The semantics of grammar

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Bibliographic Information

The semantics of grammar

Anna Wierzbicka

（Studies in language companion series / series editors, Werner Abraham, Michael Noonan, v. 18）

J. Benjamins, 1988

  • : Hb
  • : pbk

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Note

Bibliography: p. [563]-583

Includes indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

"The semantics of grammar" presents a radically semantic approach to syntax and morphology. It offers a methodology which makes it possible to demonstrate, on an empirical basis, that syntax is neither "autonomous" nor "arbitrary", but that it follows from "semantics". It is shown that every grammatical construction encodes a certain semantic structure, which can be revealed and rigorously stated, so that the meanings encoded in grammar can be compared in a precise and illuminating way, within one language and across language boundaries. The author develops a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primitives), and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language and thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations. Analyzing data from a number of different languages (including English, Russian and Japanese) the author explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She attemps to demonstrate that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.

Table of Contents

  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. 1. Language and meaning
  • 3. 2. Grammatical semantics
  • 4. 3. 'Autonomous syntax': an illustration
  • 5. 4. The need for a semantic metalanguage
  • 6. 5. The need for an integrated linguistic description
  • 7. 6. The proposed semantic metalanguage
  • 8. 7. The idea of 'ethno-grammar'
  • 9. 8. The philosophy of grammar
  • 10. 9. Universals of grammatical semantics
  • 11. 10. By their fruits shall ye know them
  • 12. Part 1: The semantics of syntax
  • 13. 1. The semantics of English complementation in a cross-linguistic perspective
  • 14. 1. Introduction
  • 15. 2. TO and 'wanting'
  • 16. 3. TO and opinion
  • 17. 4. ING and time
  • 18. 5. TO, ING and aspectuals
  • 19. 6. TO and emotion
  • 20. 7. FOR TO versus TO
  • 21. 8. THAT and knowledge
  • 22. 9. The subjunctive: a cross-linguistic perspective
  • 23. 10. Conclusion
  • 24. Note
  • 25. 2. Ethno-syntax and the philosophy of grammar
  • 26. 1. Introduction
  • 27. 2. Bodily actions and events
  • 28. 3. The good/bad dichotomy
  • 29. 4. The unknown
  • 30. 5. Concluding remark
  • 31. Notes
  • 32. 3. The semantics of causative constructions in a cross-linguistic perspective
  • 33. 1. Introduction
  • 34. 2. Japanese
  • 35. 3. English
  • 36. 4. Hindi
  • 37. 5. 'Indirect causation' in English and in French
  • 38. 6. Italian
  • 39. 7. 'Indirect causation' in Russian
  • 40. 8. Causation in grammar: towards a semantic typology of grammatical systems
  • 41. 4. The Japanese 'adversative' passive in a typological context (Are grammatical categories vague or multiply polysemous?)
  • 42. 1. Introduction
  • 43. 2. Main-verb passives
  • 44. 3. Some cross-linguistic comparisons
  • 45. 4. Conclusion
  • 46. Summary of Japanese constructions
  • 47. 5. Why can you have a drink when you can't *have an eat?
  • 48. 1. Introduction
  • 49. 2. Periphrastic verbal construction with have defined
  • 50. 3. The over-all semantic invariant of the have a V construction
  • 51. 4. Subtypes of the have a V construction
  • 52. 5. Have a fall
  • 53. 6. Have a V versus take a V
  • 54. 7. Comparable constructions in other languages
  • 55. 8. Conclusion
  • 56. Notes
  • 57. Summary of contruction subtypes
  • 58. 6. The semantics of 'internal dative' in English
  • 59. 1. Introduction
  • 60. 2. Semantic constraints on the 'internal dative' construction
  • 61. 3. Semantic subtypes
  • 62. 4. Apparent exceptions
  • 63. 5. The semantic core
  • 64. 6. The semantic basis of transitivity
  • 65. 7. Three participants on the stage: but how many in the limelight?
  • 66. 8. A semantic common denominator
  • 67. 9. One semantic invariant or eight distinct subtypes?
  • 68. Summary of English internal dative constructions
  • 69. Part 2: The semantics of morphology
  • 70. 7. The meaning of a case: a study of the Polish dative
  • 71. 1. Introduction
  • 72. 2. Polish datives with external causes
  • 73. 3. Datives without external causes
  • 74. 4. Conclusion
  • 75. Summary of Polish dative constructions
  • 76. 8. The semantics of case marking
  • 77. 1. Introduction
  • 78. 2. The Russian accusative case
  • 79. 3. The Russian 'partitive'
  • 80. 4. The Russian genitive plural
  • 81. 5. The genitive marking of the accusative in Polish
  • 82. 6. The nominative plural in Polish
  • 83. 7. Conclusion
  • 84. 9. What's in a noun? (Or: how do nouns differ in meaning from adjectives?)
  • 85. 1. Introduction
  • 86. 2. Description versus categorization
  • 87. 3. The notion of 'kind'
  • 88. 4. Semantic nouniness and syntactic nouniness
  • 89. 5. Core adjectival concepts
  • 90. 6. Where do nouns 'come from'?
  • 91. 7. What are adjectives for?
  • 92. 8. Final illustration
  • 93. 9. Concluding remarks
  • 94. Definitions
  • 95. Notes
  • 96. 10. Oats and wheat: mass nouns, iconicity, and human categorization
  • 97. 1. Introduction
  • 98. 2. Preliminary discussion
  • 99. 3. The logic of names of fruits and vegetables in Russian
  • 100. 4. Water (names of homogeneous substances)
  • 101. 5. Chocolate and chocolates (solids with a double status)
  • 102. 6. Crockery (names of heterogeneous classes of objects)
  • 103. 7. Scissors (names of 'dual objects')
  • 104. 8. A grain of rice (substances with a minimal unit)
  • 105. 9. Hair, noodles and apples ('singularia mostly', 'pluralia mostly' and 'edible objects')
  • 106. 10. Oats (names of substances composed of particles and limited in quantity)
  • 107. 11. Guts and woods (names of body parts and places)
  • 108. 12. Leftovers (names of heterogenous groups of objects and/or 'stuffs')
  • 109. 13. Clothing versus clothes
  • 110. 14. Fruit versus vegetables
  • 111. 15. Conclusions
  • 112. Summary of class meanings
  • 113. Conclusion
  • 114. Bibliography
  • 115. Subject and name index
  • 116. Index of lexical items

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