The semantics of grammar / Anna Wierzbicka.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wierzbicka, Anna.

Series:

Studies in language companion series ; v. 18.

Studies in language companion series, 0165-7763 ; v. 18

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Semantics.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (631 p.)

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 1988.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"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 lex

Contents:

THE SEMANTICS OF GRAMMAR; Editorial page; Title page; Copyright page; Acknowledgements; Table of contents; Introduction; 1. Language and meaning; 2. Grammatical semantics; 3. 'Autonomous syntax': an illustration; 4. The need for a semantic metalanguage; 5. The need for an integrated linguistic description; 6. The proposed semantic metalanguage; 7. The idea of 'ethno-grammar'; 8. The philosophy of grammar; 9. Universals of grammatical semantics; 10. By their fruits shall ye know them; Part 1: The semantics of syntax; 1. The semantics of English complementation in a cross-linguistic perspective

1. Introduction1.1 Preliminary remarks; 1.2 Preliminary illustrations; 2. TO and 'wanting'; 2.1 To be or not to be - that is the question; 2.2 Remember and forget; 2.3 Verbs of volition; 2.4 Verbs of attempting; 2.5 Speech act verbs; 2.6 Interactional verbs; 3. TO and opinion; 3.1 Opinion predicates and 'subject-to-object raising'; 3.2 'TO BE deletion'; 3.3 Opinion predicates and 'subject-to-subject raising'; 4. ING and time; 4.1 The gerund and simultaneity; 4.2 Gerunds as noun phrases; 4.3 TO, ING and action; 4.4 ING and evaluation; 5. TO, ING and aspectuals

5.1 Constraints on TO complements5.2 Constraints on gerundive complements; 5.3 The 'doubl-ing constraint'; 5.4 Aspectual causatives; 6. TO and emotion; 6.1 Emotion, awareness and thought; 6.2 Emotion and attitude; 6.3 'Projective emotions' and the alleged extraposition; 6.4 TO versus ING versus THAT; 7. FOR TO versus TO; 7.1 FOR TO in emotion sentences; 7.2 FOR TO and volition; 7.3 FOR TO and 'emotivity'; 7.4 FOR TO and evaluation; 7.5 FOR TO and intellectual judgment; 7.6 FOR TO and 'obviation'; 8. THAT and knowledge; 8.1 Say THA T and know TUA T; 8.2 THAT sentences with a modal

9. The subjunctive: a cross-linguistic perspective9.1 Preliminary remarks; 9.2 Verbs of volition; 9.3 Subjunctive in relative clauses; 9.4 Verbs of emotion and evaluation; 9.5 A look at some Slavic languages; 9.6 FOR TO and the subjunctive (a second look); 10. Conclusion; 10.1 General remarks; 10.2 ING; 10.3 THAT; 10.4 TO; 10.5 FOR TO; 10.6. Concluding remarks; Note; 2. Ethno-syntax and the philosophy of grammar; 1. Introduction; 2. Bodily actions and events; 2.1 Doing something to a part of someone's body; 2.2 Can a part of the body do something?; 2.3 What counts as a direct bodily action

2.4 Spontaneous involuntary change in the body2.5 Physical closeness; 2.6 Can you affect a person by looking at him or her?; 2.7 Can a hat be viewed as a part of the body?; 2.8 Overt and covert bodily constructions; 2.9 The status of 'bodily constructions'; 3. The good/bad dichotomy; 4. The unknown; 5. Concluding remark; Notes; 3. The semantics of causative constructions in a cross-linguistic perspective; 1. Introduction; 2. Japanese; 3. English; 4. Hindi; 5. 'Indirect causation' in English and in French; 6. Italian; 7. 'Indirect causation' in Russian

8. Causation in grammar: towards a semantic typology of grammatical systems

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9786613092854

90-272-8612-4

1-283-09285-9

OCLC:

713010257