Meaning and Grammar: An Introduction to Semantics

by Gennaro Chierchia, Sally McConnell-Ginet

This self-contained introduction to natural language semanticsaddresses the major theoretical questions in the field. This self-contained introduction to natural language semantics addresses the major theoretical questions in the field. The authors introduce the systematic study of linguistic meaning through a sequence of formal tools and their linguistic applications. Starting with propositional connectives and truth conditions, the book moves to quantification and binding, intensionality and tense, and so on. To set their approach in a broader perspective, the authors also explore the interaction of meaning with context and use (the semantics-pragmatics interface) and address some of the foundational questions, especially in connection with cognition in general. They also introduce a few of the most accessible and interesting ideas from recent research to give the reader a bit of the flavor of current work in semantics. The organization of this new edition is modular; after the introductory chapters, the remaining material can be covered in flexible order. The book presupposes no background in formal logic (an appendix introduces the basic notions of set theory) and only a minimal acquaintance with linguistics. This edition includes a substantial amount of completely new material and has been not only updated but redesigned throughout to enhance its user-friendliness.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction

591 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 1990

Reviews

[Dipika Desaboyina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first Semantics text I read. I spent a lot of evenings and nights over the course of two semesters solving the problems from this book. During this time, Pavarotti, Bond and Loren settled into an endearing spot in my memory. The language is a little cognitively tedious to parse and assimilate. The problems in the book are good fun. I would say this is a terrific introduction to Compositional Semantics!

[Leonardo]

...relatively agnostic about syntax...

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