Theoretical and Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect

Theoretical and Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect
Author: Susan D. Rothstein
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2008-03-20
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027291586

The papers in this volume investigate the semantics of aspect from both a theoretical and a crosslinguistic point of view, in a wide range of languages from a number of different language families. The papers are all informed by the belief that a thorough exposure to the expression of aspect crosslinguistically is crucial for progress in understanding how the semantics of aspect works and what the semantic basis of aspectual distinctions is. The languages discussed include Russian, English, Dutch, Hebrew, Mandarin, Japanese and Kalaallisut. The issues discussed in this volume include the centrality of measuring and counting in an understanding of telicity; the importance of the singular/plural distinction in the study of aspect; the importance of homogeneity as a property of event types; the flexibility of lexical classes; and the interaction between expressions of aspect and the particular morphosyntactic structure of a language.

Natural Language Processing

Natural Language Processing
Author: Epaminondas Kapetanios
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2013-11-14
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1466584971

This book introduces the semantic aspects of natural language processing and its applications. Topics covered include: measuring word meaning similarity, multi-lingual querying, and parametric theory, named entity recognition, semantics, query language, and the nature of language. The book also emphasizes the portions of mathematics needed to under

The Semantics of Aspect and Modality

The Semantics of Aspect and Modality
Author: Galia Hatav
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 236
Release: 1997-07-21
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027281963

“The semantics of aspect and modality” will be of interest both to linguists working on temporality, as a general phenomenon in language, and Hebraists investigating the semantics of the verbal forms in biblical Hebrew. Tense, aspect and modality are among the most challenging discussed areas of language. Similarly, the semantics of the verbal system in biblical Hebrew has been investigated since the Middle Ages. Galia Hatav provides extensive critical overviews of research in both areas, and suggests a new approach for analyzing the biblical Hebrew verb system, showing it to be tenseless. The overall approach adopted in the book is basically of truth conditional semantics, and adheres closely to Kamp’s DRT (Discourse Representation Theory). For each phenomenon covered, the relevant literature is surveyed and critically discussed, with reference to English, and when relevant to other languages, too. The conclusions arrived at are then applied to biblical Hebrew. However, despite the sophisticated semantic theory the book is also meticulous in its attention to philological details of the Hebrew text, lending to a particulary harmonious combination of formal and discourse approach. The biblical Hebrew part of the book will be of interest mainly to Hebraists, but linguists dealing with temporality in general may find it useful as an interesting illustration for a tenseless exotic language.

Referential-Semantic Analysis

Referential-Semantic Analysis
Author: Torben Thrane
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009-03-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521105712

Dr Thrane makes an original contribution to one of the central topics in syntax and semantics: the nature and mechanisms of reference in natural language. He makes a fundamental distinction between syntactic analyses that are internal to the structure of a language and analyses of the referential properties that connect a language with the 'outside world' - and therefore derive in some sense from common human capacities for perceptual discrimination. Dr Thrane argues that the failure to make this distinction and to attend separately to both kinds of analysis has vitiated previous general accounts of linguistic structure. The book focuses particularly on pronouns and on the role of determiners, quantifiers and other components of the noun phrase. Most of the data come from the modern Germanic languages, especially English, but Dr Thrane considers also the structural peculiarities of 'classifier languages' like Vietnamese. The book will be important for students of English language as well as for general linguists.

Motion and Space across Languages

Motion and Space across Languages
Author: Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2017-08-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027265364

This volume offers a unique combination of interdisciplinary research and a comprehensive overview of motion and space studies from a semantic typological perspective. The chapters present cutting-edge research covering central topics such as the status of semantic components in motion event descriptions and their role in typological variation, the function of linguistic multimodal structures for the codification of motion, the diachronic evolution of motion expressions and its effects on motion typologies, the correspondences between physical and non-physical (fictive, metaphorical) motion, and the impact of contexts and genres on the characterization and interpretation of motion events. These issues are examined from a theoretical and applied linguistic perspective (L1–L2 acquisition, translation/interpreting). The analyses make use of diachronic and synchronic data collected by a range of methods (elicitation, experimentation, and corpus research) in more than fifteen languages. All in all, this book will be of great value to scholars and students interested in the expression of motion and space across languages.

The Psychology of Language

The Psychology of Language
Author: David Ludden
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 628
Release: 2015-01-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1483356310

Breaking through the boundaries of traditional psycholinguistics textbooks, The Psychology of Language: An Integrated Approach takes an integrated, cross-cultural approach that weaves the latest developmental and neuroscience research into every chapter. Separate chapters on bilingualism and sign language and integrated coverage of the social aspects of language acquisition and language use provide a breadth of coverage not found in other texts. In addition, rich pedagogy in every chapter and an engaging conversational writing style help students understand the connections between core psycholinguistic material and findings from across the psychological sciences.

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax
Author: Noam Chomsky
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1969-03-15
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780262260503

Chomsky proposes a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes recent developments in the descriptive analysis of particular languages into account. Beginning in the mid-fifties and emanating largely form MIT, an approach was developed to linguistic theory and to the study of the structure of particular languages that diverges in many respects from modern linguistics. Although this approach is connected to the traditional study of languages, it differs enough in its specific conclusions about the structure and in its specific conclusions about the structure of language to warrant a name, "generative grammar." Various deficiencies have been discovered in the first attempts to formulate a theory of transformational generative grammar and in the descriptive analysis of particular languages that motivated these formulations. At the same time, it has become apparent that these formulations can be extended and deepened.The major purpose of this book is to review these developments and to propose a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes them into account. The emphasis in this study is syntax; semantic and phonological aspects of the language structure are discussed only insofar as they bear on syntactic theory.