34.1777, Review: Pragmatics, Semantics: Saeed (2022)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-34-1777. Fri Jun 02 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.1777, Review: Pragmatics, Semantics: Saeed (2022)

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Date: 14-May-2023
From: Rebecca Madlener [vicky.madlener at gmail.com]
Subject: Semantics, 5th Edition


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.30

AUTHOR: John I. Saeed
TITLE: Semantics, 5th Edition
SERIES TITLE: Introducing Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Wiley
YEAR: 2022

REVIEWER: Rebecca Madlener

SUMMARY

This is the 5th edition of John I. Saeed’s introductory textbook
“Semantics”. It gives an overview of perspectives on and approaches to
semantics without assuming previous knowledge of the study of
semantics. The 5th edition adds information from recent research to
chapters from previous editions, as well as a new chapter discussing
inferential pragmatics. The book is aimed at students who are new to
the field of semantics.

The book is divided into eleven chapters and arranged into three
parts. Part 1 deals with preliminaries and discusses the place of
semantics in linguistics (Chapter 1), as well as meaning, thought and
reality (Chapter 2). Part 2 deals with semantic description on the
word level (Chapter 3), the sentence level (Chapters 4-6), and the
importance of context to meaning (Chapter 7). Part 3 discusses
different theoretical approaches to semantics, including meaning
components (Chapter 8), formal semantics (cChapter 9), cognitive
semantics (Chapter 10), and inferential pragmatics (Chapter 11).

Each chapter includes endnotes, suggestions for further reading,
exercises to strengthen the student’s understanding of the content and
a full bibliography of all works referred to in the chapter. The
author also regularly refers the reader to other chapters within the
book to point out connections between chapters and ideas throughout
the book. Solutions to the exercises, as well as a glossary of
important terms and an index can be found in the back of the book.

Part 1 provides basic background information that is necessary for
understanding the following discussions of and approaches to
semantics. Chapter 1 outlines the basic tasks and challenges of
semantics, important concepts (e.g. literal vs. non-literal meaning,
word vs. sentence meaning) and its connections to other fields of
linguistics. Chapter 2 focuses on the question of how language maps
onto the world. It discusses reference, sense, and concepts, as well
as the notion of linguistic relativity (i.e. lexical items impose
restrictions on our way of thinking) in contrast with the language of
thought hypothesis (i.e. thinking and speaking are related but operate
on distinct levels of representation).

Part 2 moves on to various levels of semantic description. Chapter 3
deals with lexical semantics, the study of word meaning, and the
difficulty of defining what a “word” actually is. It then moves on to
outline a range of lexical (e.g. homonymy, polysemy, synonymy,
antonymy) and derivational relations (e.g. agentive nouns, causative
verbs). In addition to these concepts that are relevant for
discussions of individual languages, the chapter also introduces
cross-linguistic studies of meaning using examples from colour term
studies and briefly discussing core vocabulary and universal lexemes.
The chapter ends with an overview of common semantic changes that
occur over time (e.g. narrowing, broadening, metaphor).

The next three chapters deal with the semantics of sentences. Chapter
4 looks at the notion of truth and how it relates to entailment and
presupposition. To provide the basis for this discussion, the chapter
starts with a brief introduction to logic and provides truth tables
for various connectors. Based on this, the chapter then discusses how
successfully truth relations can describe entailment and
presupposition. Chapter 5 deals with sentence level semantics in the
form of various situation types (e.g. states, activities,
accomplishments, achievements), the expression of tense and aspect,
modality and mood, and evidentiality. Different sentence structures
can represent different perspectives on an event (e.g. stative vs.
dynamic sentences describing the same occurrence), but they might also
differ based on the amount of semantic information that a language
requires to be encoded in its utterances (e.g. English vs. Arawak with
respect to evidentiality). Chapter 6 discusses the participants found
in sentences based on the concept of thematic roles. The chapter
introduces a range of thematic roles and describes their relationship
to grammar, as well as the idea that thematic role requirements have
to be part of a verb’s entry in the lexicon. The chapter also outlines
some of the criticism of thematic roles and details linguists’
motivation for using them in describing the interface of semantics and
syntax. The discussions of causation and voice show how thematic roles
can change depending on the grammatical structure employed. The
chapter ends with a look at classifiers and noun classes, highlighting
that noun phrases can also show how referents fit into semantic
classification systems.

