Lecture 5. Semantics in Generative Grammar up to Linguistic Wars
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
The Empirical Base of Linguistics: Grammaticality Judgments and Linguistic Methodology
UCLA UCLA Previously Published Works Title The empirical base of linguistics: Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/05b2s4wg ISBN 978-3946234043 Author Schütze, Carson T Publication Date 2016-02-01 DOI 10.17169/langsci.b89.101 Data Availability The data associated with this publication are managed by: Language Science Press, Berlin Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The empirical base of linguistics Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology Carson T. Schütze language Classics in Linguistics 2 science press Classics in Linguistics Chief Editors: Martin Haspelmath, Stefan Müller In this series: 1. Lehmann, Christian. Thoughts on grammaticalization 2. Schütze, Carson T. The empirical base of linguistics: Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology 3. Bickerton, Derek. Roots of language ISSN: 2366-374X The empirical base of linguistics Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology Carson T. Schütze language science press Carson T. Schütze. 2019. The empirical base of linguistics: Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology (Classics in Linguistics 2). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/89 © 2019, Carson T. Schütze Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-946234-02-9 (Digital) 978-3-946234-03-6 (Hardcover) 978-3-946234-04-3 (Softcover) 978-1-523743-32-2 -
On the Irrelevance of Transformational Grammar to Second Language Pedagogy
ON THE IRRELEVANCE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR TO SECOND LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY John T. Lamendella The University of Michigan Many scholars view transformational grammar as an attempt to represent the structure of linguistic knowledge in the mind and seek to apply transformational descriptions of languages to the de- velopment of second language teaching materials. It will be claimed in this paper that it is a mistake to look to transformational gram- mar or any other theory of linguistic description to provide the theoretical basis for either second language pedagogy or a theory of language acquisition. One may well wish to describe the ab- stract or logical structure of a language by constructing a trans- formational grammar which generates the set of sentences identi- fied with that language. However, this attempt should not be con- fused with an attempt to understand the cognitive structures and processes involved in knowing or using a language. It is a cogni- tive theory of language within the field of psycholinguistics rather than a theory of linguistic description which should underlie lan- guage teaching materials. A great deal of effort has been expended in the attempt to demonstrate the potential contributions of the field of descriptive linguistics to the teaching of second languages and, since the theory of transformational grammar has become the dominant theory in the field of linguistics, it is not surprising that applied linguists have sought to apply transformational grammar to gain new in- sights into the teaching of second languages. It will be claimed in this paper that it is a mistake to look to transformational grammar or any other theory of linguistic description to provide the theoretical basis for either second language pedagogy or a theory of language acquisition. -
The Linguistics Wars Pdf, Epub, Ebook
THE LINGUISTICS WARS PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Randy Allen Harris | 368 pages | 09 Mar 1995 | Oxford University Press Inc | 9780195098341 | English | New York, United States The Linguistics Wars PDF Book As a non-linguist, this book also served as a serviceable introduction to some of the field's basic ideas, and it was interesting to read about Chomsky in his original role. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. It has also been noted that the complex adaptive system view of language is highly compatible with those strands of language evolution research that focus on the cumulative cultural evolution of language see e. We can begin with very simple notions that depend on bodily orientation: front-back, before-after, left-right, etc. The book is certainly not suitable for people outside the field because it involves too much linguistic theory, so in a sense the book fails to do what it wants to do. Protolanguage and mechanisms of meaning construal in interaction. It''s just a matter of fact. Spivey, M. The major research project was aimed at overcoming this tension by showing that the apparent complexity and variety of language was only superficial, the result of minor changes in a fixed and invariant system. Since the mid-twentieth century, the field of linguistics has been a tumultuous discipline. Jul 30, Tom rated it it was ok. Leaving the myth behind: a reply to Adger The shape of the human language-ready brain. However, Christiansen and Chater , p. Oxford: OUP. Wang Taiwan: Pyramid Press , — It should be stressed that these matters are presented in an entirely different light by intellectual opinion, which has its own tasks and commitments. -
Where Did Pragmatics Comme From
