Semantics with Assignment Variables

Pioneers an innovative framework for theorizing about meaning in natural language and the role of context in interpretation.

Alex Silk (Author)

9781108836012, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 June 2021

280 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.54 kg

This pioneering study combines insights from philosophy and linguistics to develop a novel framework for theorizing about linguistic meaning and the role of context in interpretation. A key innovation is to introduce explicit representations of context - assignment variables - in the syntax and semantics of natural language. The proposed theory systematizes a spectrum of 'shifting' phenomena in which the context relevant for interpreting certain expressions depends on features of the linguistic environment. Central applications include local and non-local contextual dependencies with quantifiers, attitude ascriptions, conditionals, questions, and relativization. The result is an innovative philosophically informed compositional semantics compatible with the truth-conditional paradigm. At the forefront of contemporary interdisciplinary research into meaning and communication, Semantics with Assignment Variables is essential reading for researchers and students in a diverse range of fields.

Preface
1. Introduction
Part I: 2. Preliminaries
3. Standardizing Quantification
4. Attitude Ascriptions
Part II: 5. Relative Causes (I)
6. Quantifiers
7. Noun Phases
Part III: 8. Conditionals
9. Interrogatives
10. Taking Stock.

Subject Areas: Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK], Semantics, discourse analysis, etc [CFG], Philosophy of language [CFA], Linguistics [CF]