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21505 results in English language and linguistics: general interest

Page 330 of 1076

  • 2 - Meaning and Form

  • Yoad Winter
  • Book:
    Elements of Formal Semantics
    Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    11 August 2018
    Print publication:
    08 April 2016, pp 12-43

  • Summary

    This chapter introduces some of the key notions about the analysis of meaning in formal semantics. We focus on entailments: relations between premises and valid conclusions expressed as natural language sentences. Robust intuitions about entailment are distinguished from weaker types of reasoning with language. Speaker judgments on entailments are described using models: abstract mathematical structures, which emanate from semantic analyses of artificial logical languages. Model-theoretical objects are directly connected to syntactic structures by applying a general principle of compositionality.We see how this principle helps to analyze cases of structural ambiguity and to distinguish them from other cases of under-specification.

    What do dictionaries mean when they tell us that semantics is “the study of meaning”? The concept that people intuitively refer to as “meaning” is an abstraction inspired by observing how we use language in everyday situations. However, we use language for many different purposes, and those various usages may inspire conceptions of meaning that are radically different from one another. We cannot reasonably expect a theory of meaning to cover everything that people do with their languages. A more tractable way of studying meaning is by discerning specific properties of language use that are amenable to scientific investigation. These aspects of language use, if stable across speakers and situations, will ultimately guide us toward a theory of language “meaning”.

    ENTAILMENT

    One of the most important usages of natural language is for everyday reasoning. For example, let us consider sentence (2.1):

    (2.1) Tina is tall and thin.

    From this sentence, any English speaker is able to draw the conclusion in (2.2) below:

    (2.2) Tina is thin.

    Thus, any speaker who considers sentence (2.1) to be true, will consider sentence (2.2) to be true as well. We say that sentence (2.1) entails (2.2), and denote it (2.1)⇒(2.2). Sentence (2.1) is called the premise, or antecedent, of the entailment. Sentence (2.2) is called the conclusion, or consequent.

    The entailment from (2.1) to (2.2) exemplifies a relation that all English speakers will agree on. This consistency is remarkable, and all the more so since words like Tina, tall and thin are notoriously flexible in the way that they are used.

  • British English? American English? Are there such things?: It's hard to talk about ‘national’ Englishes

  • M. Lynne Murphy
  • Journal:
    English Today / Volume 32 / Issue 2 / June 2016
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    08 April 2016, pp. 4-7
    Print publication:
    June 2016

  • In the last issue of English Today I argued that while the differences between American and British English may be small, they are innumerable, varied and interesting. But that article (and many of the things I write) invited the question of whether it even makes sense to talk of American English and British English. These labels are extremely problematic on geographic, linguistic and political grounds. Are we justified in using such sloppy terminology? Shouldn't linguists like me know better? Let's look the problems of nomenclature, starting with the eastern side of the Atlantic.

  • 4 - Quantified Noun Phrases

  • Yoad Winter
  • Book:
    Elements of Formal Semantics
    Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    11 August 2018
    Print publication:
    08 April 2016, pp 99-138

  • Summary

    This chapter addresses noun phrases (NPs) that involve counting and other statements about quantity. We compositionally analyze complex NP structures by letting them denote (et)t functions, or generalized quantifiers. Quantificational elements within the noun phrase are analyzed as denoting (et)((et)t) functions, or determiner relations. This analysis accounts for many entailments with quantified NPs: monotonicity-based entailments, entailments with various coordinations, and a possibly universal entailment pattern in natural language, known as conservativity.When studying NP coordinations, we reveal new facts about the behavior of proper names. To deal with these facts, we reanalyze proper names using generalized quantifiers, so that they end up being treated similarly to quantified NPs.

    Many expressions intuitively involve processes of counting ormeasuring. Consider for instance the italicized expressions in the following sentences:

  • 1) John rarely/usually eats meat.

  • 2) We are close to/far from Beijing.

  • 3) There is little/a lot of work to do today.

  • 4) Many/few people admire Richard Wagner.

    • We refer to such items as quantificational expressions. Intuitively, in sentence (4.1) the adverbs refer to the frequency of John's carnivorousness; in (4.2) the prepositional phrases estimate the distance to Beijing; in (4.3) the mass term expressions evaluate an amount of work. Similarly, in (4.4) the quantificational expressions many and few evaluate the number ofWagner's admirers.

