Understanding Semantics

by Bernd Kortmann, Sebastian Löbner

This series provides approachable, yet authoritative, introductions to all the major topics in linguistics. Ideal for students with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics, each book carefully explains the basics, emphasising understanding of the essential notions rather than arguing for a particular theoretical position.Understanding Semantics offers a complete introduction to linguistic semantics. The book takes a step-by-step approach, starting with the basic concepts and moving through the central questions to examine the methods and results of the science of linguistic meaning.Understanding Semantics unites the treatment of a broad scale of phenomena using data from different languages with a thorough investigation of major theoretical perspectives. It leads the reader from their intuitive knowledge of meaning to a deeper understanding of the use of scientific reasoning in the study of language as a communicative tool, of the nature of linguistic meaning, and of the scope and limitations of linguistic semantics.Ideal as a first textbook in semantics for undergraduate students of linguistics, this book is also recommended for students of literature, philosophy, psychology and cognitive science.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, Philosophy

272 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.