Semantics Language Workbooks

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title: Semantics Language Workbooks

author: Gregory, Howard.

publisher: Taylor & Francis Routledge

isbn10 | asin: 0415216109

print isbn13: 9780415216104

ebook isbn13: 9780203060810

language: English

subject Semantics, Sémantique.

publication date: 2000

lcc: P325.G685 2000eb

ddc: 401/.43

subject: Semantics, Sémantique.

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Page i

SEMANTICS

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Page ii

IN THE SAME SERIES

Editor: Richard Hudson

Patricia Ashby Speech Sounds

Laurie Bauer Vocabulary

Edward Carney English Spelling

Richard Coates Word Structure

Jonathan Culpeper History of English

Nigel Fabb Sentence Structure

John Haynes Style

Richard Hudson English Grammar

Richard Hudson Word Meaning

Jean Stilwell Peccei Child Language, 2nd edn

Jean Stilwell Peccei Pragmatics

Raphael Salkie Text and Discourse Analysis

R.L.Trask Language Change

Peter Trudgill Dialects

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Page iii

SEMANTICS

Howard Gregory

London and New York

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Page iv

First published 2000

by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

© 2000 Howard Gregory

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now

known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in

any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing

from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Gregory, Howard, 1960–

Semantics: an introductory workbook/Howard Gregory.

p. cm.—(Language workbooks)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-415-21610-9 (pbk.)

1. Semantics. I. Title. II. Series.

P325.G685 2000

401'.43–dc21 99–39900

CIP

ISBN 0-203-06081-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-25230-6 (OEB Format)

ISBN 0-415-21610-9 (Print Edition)

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Page v

To the people of Romania

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Page vi

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Page vii

CONTENTS

Using this book ix

1 Pinning down semantics

1

2 Truth conditions

9

3 Getting inside sentences 16 4 Meaning relations (1) 23 5 Meaning relations (2) 31 6 Things and events 37 7 Quantifiers (1) 44 8 Quantifiers (2) 52 9 Argument structure 57

10 Appendices 64

10.1 Introduction to sets and functions 64

10.2 Key to exercises 69

10.3 List of technical terms 86

10.4 Further reading 89

Bibliography 91

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Page ix

USING THIS BOOK

This book is intended to meet the need for a genuinely introductory course book in semantics. It is intended for

undergraduates, probably beginning a linguistics-related course, who find themselves having to deal with semantics

for the first time. It is quite common for such students to start off by being confused and discouraged, primarily

perhaps because it is not always easy to appreciate the relevance of semantic approaches, which can appear very

abstract, to their own interests in language. This book starts from very simple observations about meaning, and

gradually shows how meanings are built up and inter-related. It presupposes very little prior knowledge either of

grammar or of linguistic terminology. (Technical terms introduced in the book are distinguished by small capitals, and

are listed in a Glossary at the end.)

Unlike many books in this field it is not intended as a textbook in logic, though you will pick up a certain amount of

logic in the course of working through it. The emphasis is on analysing the meaning of basic expressions of natural

(i.e. human) language. Logic comes into it because it has been found a useful tool for doing this—at least in one of

the most influential traditions within linguistics, one which is strongly reflected here. Of course for serious work in

semantics a more detailed knowledge of logic is needed than can be given here.

This is designed to be used as a course book (rather than a traditional textbook), and you will get the most out of it

if you work through the exercises. Most of these have answers at the back, which you are advised to check, as they

may be picked up in later work.

Some ideas from set theory are used during the book—these are quite intuitive and non-technical, but there is a

short appendix on sets and functions (section 10.1).

Thanks are due first of all to my first teachers of semantics, Shalom Lappin and Ruth Kempson. I am also indebted

to Dick Hudson,

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