    In general, words like many and few combine with count nouns, such as tables or people in (4.4). In the previous chapter, we have described the denotations of such nouns using sets of entities from the domain E. The members of the E domain are assumed to be distinct, separated objects, without any smooth variation from one to the other. For instance, in our entity domain, we have no entity that “lies between”, say, different entity denotations for Tina and Mary. This is unlike the situation in sets of real numbers, geometrical shapes etc., where there are endless variations between any two different entities. Because the E domain has this property, we refer to it as being discrete.

  • Grammar Advice in the Age of Web 2.0: Introducing the new (and keeping the old) language authorities: A further item inviting contributions to the ‘Bridging the Unbridgeable’ project at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics

  • Morana Lukač
  • Journal:
    English Today / Volume 32 / Issue 2 / June 2016
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    08 April 2016, pp. 2-3
    Print publication:
    June 2016

  • When I launched an online survey last December with the aim of learning about people's practices of looking up usage advice, I anticipated that searching for answers to grammar questions would not differ considerably from what are currently most common practices in searching for any kind of information. The answers are, as a rule, simply looked up online. From a group of 189 respondents, among whom the majority were university-educated language professionals such as linguists, editors, journalists and translators, more than half reported that they preferred consulting online rather than printed sources. The respondents below the age of 25 who reported looking up usage advice in printed books were few and far between (11%). The question that can be consequently raised is what implications this finding has for the future of the printed usage advice literature, which includes usage guides, all-in-one reference books we are researching in the context of the Bridging the Unbridgeable project. What is more, the number of sources that are available on the Internet is growing exponentially, and we need to probe more deeply into the matter to ask which of the available sources are in fact consulted.

  • Fixing what ain't broke

  • Jonathan Marks
  • Journal:
    English Today / Volume 32 / Issue 2 / June 2016
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    08 April 2016, pp. 62-63
    Print publication:
    June 2016

  • With its subtitle ‘Prescriptivism and Language History’, Fixing English encompasses two senses of ‘fixing’: firstly, attempting to freeze the language at a particular historical moment and prevent it from changing further and, secondly, attempting to improve it and repair it of its faults and shortcomings.

  • 6 - Intensionality and PossibleWorlds

  • Yoad Winter
  • Book:
    Elements of Formal Semantics
    Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    11 August 2018
    Print publication:
    08 April 2016, pp 190-231

  • Summary

    This chapter deals with expressions that refer to attitudes, beliefs or possibilities, which we lump together under the title intensional expressions. The ‘psychological’ aspects of these expressions systematically challenge the system that we developed in the previous chapters. To address these challenges we add to our models a domain of possible worlds. Denotations involving possible worlds are used as a basic account of intensional expressions.We illustrate systematic ambiguities that appear with these expressions, known as de dicto/de re ambiguities, and show that the ACG mechanism of the previous chapter readily treats them as instances of scope ambiguity.

    Language is a rich instrument for discussing psychological aspects of life. All natural languages have means for expressing knowledge, beliefs, wishes, doubts, misunderstandings and errors. We refer to expressions that invoke such concepts as intensional expressions. This chapter characterizes some important semantic properties of such expressions and the way they interact with entailments in natural language. When studying entailment with intensional expressions, we will first realize that such expressions systematically block entailment patterns that are otherwise valid with the expressions that we have treated so far. Accordingly, the entailment patterns that we study in this chapter distinguish pre-theoretically between the intensional expressions and other expressions that have so far been treated in this book. Because of their special inferential behavior, intensional expressions reveal a problem for semantic systems like the one we have developed so far, which are based on the basic types e and t. The system we develop in this chapter is based on our system from Chapters 2–5, but it also deals with intensional expressions. To overcome the limitations of our system so far, we will add to it semantic entities known as possible worlds or indices. The mapping from non-intensional semantics to possible world semantics is pleasantly regular, and involves no new mathematical concepts. This gives us an immediate account of a puzzle that systematically appears with intensional sentences: the problem known as their de dicto/de re interpretations. Following our treatment in Chapter 5, we straightforwardly treat such interpretations as manifestations of scope ambiguities.

  • 1 - Introduction

  • Yoad Winter
  • Book:
    Elements of Formal Semantics
    Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    11 August 2018
    Print publication:
    08 April 2016, pp 1-11

  • Summary

    One of the most striking aspects of human language is the complexity of the meanings that it conveys. No other animal possesses a mode of expression that allows it to articulate intricate emotions, describe distant times and places, study molecules and galaxies, or discuss the production of sophisticated tools, weapons and cures. The complex meanings of natural language make it an efficient, general-purpose instrument of human thought and communication. But what are meanings? And how does language convey them?

