Pragmatic Syntax
Pragmatic Syntax

Author: Jieun Kiaer

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-06-05

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1623561140

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Jieun Kiaer puts forward an argument in this book that the grammar of a language directly underpins the processing of the language, in real time. This is a view that runs against the orthodoxy of linguistic theorizing for the last 50 years, which has insisted that languages have to be characterized in terms that make little or no reference to the dynamics of language use. This orthodox view fails to fit languages in which the verb has to be at the end of the clause - which encompasses more than half of the world's languages. Thus, as this book shows, these languages remain very problematic for conventional theories. Using a mixture of corpus methods, sentence structure analysis, prosody and psycholinguistic theory, Kiaer redresses this imbalance. The data features both Korean and English example and it functions as one of the very first general introductions to Dynamic Syntax available.

The Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics of Spanish Mood
The Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics of Spanish Mood

Author: Henk Haverkate

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2002-09-24

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 902729738X

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This study provides a consistent description and explanation of the syntax, the semantics and the pragmatics of Spanish mood. A major focus of attention is the central role of the truthfunctional categories of realis, potentialis and irrealis as parameters relevant to mood selection in both subordinate and non-subordinate clauses. Furthermore, a proposal is offered for a new typology of clause-embedding predicates. The framework chosen stems from the insight that complement-taking predicates share the property of providing information on the set of mental processes which characterize intentional human behavior. At the level of pragmatic analysis, mood selection is examined from a variety of angles. Thus, specific research is conducted within the framework of speech act theory, relevance theory, politeness theory and the theory of Gricean maxims.

The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics
The Cambridge Handbook of Pragmatics

Author: Keith Allan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-01-12

Total Pages: 967

ISBN-13: 1139501895

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Pragmatics is the study of human communication: the choices speakers make to express their intended meaning and the kinds of inferences that hearers draw from an utterance in the context of its use. This Handbook surveys pragmatics from different perspectives, presenting the main theories in pragmatic research, incorporating seminal research as well as cutting-edge solutions. It addresses questions of rational and empirical research methods, what counts as an adequate and successful pragmatic theory, and how to go about answering problems raised in pragmatic theory. In the fast-developing field of pragmatics, this Handbook fills the gap in the market for a one-stop resource to the wide scope of today's research and the intricacy of the many theoretical debates. It is an authoritative guide for graduate students and researchers with its focus on the areas and theories that will mark progress in pragmatic research in the future.

Investigations of the Syntax-semantics-pragmatics Interface
Investigations of the Syntax-semantics-pragmatics Interface

Author: Robert D. Van Valin

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 9027205728

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Investigations of the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface presents on-going research in Role and Reference Grammar in a number of critical areas of linguistic theory: verb semantics and argument structure, the nature of syntactic categories and syntactic representation, prosody and syntax, information structure and syntax, and the syntax and semantics of complex sentences. In each of these areas there are important results which not only advance the development of the theory, but also contribute to the broader theoretical discussion. In particular, there are analyses of grammatical phenomena such as transitivity in Kabardian, the verb-less numeral quantifier construction in Japanese, and an unusual kind of complex sentence in Wari' (Chapakuran, Brazil) which not only illustrate the descriptive and explanatory power of the theory, but also present interesting challenges to other approaches. In addition, there are papers looking at the implications and applications of Role and Reference Grammar for neurolinguistic research, parsing and automated text analysis.

Prepositions in Their Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Context
Prepositions in Their Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Context

Author: Susanne Feigenbaum

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2002-01-01

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9789027229564

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The growing interest in prepositions is reflected by this impressive collection of papers from leading scholars of various fields. The selected contributions of Prepositions in their Syntactic, Semantic and Pragmatic Context focus on the local and temporal semantics of prepositions in relation to their context, too. Following an introduction which puts this new approach into a thematical and historical perspective, the volume presents fifteen studies in the following areas: The semantics of space dynamics (mainly on French prepositions); Language acquisition (aphasia and code-switching); Artificial intelligence (mainly of English prepositions); Specific languages: Hebrew (from a number of perspectives — syntax, semiotics, and sociolinguistic impact on morphology), Maltese, the Melanesian English-based Creole Bislama, and Biblical translations into Judeo-Greek.

