The building blocks of meaning : ideas for a philosophical grammar / Michele Prandi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Prandi, Michele, 1949-

Series:

Human cognitive processing ; v. 13.

Human cognitive processing, 1387-6724 ; v. 13

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Semantics.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (539 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins, 2004.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

The shaping of complex meanings depends on punctual and relational coding and inferencing. Coding is viewed as a vector which can run either from expression to content or from concepts to (linguistic) forms to mark independent conceptual relations. While coding relies on systematic resources internal to language, inferencing essentially depends on a layered system of autonomous shared conceptual structures, which include both cognitive models and consistency criteria grounded in a natural ontology. Inference guided by coding is not a residual pragmatic device but it is a direct way to long-term conceptual structures that guide the connection of meanings.The interaction of linguistic forms and concepts is particularly clear in conceptual conflict where conflictual complex meanings provide insights into the roots of significance and the linguistic structure of metaphors.Complementing a formal analysis of linguistic structures with a substantive analysis of conceptual structures, a philosophical grammar provides insights from both formal and functional approaches toward a more profound understanding of how language works in constructing and communicating complex meanings. This monograph is ideally addressed to linguists, philosophers and psychologists interested in language as symbolic form and as an instrument of human action rooted in a complex conceptual and cognitive landscape.

Contents:

The Building Blocks of Meaning

Editorial page

Title page

LCC page

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Part I: The semiotic background

Chapter 1. Meanings and messages

Chapter 2. The ideation of complex meanings

Chapter 3. At the roots of complex meanings

Part II: The conceptual factors of signiªcance

Chapter 4. Consistency criteria within philosophic and linguistic reflexion

Chapter 5. The formal framework of natural ontology

Chapter 6. Lexical structures and lexical information

Chapter 7. Lexical structures, lexical information and consistency criteria

Chapter 8. Consistency criteria as presuppositions of natural attitude

Part III: The ideation of complex meanings

Chapter 9. The ideation of the simple process

Chapter 10. The ideation of interclausal links

Chapter 11. Con¶ictual complex meanings

Chapter 12. Concluding remarks

Notes

References

Index

The series Human Cognitive Processing.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612254918

9781423761310

1423761316

9789027295408

9027295409

9781282254916

128225491X

OCLC:

65181312