scholarly journals The semantics and pragmatics of Norwegian sentence-internal jo

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (01) ◽  
pp. 3-30
Author(s):  
Signe Rix Berthelin ◽  
Kaja Borthen
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Semantics ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
Empirical Investigations

AbstractThe paper proposes a refined analysis of the semantics and pragmatics of the Norwegian non-truth-conditional adverb jo ‘after all, of course’. According to the literature, jo indicates that the proposition is ‘given’ in some sense or other. Based on new empirical investigations, we argue that the Relevance-theoretic notion mutual manifestness (Sperber & Wilson 1986/1995, Blass 2000) accurately captures the givenness aspect of jo, and we demonstrate through authentic examples what it means for a proposition to be mutually manifest. In addition to mutual manifestness, jo signals that the proposition is a premise for deriving a conclusion. The conclusion often – but not always – opposes someone’s view. We argue that the frequent opposition interpretations are a consequence of the nature of the procedures encoded by jo. In addition to clarifying the semantic and pragmatic properties of jo, the paper sheds light on the Relevance-theoretic notion procedural semantics as well as illustrating its usefulness in the study of pragmatic particles.

Naming and Indexicality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Bochner
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Context Dependency ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Advanced Students ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
Epistemic Constraints ◽  
Theories Of Meaning

How do words stand for things? Taking ideas from philosophical semantics and pragmatics, this book offers a unique, detailed, and critical survey of central debates concerning linguistic reference in the twentieth century. It then uses the survey to identify and argue for a novel version of current 'two-dimensional' theories of meaning, which generalise the context-dependency of indexical expressions. The survey highlights the history of tensions between semantic and epistemic constraints on plausible theories of word meaning, from analytic philosophy and modern truth-conditional semantics, to the Referentialist and Externalist revolutions in theories of meaning, to the more recent reconciliatory ambition of two-dimensionalists. It clearly introduces technical semantical notions, theses, and arguments, with easy-to-follow, step-by-step guides. Wide-ranging in its scope, yet offering an accessible route into literature that can seem complex and technical, this will be essential reading for advanced students, and academic researchers in semantics, pragmatics, and philosophy of language.

scholarly journals The meanings of positive polarity minimizers in Japanese: a unified approach

2015 ◽  
pp. 599
Author(s):  
Osamu Sawada
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Unified Approach ◽  
Expressive Meaning ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Pragmatic Motivation ◽  
Internal Variation

In Japanese there are multiple lexical items for positive polarity minimizers (hereinafter, minimizer PPIs), each of which can differ in meaning/use. For example, while sukoshi ‘lit. a bit/a little’ can only express a quantitative (amount) meaning, chotto ‘lit. a bit/a little’ can express either a quantitative meaning or an ‘expressive’ meaning (i.e. attenuation in degree of the force of a speech act). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the semantics and pragmatics of the Japanese minimizer PPIs chotto and sukoshi and to consider (i) the parallelism/non-parallelism between truth conditional scalar meanings and non-truth conditional scalar meanings, and (ii) what mechanism can explain the cross-linguistic and language internal variation between minimizer PPIs. As for the semantics/pragmatics of minimizers, I will argue that although the meanings of the amount and expressive minimizers are logically and dimensionally different (non-parallelism), they can systematically be captured by positing a single lexical item (parallelism). As for the language internal and cross-linguistic variations, it will be shown that there is a point of variation with respect to whether a particular degree morpheme allows a dimensional shift (i.e. an extension from a semantic scale to a pragmatic scale). Based on the above proposals, this paper will also investigate the pragmatic motivation behind the use of minimizers in an evaluative context.

Enriched meanings in semantics and pragmatics

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Ash Asudeh ◽  
Gianluca Giorgolo
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
Conventional Implicatures

This chapter briefly introduces the notion of enriched meanings from a general, pretheoretical perspective, without reference to the apparatus used in subsequent chapters to capture the notion formally. The chapter begins by discussing the traditional distinction between semantics and pragmatics, in light of the distinction between truth-conditional and conventional aspects of meaning. It then introduces and defines enriched meanings. It finishes with a brief overview of the various phenomena whose analyses constitute the case studies in the second part of the book (conventional implicatures, substitution puzzles, and conjunction fallacies).

scholarly journals The meanings of positive polarity minimizers in Japanese: a unified approach

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osamu Sawada
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Lexical Item ◽  
Positive Polarity ◽  
Unified Approach ◽  
Expressive Meaning ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Pragmatic Motivation ◽  
Internal Variation

