the way in which models allow linguistic expressions to denote abstract objects. This will give us a better insight into our theory of meaning and its relations with syntactic forms. The first step is to describe how denotations are organized in a model. Throughout Chapter 2, we usedmodels freely to describe different mathematical objects. For sentences we used truthvalues, for names like Tina we used entities, and for adjectives like tall we used sets of entities. In addition we used the membership operator for is, the intersection function for and, and the complement function for not. Using various mathematical objects in this manner was useful for expository purposes. However, in general it makes our compositionality principle hard to obtain. With each new mathematical notion we introduce, we need to see how it composes with other denotations. Toomuchmathematical freedom in the design of the denotations makes it hard to describe how they operate in different natural language expressions. Themodel structure that we introduce in this chapter helps us tomake semantic distinctions between language expressions within well-defined boundaries. In this way we gain a better understanding of denotations in general, and see more clearly how they interact with syntactic forms and with each other.

Some of the foundational themes in this chapter may seem intimidating at first glance.However, none of them is especially hard. To help you follow this chapter with ease, it is divided into four parts. Each of these parts covers a general topic that leads naturally to the topic of the next one. If you are a novice to the field, it is a good idea to solve the exercises referred to at the end of each part before reading on.

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4274 results in Semantics and pragmatics

1 - Introduction

Summary

Elements of Formal Semantics

3 - Types and Meaning Composition

Summary

7 - Conclusion and Further Topics

Summary

Appendix to Chapter 3

Acknowledgements

4 - Just

Glossary

Figures

Appendix A

8 - I mean

Appendices

3 - Well

2 - Corpus approaches, choice of markers and methodology

9 - Conclusion

Copyright page

Tables

1 - ‘Well I mean I just sort of like you know…’

7 - Sort of

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4274 results in Semantics and pragmatics

Summary

Elements of Formal Semantics

Summary

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