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)

9781108799126, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 August 2023

279 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.409 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]