Chapter 7 moves beyond the sentence level and deals with the extent to
which the construction and interpretation of meaning depends on
context. To this end, the chapter discusses various deictic devices,
the importance of context for reference (e.g. involving shorthands or
metonymy), and different types of knowledge that can provide context
(e.g. previous discourse, background knowledge). Linguistic structure
can be used to represent contextual background through employing
different information structures to distinguish new information from
given information. In English, this can, for instance, be achieved
through the use of definites with nominals, intonation or sentence
position. The chapter moves on to discuss speech act semantics,
showing that sentences are not simply true or false but that part of
their meaning also stems from their intended social function.

Part 3 outlines a number of theoretical approaches to the study of
semantics. Chapter 8 is an introduction to meaning components and
componential analysis (CA). It outlines the study of lexical relations
from the perspective of CA, as well as the interface of grammatical
rules and semantic components. It also introduces different approaches
using CA, such as Katz’s semantic theory, Talmy’s Typology of motion
events, Jackendoff’s conceptual structure, and Pustejovsky’s
generative lexicon. The chapter closes with a brief outline of
possible issues with CA. Chapter 9 deals with formal or logical
semantics and builds on the notions of truth and logic introduced in
Chapter 4. It gives an overview of how to translate English into a
logical metalanguage and then discusses the semantics of this logical
metalanguage. It outlines ways of checking the truth-value of
sentences, the formal approach to word meaning through meaning
postulates, attempts at covering intensionality (i.e. modality, tense,
aspect and propositional attitudes), and dynamic approaches to the
study of discourse.

Chapter 10 is an introduction to cognitive semantics, an approach in
which linguistic knowledge is seen as part of general cognition.
Cognitive semantics investigates conceptual frameworks and how they
are reflected in language use. Classical categories are rejected and
idealized cognitive models (ICMs), categories based on real-world
knowledge, employed instead. The chapter provides examples of how
polysemy, metaphor and metonymy are investigated within cognitive
semantics and discusses mental spaces, conceptual structures
describing how reference is assigned and manipulated. The chapter ends
with overviews of Langacker’s cognitive grammar and construction
grammar. Chapter 11 discusses inferential pragmatics highlighting the
close relationship between semantics and pragmatics. This approach
aims to reassess the scope of semantics within linguistics. Building
on the notion of propositions, the chapter outlines Grice’s
conversational implicature and its maxims of conversational
cooperation. The chapter then builds on Grice’s ideas by discussing
generalizations of Gricean maxims, contextualism, and relevance theory
which has developed out of Gricean ideas. The chapter ends with a
section on lexical pragmatics which studies how the meanings of words
change in specific contexts of use


EVALUATION

Overall, “Semantics, 5th Edition” is a readable and easy to follow
introduction to the linguistic study of semantics. All key concepts
and theories are illustrated with a number of examples from English,
as well as other languages on occasion, and references to relevant,
up-to-date literature. The chapters build up logically allowing
students to follow the ideas discussed in later chapters based on the
knowledge they gained from earlier ones. The exercises that accompany
each chapter are a good way for students to test their understanding
of the content and provide grounds for discussion to further develop
and strengthen the understanding of the subject matter.

While the book does illustrate all concepts and arguments with a
number of examples, the vast majority of these are taken from English.
The author is aware of this and mentions repeatedly that this is for
the sake of space, which is understandable. However, it would still be
beneficial to have a larger number of examples from other languages to
better illustrate the fact that these notions, concepts and theories
can be applied to all languages and are not restricted to the study of
English semantics.

The book introduces a range of approaches to and aspects of semantics
showing the breadth of the field and the large number of research
opportunities within it. All topics are treated from a neutral
perspective that allows students to become familiar with the subject
and draw their own conclusions about the different approaches. The
further reading sections provide the opportunity to dive deeper into
the topics. The book is a good starting point for anyone who wants to
enter the field of semantics.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Rebecca Madlener holds a BSc in General Linguistics from Salzburg
University and an MA in General Linguistics from Uppsala University.
Her research interests mainly encompass corpus linguistic approaches
to historical semantics and landscape semantics. Her work focusses on
historical and modern Celtic languages.



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