Understanding Semantics

by Sebastian Löbner

Understanding Semantics, Second Edition, provides an engaging and accessible introduction to linguistic semantics. The first part takes the reader through a step-by-step guide to the main phenomena and notions of semantics, covering levels and dimensions of meaning, ambiguity, meaning and context, logical relations and meaning relations, the basics of noun semantics, verb semantics and sentence semantics. The second part provides a critical introduction to the basic notions of the three major theoretical approaches to meaning: structuralism, cognitive semantics and formal semantics.

Key features include:


A consistent mentalist perspective on meaning Broad coverage of lexical and sentence semantics, including three new chapters discussing deixis, NP semantics, presuppositions, verb semantics and frames Examples from a wider range of languages that include German, Japanese, Spanish and Russian. Practical exercises on linguistic data Companion website including all figures and tables from the book, an online dictionary, answers to the exercises and useful links at routledge.com/cw/loebner
This book is an essential resource for all undergraduate students studying semantics. Sebastian Lobner is a Professor of Linguistics at the Institute for Language and Information at the University of Dusseldorf, Germany"

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Philosophy

392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 3, 2002

Reviews

[Bear Wiseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a perfectly good Semantics book. A few of the chapters are a little overly confusing in regard to the material (I've read similar things explained in far better ways before), and there is the insanely irritating inconsistency in the use of "iff" to say "if and only if", which I find to be a rather redundant statement. Plus to people who don't know that, it just looks like an irritating misspelling. As a required book for university though, it certainly adds something to the curriculum. Better clarity of writing would be an improvement though (chapter 6 in particular, was very hard to grasp).

[André · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a good overview about the basics of Semantics. It got me well through my intermediate exams. Some parts are a little bit silly, but that's okay... I won't complain.