n°19, Juin 2003, pp. 7-12 Where did pragmatics come from ? Abstract The present study is concerned with the early beginnings of pragmatics. It investigated the linguistic and philosophical backgrounds of this field. It was argued that pragmatics grew within philosophy and its emergence as an independent field Dr. A. HAMAD was, for some time, delayed by the influence of some linguistic Associate Prof. of Linguistics theories especially the generative-transformational theory. An-Najah Nat. University Finally, it was pointed out that this field was freed from the Nablus, Palestine influence of this theory. lthough many scholars, philosophers and A linguists, have been studying various types of pragmatic topics such as indexicality, implicatures, illocutionary force, speech acts, presuppositions, etc. For hundreds of years, pragmatics as a field has not emerged until recently. Not only that, but it has been denied the status of a component of grammar besides the phonological, syntactic, and semantic components which altogether constitute the core components of human language grammar. Critics have questioned the nature and the domain of this field; that is the theoretical as well as the practical status of the field in general. It seems that the scholars’ attitude toward pragmatics has been the result of radical theorizations in the main trend of theoretical linguistics motivated primarily by the structural and ملخص generative-transformational linguistic theories. The تهدف هذه الدراسة للتعرف على present study will attempt to explore briefly the البدايات المبكرة لعلم المقا مية. بحثت background of this field, its development, and the الدراسة في الخلفيات اللغوية والفلسفية reasons that stood behind the delay of its emergence التي تقف وراء هذا العلم.ثم حاولت .and institutionalization الدراسة التدليل على أن علم المقامية Philosophy and the Study of Language قد نشأ في حضن الفلسفة وأن بعض النضريات اللغوية عملت ولبعض In order to have a better understanding of the الوقت على تأخير ظهور هذا العلم. -
1. Introduction
A fox knows many things but a hedgehog one big thing Mark Aronoff Stony Brook University 1. Introduction Isaiah Berlin’s little book, The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953), takes its title from a line by the Greek poet Archilochus: πόλλ᾽ οἶδ᾽ ἀλωπηξ ἀλλ᾽ ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα ‘many [things] knows [a] fox but [a] hedgehog one big [thing]’. Since it is impossible to do justice in a paraphrase to Berlin’s prose, I will quote the relevant passage in full: [T]aken figuratively, the words can be made to yield a sense in which they mark one of the deepest differences which divide writers and thinkers, and, it may be, human beings in general. For there exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate everything to a single central vision, one system less or more coherent or articulate, in terms of which they understand, think, and feel—a single, universal, organizing principle in terms of which alone all that they are and say has significance—and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory, connected, if at all, only in some de facto way, for some psychological or physiological cause, related by no moral or aesthetic principle; these last lead lives, perform acts, and entertain ideas that are centrifugal rather than centripetal, their thought is scattered or diffused, moving on many levels, seizing upon the essence of a vast variety of experiences and objects for what they are in themselves, without, consciously or unconsciously, seeking to fit them into, or exclude them from, any one unchanging, all-embracing, sometimes self-contradictory and incomplete, at times fanatical, unitary vision. -
Download the Linguistics Wars Free Ebook
THE LINGUISTICS WARS DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK Randy Allen Harris | 368 pages | 09 Mar 1995 | Oxford University Press Inc | 9780195098341 | English | New York, United States Language wars: the 19 greatest linguistic spats of all time While the entrenched linguists were not looking for a messiah, apparently many of their students were. Dave rated it liked it Jun 06, Trivia About The Linguistics Wars. Use this word at your own risk. This book chronicles both sides of the Generative Semantics vs. The debates followed the usual trajectory of most large-scale clashes, scientific or otherwise. To study this co-ordination of certain sounds with certain meanings is to study language. Albaugh and Kathryn M. Both positions changed dramatically in the course of the dispute--the triumphant Chomskyan position was very The Linguistics Wars from The Linguistics Wars initial one; the defeated generative semantics position was even more transformed. Particularly, it The Linguistics Wars, when you add gender to the mix. Jul 11, David rated it liked it Shelves: linguisticsdid-not-finish. PaperbackThe Linguistics Wars. That drives them to spend hours arguing with strangers on the internet, to go around correcting misspelt signs in the dead of night, or even to threaten acts of violence? Start your review of The Linguistics Wars. Betsy rated it really liked it Jun 10, What can I say about this book. There was a revolution, which colored the field of linguistics for the following decades. There was a revolution, which colored the field of linguistics for the following decades. The repercussions of the Linguistics Wars are still with us, not only in the bruised feelings and late-night war stories of the combatants, and in the contentious mood in many quarters, but in the way linguists currently look at language and the mind. -
