Patrizia Violi, Meaning and experience. Translated by Jeremy Carden. (Advances in Semiotics, Thomas A. Sebeok, general ed.). Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001. Pp. xiv, 291. Hb $49.95.

Abstract

In this clearly wrought translation from Italian, the philosopher Patrizia Violi analyzes and criticizes in exacting detail the development of lexical semantics from the classical models through structuralism, prototype theory, and frame semantics, to end at the threshold of cognitive semantics (cf. Violi 1997). Her critique expounds on both well-known and little-known concepts, but she does not innovate theory. Her account could be useful as a handbook to anyone who teaches lexical semantics or who wishes to match his or her overview of this field with that of an accomplished academic who has given it vast thought; the work is too advanced for most students. The reader likely will disagree with some of Violi's explications, all of which, nevertheless, are sufficiently informed to force clarification of any contrary position. The book rivals the main synopses published in English (Durbin & Radden 1987, Hjelmslev 1953, Johnson-Laird 1983, Taylor 1989), but it adds a semiotic facet derived mainly from works of Umberto Eco, Diego Marconi, and Algirdas J. Greimas. Of its references, 248 are in English, 24 in Italian, 24 in French, and 16 in other languages; all but two are generally available. Many of the 277 notes are immediately germane to the text, although others are dispensable distractions. The nine-page index is taxonomic but cryptic; for example, externalism appears under both Linguistics and Meaning, each appearance with different pages, but intension and extension are elusive; because the book is a review of concepts, this handicap is grave.