In Japanese there are multiple lexical items for positive polarity minimizers (hereinafter, minimizer PPIs), each of which can differ in meaning/use. For example, while sukoshi ‘lit. a bit/a little’ can only express a quantitative (amount) meaning, chotto ‘lit. a bit/a little’ can express either a quantitative meaning or an ‘expressive’ meaning (i.e. attenuation in degree of the force of a speech act). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the semantics and pragmatics of the Japanese minimizer PPIs chotto and sukoshi and to consider (i) the parallelism/non-parallelism between truth conditional scalar meanings and non-truth conditional scalar meanings, and (ii) what mechanism can explain the cross-linguistic and language internal variation between minimizer PPIs. As for the semantics/pragmatics of minimizers, I will argue that although the meanings of the amount and expressive minimizers are logically and dimensionally different (non-parallelism), they can systematically be captured by positing a single lexical item (parallelism). As for the language internal and cross-linguistic variations, it will be shown that there is a point of variation with respect to whether a particular degree morpheme allows a dimensional shift (i.e. an extension from a semantic scale to a pragmatic scale). Based on the above proposals, this paper will also investigate the pragmatic motivation behind the use of minimizers in an evaluative context.

A relevance-theoretic account of the way we use and understand the English temporal adverb again and its Norwegian counterpart igjen

2001 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorstein Fretheim
Keyword(s):  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Lexical Entry ◽  
Procedural Semantics ◽  
Comprehension Process ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
Verbal Prefix ◽  
Conceptual Meaning ◽  
The Way

The English temporal adverb again and the corresponding adverb igjen in Norwegian are words which do not encode a concept but rather an instruction to the audience to let the inferential phase of their comprehension process be guided by a specific contextual assumption. These adverbs have a procedural semantics in the sense of Relevance Theory, which distinguishes them semantically from an expression like once more or the prefix re-, both of which encode a conceptual meaning. English has a single lexical entry again whose encoded meaning is temporal yet not truth-conditional, and there is an exact correspondent igjen in the Norwegian lexicon, though Norwegian igjen in addition appears as two distinct non-temporal words encoding a concept and as a verbal particle forming a lexical entry together with a preceding verb. The full use range of the form igjen is found to be very similar to that of the Latin(ate) prefix re- as well as to the complex meaning of the verbal prefix ga- in the Niger-Congo language Ewe.

scholarly journals The English Possessive Marker in a Framework of Relevance

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (43) ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Martin Aitken
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Relevance Theory ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
Procedural Semantics ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Context Of Utterance

English nominals constructed with the morpheme {-s} as a so-called possessive marker may be assigned an indefinitely large number of interpretations depending on the context of utterance. This raises interesting questions concerning the interface between semantics and pragmatics, most obviously concerning the more specific nature of the contextually invariable encoded content of the morpheme as well as the contribution made by that content to the process of comprehension. This article aims briefly to suggest one solution to these problems by proposing an underdetermined procedural semantics feeding into a principled cognitive process of inference as proposed within the framework of relevance theory.

Semantics and pragmatics in construction grammar

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoît Leclercq
Keyword(s):  
Construction Grammar ◽  
Theoretical Discussion ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Truth Conditional ◽  
The Difference

Abstract This squib provides a theoretical discussion on the use of the terms semantics and pragmatics in Construction Grammar. In the literature, the difference between semantics and pragmatics is often conceptualized either in terms of conventionality or in terms of truth-conditionality (Huang 2014, 299). It will be shown that, even though constructionists claim that there is no semantics–pragmatics distinction, both these underlying concepts are central to the study of constructions. Therefore, the aim is twofold. First, in keeping with Cappelle (2017), it will be argued that constructionists should make more explicit the distinction between the two types of (encoded) meaning. Second, it will be shown that constructionists need to be more terminologically consistent and agree on how to use the terms semantics and pragmatics. Following Depraetere (2019), I will argue that the terms semantics and pragmatics are most explanatory when defined in truth-conditional terms. In this way, finer-grained understanding of the meaning of constructions can be achieved.

Development of Instruments for Assessing Linguistic Intelligence in Elementary School

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dea Sinta Maharani ◽  
Otang Kurniaman
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Is Research ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Intelligence Assessment ◽  
The World ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Homeroom Teachers

Linguistic intelligence is one of eight multiple intelligences that currently attracts attention in the world of education. Linguistic intelligence is a person's ability to speak both verbally and in writing, besides that people who have linguistic intelligence also master the components of linguistic intelligence which consists of phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. The type of research used is research and development (R & D) with a 4D model. The subjects in this study were experts as validators, fifth grade students for trials and homeroom teachers in elementary schools. Data collection is done by giving a questionnaire to the validator. In this study the researchers concluded that the product of the developed linguistic intelligence assessment instrument was declared feasible to be used based on the results of validation of 86% with very feasible categories. The obstacle in developing the product of this instrument of linguistic intelligence assessment is the lack of knowledge of the school about the importance of linguistic intelligence for students in elementary schools. 

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