Lexical Meaning in Context
A Web of Words

This book is an innovative, formal framework for studying the meanings of words and how their meanings combine.

Nicholas Asher (Author)

9781107005396, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 March 2011

346 pages, 11 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.63 kg

'This book is one of the most significant contributions in lexical and discourse semantics to emerge in recent years. It will inspire and challenge researchers to view, more systematically, the idea that lexical meaning is intimately dependent on the context within with words are used, in fact, strengthening the underlying premise behind a creative, generative view of lexical meaning.' James Pustejovsky, Brandeis University

This is a book about the meanings of words and how they can combine to form larger meaningful units, as well as how they can fail to combine when the amalgamation of a predicate and argument would produce what the philosopher Gilbert Ryle called a 'category mistake'. It argues for a theory in which words get assigned both an intension and a type. The book develops a rich system of types and investigates its philosophical and formal implications, for example the abandonment of the classic Church analysis of types that has been used by linguists since Montague. The author integrates fascinating and puzzling observations about lexical meaning into a compositional semantic framework. Adjustments in types are a feature of the compositional process and account for various phenomena including coercion and copredication. This book will be of interest to semanticists, philosophers, logicians and computer scientists alike.

Preface
Part I. Foundations: 1. Lexical meaning and predication
2. Types and lexical meaning
3. Previous theories of prediction
Part II. Theory: 4. Type composition logic
5. The complex type
6. Type presuppositions in TCL
Part III. Development: 7. Restricted predication
8. Rethinking coercion
9. Other coercions
10. Syntax and type transformations
11. Modification, coercion and loose talk
12. Generalizations and conclusions
Part IV. Coda: References
Index.

Subject Areas: Lexicography [CFM], Semantics, discourse analysis, etc [CFG], Philosophy of language [CFA]