Frege and the Logic of Sense and Reference
FREGE AND THE LOGIC OF SENSE AND REFERENCE Kevin C. Klement Routledge New York & London Published in 2002 by Routledge 29 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001 Published in Great Britain by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane London EC4P 4EE Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2002 by Kevin C. Klement All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any infomration storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Klement, Kevin C., 1974– Frege and the logic of sense and reference / by Kevin Klement. p. cm — (Studies in philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-415-93790-6 1. Frege, Gottlob, 1848–1925. 2. Sense (Philosophy) 3. Reference (Philosophy) I. Title II. Studies in philosophy (New York, N. Y.) B3245.F24 K54 2001 12'.68'092—dc21 2001048169 Contents Page Preface ix Abbreviations xiii 1. The Need for a Logical Calculus for the Theory of Sinn and Bedeutung 3 Introduction 3 Frege’s Project: Logicism and the Notion of Begriffsschrift 4 The Theory of Sinn and Bedeutung 8 The Limitations of the Begriffsschrift 14 Filling the Gap 21 2. The Logic of the Grundgesetze 25 Logical Language and the Content of Logic 25 Functionality and Predication 28 Quantifiers and Gothic Letters 32 Roman Letters: An Alternative Notation for Generality 38 Value-Ranges and Extensions of Concepts 42 The Syntactic Rules of the Begriffsschrift 44 The Axiomatization of Frege’s System 49 Responses to the Paradox 56 v vi Contents 3. -
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Some Historical and Methodological Backgrounds Semantic Syntax is a formal theory of grammar, introducing an entirely new method of syntactic description. It takes a grammar to be a formal system map- ping well-motivated semantic analyses (SA’s) onto well-formed surface struc- tures of sentences. My claim is that no other formal grammatical theory has achieved the level of success reached by Semantic Syntax, which is unique in the way it accounts for, often so far unobserved, syntactic complications in the languages analysed in the terms of a unified theory. Grammars are, naturally, language-specific but it is a central tenet of Semantic Syntax that all grammars of individual languages or language varieties are subject to strong universal constraints. Consequently, it is a central concern of Semantic Syntax to search for those constraints, so that a maximally unified account can be provided of natural languages and their grammars. Semantic Syntax is characterised by the one overarching hypothesis that every sentence in every natural language is to be seen as a composition of prop- ositional structures (under a speech act operator), each consisting of a predi- cate and its argument terms. In its present form, this hypothesis goes back to James D. McCawley (1938–1999) but it is, in fact, the continuation of medi- eval and renaissance thinking about language, reaching a first apogee in the great work by the Salamanca professor Franciscus Sanctius, Minerva seu de Causis Linguae Latinae, published in 1587, and in Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot’s famous Grammaire générale et raisonnée, known as the Port Royal Grammar, published in Paris in 1660. -
Syntax-Semantics Interface: Arabic Is a Case
Bulletin of Advanced English Studies – Vol. 1, No. 1 , 2018, pp. 1 -15 Available online at http:// www.refaad.com Syntax-Semantics Interface: Arabic is a Case Samir Al Jumaily Postgraduate Department - International University of Islamic Science - London [email protected] Abstract: In order to make a coherent statement or an accurate description, linguists have to focus on one aspect of a language and preclude the others according to a process called selected focusing, but it is believed that such an act of isolation is only an artificial practice. Although a naïve or a child is not aware of the various levels of language, he/she is well knowledgeable about the grammatical, structural, and semantic tools that make him/her easily and instantly spot the ill-formed or meaningless sentences of his/her native language. Two opposite mainstreams discovered in the study of syntax-semantics interface. The 1st is the syntactically-oriented perspective established by Chomsky and his followers, which is later modified and supported by the Optimal Theory Approach, and the 2nd is the semantically-oriented one in its two facets- the generative and the interpretive. The early generative transformational approach went too far in insisting that the syntactic aspect has an autonomous characteristic and should be dealt with in isolation from semantics, whereas others argue that they are interrelated and cannot be separated. The main objective of this study is to arrive at some general outlines that might help linguists, second/foreign language teachers as well as students and tries to shed light on this linguistic controversy in order to establish a scientific scheme in language studies. -
The Semantics and Pragmatics of Polysemy: a Relevance-Theoretic Account
