The Cambridge Handbook of Formal Semantics

Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics

by Maria Aloni (Editor), Paul Dekker (Editor)

Formal semantics - the scientific study of meaning in natural language - is one of the most fundamental and long-established areas of linguistics. This Handbook offers a comprehensive, yet compact guide to the field, bringing together research from a wide range of world-leading experts. Chapters include coverage of the historical context and foundation of contemporary formal semantics, a survey of the variety of formal/logical approaches to linguistic meaning and an overview of the major areas of research within current semantic theory, broadly conceived. The Handbook also explores the interfaces between semantics and neighbouring disciplines, including research in cognition and computation. This work will be essential reading for students and researchers working in linguistics, philosophy, psychology and computer science.

937 pages, Paperback

Published April 16, 2020

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew, I can't believe I read the whole thing. As is expected from an edited collection, some chapters were more compelling than others. I liked the construction-specific chapters (tense, aspect, modality, questions, etc) much more than the subfield-overview chapters, possibly because a wall of text with no examples or diagrams makes my eyes glaze over just as much as it did when I was 12. This is a pretty good resource on the whole, but I fear it did cement my interest in socio/syntax/pragmatics over semantics (don't tell my employer)!

[Till Eumat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great as a sourcebook...