This handbook is the first volume to provide a comprehensive, in-depth, and balanced discussion of ellipsis phenomena, whereby the meaning of an utterance is richer than would be expected based solely on its linguistic form. Natural language abounds in these apparently incomplete expressions, such as I laughed but Ed didn't, in which the final portion of the sentence, the verb 'laugh', remains unpronounced but is still understood. The range of phenomena involved raise general and fundamental questions about the workings of grammar, but also constitute a treasure trove of fine-grained points of inter- and intralinguistic variation. The volume is divided into four parts. In the first, authors examine the role that ellipsis plays and how it is analysed in different theoretical frameworks and linguistic subdisciplines, such as HPSG, construction grammar, inquisitive semantics, and computational linguistics. Chapters in the second part highlight the usefulness of ellipsis as a diagnostic tool for other linguistic phenomena including movement and islands and codeswitching, while part III focuses instead on the types of elliptical constructions found in natural language, such as sluicing, gapping, and null complement anaphora. Finally, the last part of the book contains case studies that investigate elliptical phenomena in a wide variety of languages, including Dutch, Japanese, Persian, and Finnish Sign Language.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. This book presents a new logical framework to capture the meaning of sentences in conversation. The traditional approach equates meaning with truth-conditions: to know the meaning of a sentence is to know under which circumstances it is true. The reason for this is that linguistic and philosophical investigations are usually carried out in a logical framework that was originally designed to characterize valid argumentation. However, argumentation is neither the sole, nor the primary function of language. One task that language more widely and ordinarily fulfils is to enable the exchange of information between conversational participants. In the framework outlined in this volume, inquisitive semantics, information exchange is seen as a process of raising and resolving issues. Inquisitive semantics provides a new formal notion of meaning, which makes it possible to model various concepts that are crucial for the analysis of linguistic information exchange in a more refined and more principled way than has been possible in previous frameworks. Importantly, it also allows an integrated treatment of statements and questions. The first part of the book presents the framework in detail, while the second demonstrates its benefits in the semantic analysis of questions, coordination, modals, conditionals, and intonation. The book will be of interest to researchers and students from advanced undergraduate level upwards in the fields of semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, and logic.

This book aims to provide a solution to the semantic paradoxes. It argues for a unified solution to the paradoxes generated by our concepts of denotation, predicate extension, and truth. The solution makes two main claims. The first is that our semantic expressions 'denotes', 'extension' and 'true' are context-sensitive. The second, inspired by a brief, tantalizing remark of Goedel's, is that these expressions are significant everywhere except for certain singularities, in analogy with division by zero. A formal theory of singularities is presented and applied to a wide variety of versions of the definability paradoxes, Russell's paradox, and the Liar paradox. Keith Simmons argues that the singularity theory satisfies the following desiderata: it recognizes that the proper setting of the semantic paradoxes is natural language, not regimented formal languages; it minimizes any revision to our semantic concepts; it respects as far as possible Tarski's intuition that natural languages are universal; it responds adequately to the threat of revenge paradoxes; and it preserves classical logic and semantics. Simmons draws out the consequences of the singularity theory for deflationary views of our semantic concepts, and concludes that if we accept the singularity theory, we must reject deflationism.