The Syntax and Pragmatics of Anaphora
The Syntax and Pragmatics of Anaphora

Author: Yan Huang

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2007-08-16

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780521039604

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This book develops a pragmatic theory of anaphora within the neo-Gricean framework of conversational implicature. Chomsky claims that anaphora reflects underlying principles of innate Universal Grammar, and the view is widely held that only syntactic and semantic factors are crucial to intrasentential anaphora. Yan Huang questions the basis of the Government and Binding approach and argues that syntax and pragmatics are interconnected in determining many anaphoric processes. Furthermore, he proposes that the extent to which syntax and pragmatics interact varies typologically. There exists a class of language (such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean) in which pragmatics play a central role that in familiar European languages is alleged to be played by grammar. Yan Huang's pragmatic theory has far reaching implications for this important issue in theoretical linguistics.

Modality in Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics
Modality in Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics

Author: Werner Abraham

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-09-17

Total Pages: 455

ISBN-13: 1108861083

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What do we mean when we say things like 'If only we knew what he was up to!' Clearly this is more than just a message, or a question to our addressee. We are expressing simultaneously that we don't know, and also that we wish to know. Several modes of encoding contribute to such modalities of expression: word order, subordinating subjunctions, sentences that are subordinated but nevertheless occur autonomously, and attitudinal discourse adverbs which, far beyond lexical adverbials of modality, allow the speaker and the listener to presuppose full agreement, partial agreement under presupposed conditions, or negotiation of common ground. This state of the art survey proposes a new model of modality, drawing on data from a variety of Germanic and Slavic languages to find out what is cross-linguistically universal about modality, and to argue that it is a constitutive part of human cognition.

Adpositions
Adpositions

Author: Dennis Kurzon

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9789027229861

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This book is a collection of articles which deal with adpositions in a variety of languages and from a number of perspectives. Not only does the book cover what is traditionally treated in studies from a European and Semitic orientation – prepositions, but it presents studies on postpositions, too. The main languages dealt with in the collection are English, French and Hebrew, but there are articles devoted to other languages including Korean, Turkic languages, Armenian, Russian and Ukrainian. Adpositions are treated by some authors from a semantic perspective, by others as syntactic units, and a third group of authors distinguishes adpositions from the point of view of their pragmatic function. This work is of interest to students and researchers in theoretical and applied linguistics, as well as to those who have a special interest in any of the languages treated.

Optimality-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics
Optimality-theoretic Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics

Author: Géraldine Legendre

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 0198757115

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This book investigates the morphosyntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties of language, and the interactions between them, from the perspective of Optimality Theory. It integrates optimization processes into the formal and functional study of grammar, interpreting optimization as the result of conflicting, violable ranked constraints. Unlike previous work on the topic, this book also takes into account the question of directionality of grammar. A model of grammar in which optimization processes interact bidirectionally allows both language generation-the process of selecting the optimal form of a given meaning-and language interpretation-the process of optimal interpretation of a given form-to be taken into account. Chapters in this volume explore the consequences of both symmetric (unidirectional) and asymmetric (bidirectional) versions of Optimality Theory, investigating the syntax-semantics interface, first language acquisition, and sequential bilingual grammars. The volume presents cutting edge research in Optimality-Theoretic syntax and semantics, as well as demonstrating how optimization processes as modelled in this formalism serve as a viable approach for linguists and scholars in related fields.

Grammar, Meaning and Pragmatics
Grammar, Meaning and Pragmatics

Author: Frank Brisard

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2009-08-11

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9027289182

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The ten volumes of Handbook of Pragmatics Highlights focus on the most salient topics in the field of pragmatics, thus dividing its wide interdisciplinary spectrum in a transparent and manageable way. While other volumes select philosophical, cognitive, cultural, social, variational, interactional, or discursive points of view, this fifth volume looks at the field of linguistic pragmatics from a primarily grammatical angle. That is, it asks in which particular sense a variety of older and more recent functional (rather than generative) models of grammar relate to the study of language in use: how this affects their general outlook on language structure, whether issues of language use inform the very makeup of these models or are merely included as possible research themes, and how far the actual integration of pragmatics ultimately goes (is it a module/layer or is the model truly “usage-based”?). Each of the authors presenting these models has taken systematic care to highlight the relevant problems and focus on the implications of considering pragmatic phenomena from the point of view of grammar. Furthermore, a limited number of chapters deal with traditional topics in the grammatical literature, and specifically those which are called pragmatic because they either are not strictly concerned with truth (semantics), or receive their (truth) value only from an interaction with context. In the introduction, these theories and topics are set up against the historical background of a gradually changing attitude, on the part of grammarians, towards questions of linguistic knowledge and behavior, and the role of learning in their relationship.