    To illustrate one aspect of the problem, let us consider a phrase in one of Bob Dylan's famous love songs. The phrase opens the song's refrain by describing a woman, whose identity is not disclosed. It goes like this:

    (1.1) sad-eyed lady of the lowlands, where the sad-eyed prophet says that no man comes

    If we want to restate the meaning of this phrase in simpler terms, we can do it as follows:

    (1.2) There's a lady. That lady has sad eyes. She is from the lowlands. Some prophet also has sad eyes. That prophet says “no man comes to the lowlands”.

    Without doubt, this way of paraphrasing Dylan's verse robs it of much of its poetic value. But at the same time it also highlights a remarkable property of meaning in natural language. When we hear a long expression like (1.1), we immediately draw from it all sorts of simple conclusions. This happens even in cases where we miss information that is important for understanding the “true meaning” of what is being said. Dylan's song only gives vague clues about the identity of the lady. Yet upon hearing the refrain we unfailingly draw from (1.1) the conclusions in (1.2). The converse is true as well: when Dylan invented his description of the sad-eyed lady, he must have implicitly assumed the statements in (1.2) as part of its meaning. This kind of back-and-forth reasoning occurs whenever we think and converse. When we hear, utter or think of an expression, we instinctively relate it to other phrases that we consider obvious conclusions. Drawing such trivial-looking inferences using our language is one of the abilities that characterize us as linguistic creatures. No other animal has this linguistic ability, and no current technology can accurately mimic it.

Elements of Formal Semantics
  • An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Meaning in Natural Language
  • Edinburgh Advanced Textbooks in Linguistics
  • Yoad Winter
  • Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    11 August 2018
    Print publication:
    08 April 2016
  • Introducing some of the foundational concepts, principles and techniques in the formal semantics of natural language, Elements of Formal Semantics outlines the mathematical principles that underlie linguistic meaning. Making use of a wide range of concrete English examples, the book presents the most useful tools and concepts of formal semantics in an accessible style and includes a variety of practical exercises so that readers can learn to utilise these tools effectively. For readers with an elementary background in set theory and linguistics or with an interest in mathematical modelling, this fascinating study is an ideal introduction to natural language semantics. Designed as a quick yet thorough introduction to one of the most vibrant areas of research in modern linguistics today this volume reveals the beauty and elegance of the mathematical study of meaning.

  • 3 - Types and Meaning Composition

  • Yoad Winter
  • Book:
    Elements of Formal Semantics
    Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    11 August 2018
    Print publication:
    08 April 2016, pp 44-98

  • Summary

    This chapter introduces some of the elementary mathematical techniques in formal semantics. We systematize models by organizing denotations in domains of different types. This general type system allows models to describe sets, as well as relations and other operators with multiple arguments. Denotations of complex expressions are compositionally derived by a uniform semantic operation of function application. The resulting semantic framework is demonstrated by treating modified noun phrases (a tall man), reflexive pronouns (herself) and coordinations between different phrases. We avoid excess notation by defining denotations set-theoretically and introducing lambda-style shorthand when convenient.

    This chapter systematically explains the way in which models allow linguistic expressions to denote abstract objects. This will give us a better insight into our theory of meaning and its relations with syntactic forms. The first step is to describe how denotations are organized in a model. Throughout Chapter 2, we usedmodels freely to describe different mathematical objects. For sentences we used truthvalues, for names like Tina we used entities, and for adjectives like tall we used sets of entities. In addition we used the membership operator for is, the intersection function for and, and the complement function for not. Using various mathematical objects in this manner was useful for expository purposes. However, in general it makes our compositionality principle hard to obtain. With each new mathematical notion we introduce, we need to see how it composes with other denotations. Toomuchmathematical freedom in the design of the denotations makes it hard to describe how they operate in different natural language expressions. Themodel structure that we introduce in this chapter helps us tomake semantic distinctions between language expressions within well-defined boundaries. In this way we gain a better understanding of denotations in general, and see more clearly how they interact with syntactic forms and with each other.

    Some of the foundational themes in this chapter may seem intimidating at first glance.However, none of them is especially hard. To help you follow this chapter with ease, it is divided into four parts. Each of these parts covers a general topic that leads naturally to the topic of the next one. If you are a novice to the field, it is a good idea to solve the exercises referred to at the end of each part before reading on.