Zu den Aufgaben einer Akademie der Wissenschaften gehoren nieht nur die sogenannten Langzeitvorhaben wie die Herausgabe des Grimmschen Worterbu ches oder des von der Nordrhein-Westfalischen Akademie betreuten Reallexikons und Jahrbuches fiir Antike und Christentum oder - in den monatlichen Sitzungen der beiden Klassen fiir Geisteswissenschaften und fiir Natur-, Ingenieur- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften - die Diskussion wissenschaftlicher Themen und Entwieklungen, sondem es ist auch eine gem iibemommene Verpflichtung der Akademie, intemationale Symposien zu bestimmten Fragen der Wissenschaft anzuregen und zu unterstiitzen. In einer Zeit, in der man von der schriftlichen Tradition zu den sogenannten Neuen Medien iiberzugehen scheint, ist es sicherlich berechtigt, den Blick zuriickzulenken auf eine Epoche, in der es noch keine oder nur eine unzureichende schriftliche Tradierung gab, oder auf Ethnien, in denen heute noch die iilteste Kommunikations methodik der oralen Dbertragung dichterischer Erzeugnisse lebendig ist. Wiihrend man in friiheren Jahrhunderten derartige miindliche Quellen weitgehend vemach liissigte, ist es in Europa seit d m 19. Jahrhundert zu einer intensiven Beschiiftigung mit diesem wiehtigen, bis heute in vielen Teilen der Welt brachliegenden Quellenmaterial gekommen. Gerade ein Medizinhistoriker wie ich, der sich derartiger miindlicher Uberlieferungen bei seinen Untersuchungen iiber die Ethno medizin verschiedenster Volkerschaften zu bedienen hat, darf sich besonders freuen, daB von sachkundigen Kennem Formen und Funktion dieser miindlichen Traditionen in aller Welt behandelt werden und damit neue AnstoBe zu einer intensiveren Beschiiftigung mit dieser Forschungsrichtung gegeben werden."

Die zentrale These dieses Buches lautet: Die Semantik des deiktischen Phanomens - des Zeigens und Verweisens mittels Sprache - darf von dem wahrnehmenden und aktiv verhaltensorientierten Organismus nicht getrennt behandelt werden. Sie kann erst durch eine Betrachtung des sprachlichen Geschehens in einem globalen Zusammenhang mit der visuellen und sprachlichen Struktur und Dynamik des intentionalen Verhaltenssystems Organismus geklart werde. Die Bedeutung der Deixis entsteht im Akt des Hinsehens beim vorkommunikativen, intra-organismischen Orientierungsprozess, die Leistung der Deixis besteht im Akt des Zeigens beim inter-organismischen Orientierungsprozess in einer "elementaren Kommunikationssituation.""

This is a study of pragmatic markers in a corpus of spoken English. Pragmatic markers are multifunctional and this can make it difficult to describe their meaning and potential. In particular, we know little about pragmatic markers and prosody, their sociolinguistic use or their distribution across text types. This book looks at pragmatic markers in a corpus of spoken English, with a focus on the functions performed by the markers in different types of text. Karen Aijmer explores the syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and discourse aspects of the markers. By taking a broader perspective on the markers, classifying them, describing their class-specific properties and analysing individual markers, she assesses whether any generalisations can be made about the prosody of the markers. It includes a definition of pragmatic markers in the context of the book. It features chapter-long case studies of the pragmatic markers well, in fact and actually. Each chapter has a clear introduction and conclusion.

This book focuses on how readers can be 'manipulated' during their experience of reading fictional texts and how they are incited to perceive, process and interpret certain textual patterns. Offering fine-grained stylistic analysis of diverse genres, including crime fiction, short stories, poetry and novels, the book deciphers various linguistic, pragmatic and multimodal techniques. These are skilfully used by authors to achieve specific effects through a subtle manipulation of deixis, metalepsis, dialogue, metaphors, endings, inferences or rhetorical, narratorial and typographical control. Exploring contemporary texts such as The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Remains of the Day and We Need to Talk About Kevin, chapters delve into how readers are pragmatically positioned or cognitively (mis)directed as the author guides their attention and influences their judgment. They also show how readers' responses can, conversely, bring about a certain form of manipulation as readers challenge the positions the texts invite them to occupy.

This textbook proposes a theoretical approach to linguistics in relation to teaching English. Combining research with practical classroom strategies and activities, it aims to satisfy the needs of new and experienced TESOL practitioners, helping them to understand the features of the English language and how those features impact on students in the classroom. The author provides a toolkit of strategies and practical teaching ideas to inspire and support practitioners in the classroom, encouraging reflection through regular stop-and-think tasks, so that practitioners have the opportunity to deepen their understanding and relate it to their own experience and practice. This book will appeal to students and practitioners in the fields of applied linguistics, TESOL, EAL, English language and linguistics, EAP, and business English.