Giovanni Pontano on Language, Meaning, and Grammar

This Special Section brings together researchers who adopt a constructional approach to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) as informed by Cognitive and Corpus Linguistics, approaches which fall under the general umbrella of Usage-based Linguistics. The articles present psycholinguistic and corpus linguistic evidence for L2 constructions and for the inseparability of lexis and grammar. They consider the psycholinguistics of language learning following general cognitive principles of category learning, with schematic constructions emerging from usage. They analyze how learning is driven by the frequency and frequency distribution of exemplars within construction, the salience of their form, the significance of their functional interpretation, the match of their meaning to the construction prototype, and the reliability of their mappings. They explore conceptual transfer and the acquisition of second language meaning. They consider the implications of these phenomena for L2 instruction.

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Language, meaning, and knowledge: Empowering developmental students to participate in the academy

Reading Research and Instruction ◽

10.1080/19388079109558053 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 89-100 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christopher G. Hayes ◽

Norman A. Stahl ◽

Michele L. Simpson

Keyword(s):

Developmental Students ◽

Language Meaning

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ON SOME SELECTED PROBLEMS OF KOREAN ABBREVIOLOGY

International Journal of Korean Humanities and Social Sciences ◽

10.14746/kr.2015.01.07 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 137-164

Author(s):

Anna BOROWIAK

Keyword(s):

Adverse Effect ◽

Everyday Life ◽

Effective Communication ◽

Word Formation ◽

Maximum Effect ◽

Insufficient Amount ◽

The Subject ◽

Short Time ◽

Reduced Forms ◽

Language Meaning

Given the fact that we live in the era where the pace of life is constantly speeding up, it is no surprise that ‘the economy of language’ - meaning the efficient usage of language in order to achieve the maximum effect for the minimum effort has become so important in everyday life. Using abbreviated forms of different kinds is supposed to help us to economize continuously insufficient amount of time. Their overuse, however, can hamper effective communication and bring the adverse effect from what the speaker’s intention was – namely to communicate the message clearly and unambiguously and receive a response to it in a short time. Incomprehension or misunderstanding of the message leads, in fact, to unnecessarily prolonging the conversation since it requires asking additional questions in order to explain what is unclear to the listener. Reduced forms used mainly in spoken Korean can largely be divided into lexical and grammatical ones. Lexical shortenings of different kinds such as acronyms, blends, clippings etc. although rarely and rather briefly discussed by Korean linguists and basically excluded from the debate on word-formation issues definitely deserve much more attention taking into account their extensive usage. As for grammatical abbreviations, despite its frequent occurrence, the subject is not that often taken up and discussed either. The aim of this article is to present some characteristic properties of grammatical abbreviations used mainly in spoken Korean. The reduced forms in question will be divided into three categories namely - particles, endings and grammatical constructions and discussed separately. This article however focuses only on those abbreviated forms, which means leaving the subject of particle or word ellipsis beyond its scope.

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Language, Meaning and Context

Modern Language Journal ◽

10.2307/326723 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 67 (1) ◽

pp. 88

Author(s):

Patricia L. Carrell ◽

John Lyons ◽

F. R. Palmer

Keyword(s):

Language Meaning

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Pragmatics and philosophy: In search of a paradigm

Intercultural Pragmatics ◽

10.1515/ip-2018-0002 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 131-159 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Kasia M. Jaszczolt

Keyword(s):

Philosophy Of Language ◽

List Type ◽

Main Question ◽

Philosophical Logic ◽

Paradigm Shifts ◽

Future Prospects ◽

Philosophy Of Linguistics ◽

Introductory Part ◽

Methodology Of Science ◽

Language Meaning

Abstract There is no doubt that pragmatic theory and philosophy of language are mutually relevant and intrinsically connected. The main question I address in this paper is how exactly they are interconnected in terms of (i) their respective objectives, (ii) explanans – explanandum relation, (iii) methods of enquiry, and (iv) drawing on associated disciplines. In the introductory part I attempt to bring some order into the diversity of use of such labels as philosophical logic, philosophical semantics, philosophical pragmatics, linguistic philosophy, or philosophy of linguistics, among others. In the following sections I focus on philosophical pragmatics as a branch of philosophy of language (pragmaticsPPL) and the trends and theories it gave rise to, discussing them against the background of methodology of science and in particular paradigms and paradigm shifts as identified in natural science. In the main part of the paper I address the following questions: How is pragmaticsPPL to be delimited?How do pragmatic solutions to questions about meaning fare vis-à-vis syntactic solutions? Is there a pattern emerging?and, relatedly,What are the future prospects for pragmaticsPPL in theories of natural language meaning? I conclude with a discussion of the relation between pragmaticsPPL and functionalism, observing that contextualism has to play a central role in functionalist pragmatics at the expense of minimalism and sententialism.

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Language, Meaning, and Information

Analytic Philosophy in America ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691160726.003.0003 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Scott Soames

Keyword(s):

Modal Logic ◽

Philosophy Of Language ◽

Possible Worlds ◽

Philosophy Of Mathematics ◽

Scientific Study ◽

Bertrand Russell ◽

Gottlob Frege ◽

Possible Worlds Semantics ◽

Language Meaning

This chapter is a case study of the process by which the attempt to solve philosophical problems sometimes leads to the birth of new domains of scientific inquiry. It traces how advances in logic and the philosophy of mathematics, starting with Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell, provided the foundations for what became a rigorous and scientific study of language, meaning, and information. After sketching the early stages of the story, it explains the importance of modal logic and “possible worlds semantics” in providing the foundation for the last half century of work in linguistic semantics and the philosophy of language. It argues that this foundation is insufficient to support the most urgently needed further advances. It proposes a new conception of truth-evaluable information as inherently representational cognitive acts of certain kinds. The chapter concludes by explaining how this conception of propositions can be used to illuminate the notion of truth; vindicate the connection between truth and meaning; and fulfill a central, but so far unkept, promise of possible worlds semantics.

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