  • 7 - Conclusion and Further Topics

  • Yoad Winter
  • Book:
    Elements of Formal Semantics
    Published by:
    Edinburgh University Press
    Published online:
    11 August 2018
    Print publication:
    08 April 2016, pp 232-238

  • Summary

    With the principles and techniques that were covered in the previous chapters, we can now recapitulate what we have done, and look at further topics and directions.

    RECAPITULATION

    Throughout this book, two principles have played a key role:

  • (i) entailment as an empirical phenomenon revealing important aspects of meaning

  • (ii) the compositionality principle as a bridge between meaning and Form

    • Chapter 2 presented the concept of models and the Truth- Conditionality Criterion as a basis for the compositional analysis of entailment. Compositionality helped us to treat structural ambiguity as a syntactic phenomenon that leads to semantic ambiguity, i.e. systematic uncertainty in certain judgments about entailment. Chapter 3 developed one of the essential ingredients of formal semantics: the use of functions for linguistic denotations. We saw the role that functions of different types play in the compositional treatment of entailment, and how functions are represented in formal semantic analysis. In Chapter 4, we used functions for handling natural language quantification, concentrating on quantified noun phrases. We saw that many complex entailments in language involving monotonicity, coordination and classical syllogisms are immediately accounted for when generalized quantifiers are used as noun phrase denotations. Chapter 5 revealed a connection between three apparently unrelated phenomena: long-distance dependencies, scope ambiguity and verbs with quantified objects. These three phenomena were treated by adding a new compositional principle, hypothetical reasoning, to a grammar architecture that manipulates pairs of forms and meanings packed in linguistic signs. Chapter 6 extended our framework in another direction: the analysis of intensional expressions – words and phrases that refer to psychological states and imaginary situations. We saw that, using our initial system from Chapter 3, we can analyze complex intensional phenomena by adding a basic domain of possible worlds. Relying on the extended framework emanating from Chapters 5 and 6, we captured the intuitive relation between scope ambiguity and de dicto/de re ambiguities with intensional expressions.

    WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?

    Readers of different backgrounds and interests may choose to follow a number of different directions to further explore formal semantics and related areas. The recommendations below suggest a few possible avenues.

Women Talk More Than Men
  • ... And Other Myths about Language Explained
  • Abby Kaplan
  • Published online:
    05 April 2016
    Print publication:
    11 April 2016
  • Do women talk more than men? Does text messaging make you stupid? Can chimpanzees really talk to us? This fascinating textbook addresses a wide range of language myths, focusing on important big-picture issues such as the rule-governed nature of language or the influence of social factors on how we speak. Case studies and analysis of relevant experiments teach readers the skills to become informed consumers of social science research, while suggested open-ended exercises invite students to reflect further on what they've learned. With coverage of a broad range of topics (cognitive, social, historical), this textbook is ideal for non-technical survey courses in linguistics. Important points are illustrated with specific, memorable examples: invariant 'be' shows the rule-governed nature of African-American English; vulgar female speech in Papua New Guinea shows how beliefs about language and gender are culture-specific. Engaging and accessibly written, Kaplan's lively discussion challenges what we think we know about language.

  • Pre-R Dentalisation in Scotland1

  • WARREN MAGUIRE
  • Journal:
    English Language & Linguistics / Volume 20 / Issue 2 / July 2016
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    18 March 2016, pp. 315-339

  • Pre-R Dentalisation (PreRD), the dental pronunciation of /t/ and /d/ before /r/ and /ər/, is a well-known feature of English varieties throughout Ireland. PreRD is often accompanied by an /r/-Realisation Effect (RRE), whereby /r/ is pronounced as a tap after the dentalised consonant, and a Morpheme Boundary Constraint (MBC), such that PreRD is blocked by Class 2 morpheme boundaries. Although an Irish origin for PreRD has been suggested, the presence of PreRD, the RRE and the MBC in northern English dialects in a form nearly identical to what is found in Ireland suggests that the origins of PreRD lie instead in English in Britain. The possible existence of PreRD in Scotland is suspected, but definitive evidence for PreRD, the RRE and the MBC there has never been published. In this article, I provide the first detailed analysis of these features in Scotland, using unpublished data collected as part of the Linguistic Survey of Scotland. It will be seen that there is substantial evidence for PreRD, the RRE and the MBC in Scots dialects. The presence of these features in Scotland has important consequences for their history in Britain, and confirms the British origin of PreRD in Ireland.

Page 330 of 1076