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Bringing together papers from various subfields of theoretical
linguistics, this volume gives a representative glimpse of current
research on form and function in grammar. Its overarching topic is
as old as it is hot: the relation between the major clause types as
determined in syntax, and their canonical or idiosyncratic roles in
discourse as characterized in pragmatic terms. Though none of the
papers addresses this topic in its full breadth, they can all be
seen to make their specific contributions to it, scrutinizing the
pertinent aspects of the grammatical interfaces and elaborating
detailed case studies. The first part of this collection comprises
three papers (by Asher, Portner, and van Rooy & Franke) devoted
to the semantics/pragmatics interface. The second part, with
contributions by Rizzi, Saito, and Belletti, deals with the
question of how the constitution of sentence types can be related
to properties of functional categories in the clausal periphery.The
last four papers (Boskovic, van Riemsdijk, Bauke & Roeper,
Williams) concern the interaction of lexical elements and clausal
functional categories, revealing unexpected parallels between
clause structure and the internal structure, particularly in
lexical categories.
This textbook helps undergraduate students of language and
linguistics taking their first steps in one of the core areas of
grammar, introducing them to the basic ideas, insights, and
techniques of contemporary semantic theory. Requiring no special
background knowledge, the book starts with everyday observations
about word meaning and useand then hightlights the role of
structure in the analysis of the meanings of phrases and clauses,
zooming in on the fascinating and vexing question of how speakers
manage to meaningfully communicate with sentences and texts they
have never come across before. At the same time, the reader becomes
acquainted with the modern, functionalist characterization of
linguistic meaning in terms of reference (extension) and
information (intension), and learns to apply technical tools from
formal logic to analyzing the meaning of complex linguistic
expressions as being composed by the meanings of their parts. Each
of the nine main chapters contains a variety of exercises for
self-study and classroom use, with model solutions in the appendix.
Extensive English examples provide ample illustration.
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