The Semantics and Pragmatics of Polysemy: A Relevance-Theoretic Account Ingrid Lossius Falkum Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University College London January 2011 I, Ingrid Lossius Falkum, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. _____________________ Sign. 2 Abstract This thesis investigates the phenomenon of polysemy: a single lexical form with two or multiple related senses (e.g. catch the rabbit/order the rabbit; lose a wallet/lose a relative; a handsome man/a handsome gift). I develop a pragmatic account of polysemy within the framework of Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory, where new senses for a word are constructed during on-line comprehension by means of a single process of ad hoc concept construction, which adjusts the meanings of individual words in different directions. While polysemy is largely unproblematic from the perspective of communication, it poses a range of theoretical and descriptive problems. This is sometimes termed the polysemy paradox. A widely held view in lexical semantics is that word meanings must consist of complex representations in order to capture the sense relations involved in polysemy. Contrary to this view, I argue that a conceptual atomist approach, which treats word meanings as unstructured atoms and thereby avoids the range of problems associated with decompositional theories of word meaning, may be at least as able to account for polysemy when paired with an adequate pragmatic theory. My proposed solution to the polysemy paradox is to treat polysemy as a fundamentally communicative phenomenon, which arises as a result of encoded lexical concepts being massively underdetermining of speaker-intended concepts, and is grounded in our pragmatic inferential ability. -
GRAMMAR IS GRAMMAR and USAGE IS USAGE Frederick J
GRAMMAR IS GRAMMAR AND USAGE IS USAGE Frederick J. Newmeyer Department of Linguistics University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195-4340 [email protected] January 2003 1. Usage-based models of grammar The late 1960s was an exciting time to enter field of linguistics for someone like me, whose interests tended to syntax and semantics.1 My first year as a graduate student witnessed the birth of the approach called ‘generative semantics’. Generative semantics promised to totally revolutionize the field of transformational generative grammar, which itself was barely a decade old at the time. With each passing year, generative semanticists declared that some seemingly well-established boundary was nothing but an illusion. It all began in 1967 when George Lakoff and Haj Ross challenged the existence of the level of Deep Structure, and with it the boundary between syntax and semantics (Lakoff and Ross 1967/1976). The following year Jim McCawley argued that syntactic and lexical structures were formal objects of the same sort (McCawley 1968). Then in quick succession, the dividing line between semantics and pragmatics (Lakoff 1970/1972), grammaticality and ungrammaticality (Lakoff 1973), category membership and non-membership (Ross 1973a; b), and, finally, grammar and usage (Lakoff 1974) were all cast into doubt. At the same time, many sociolinguists were proposing models in which statistical facts about the speech community were incorporated into grammatical rules (Labov 1969; 1972). But by the late 1970s, generative semantics, for reasons I have discussed elsewhere (Newmeyer 1986), had all but disappeared. Most syntacticians had re- embraced the boundaries whose demise had been heralded only a few years earlier. -
Structuralism, Indispensability, and the Access Problem Russell Marcus
Structuralism, Indispensability, and the Access Problem Russell Marcus, Ph.D. Chauncey Truax Post-Doctoral Fellow Department of Philosophy, Hamilton College 198 College Hill Road Clinton NY 13323 [email protected] (315) 859-4056 (office) (315) 381-3125 (home) (917) 903-7483 (mobile) January 2008 2783 words Abstract: The central problem in the philosophy of mathematics concerns access. The access problem arises from the common supposition that the referents of mathematical terms inhabit a realm separate from us. Quine’s approach in the philosophy of mathematics, his indispensability argument, dissolves the access problem, though his solution sometimes goes unrecognized, even by those who are sympathetic to his work. According to the indispensability argument, we are justified in believing in a limited mathematical ontology, even if we lack any special faculty for acquiring mathematical knowledge. This paper highlights both Quine’s position and its neglect. As an example, I defend Michael Resnik’s structuralism from recent criticism. Resnik has no access problem for the so-called mathematical objects he posits, since he relies on a Quinean indispensability argument. Still, the indispensabilist does not provide an account of our access to the objects of a traditional mathematical ontology, and this may be seen as a real access problem. Structuralism, Indispensability, and the Access Problem, page 1 §1: Structuralism and the Problem of Mathematics The central epistemological problem for mathematics is sometimes called the access problem. The access problem arises from a two-realm view, the supposition that the referents of mathematical singular terms inhabit a realm which is separate from us. The history of philosophy is littered with attempts to solve the access problem, which is just the old question of how concrete humans can have knowledge of abstract mathematical objects.