This book examines the hypothesis of "direct compositionality", which requires that semantic interpretation proceed in tandem with syntactic combination. Although associated with the dominant view in formal semantics of the 1970s and 1980s, the feasibility of direct compositionality remained unsettled, and more recently the discussion as to whether or not this view can be maintained has receded. The syntax-semantics interaction is now often seen as a process in which the syntax builds representations which, at the abstract level of logical form, are sent for interpretation to the semantics component of the language faculty. In the first extended discussion of the hypothesis of direct compositionality for twenty years, this book considers whether its abandonment might have been premature and whether in fact direct compositionality is not after all a simpler and more effective conception of the grammar than the conventional account of the syntax-semantics interface in generative grammar. It contains contributions from both sides of the debate, locates the debate in the setting of a variety of formal theories, and draws on examples from a range of languages and a range of empirical phenomena.
| ISBN: | 9780199204373 |
| Publication date: | 1st March 2007 |
| Author: | Chris , Associate Professor of Linguistics at New York University, Barker |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 448 pages |
| Series: | Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics |
| Genres: |
Grammar, syntax and morphology Philosophy of language |
This book examines the hypothesis of "direct compositionality", which requires that semantic interpretation proceed in tandem with syntactic combination. Although associated with the dominant view in formal semantics of the 1970s and 1980s, the feasibility of direct compositionality remained unsettled, and more recently the discussion as to whether or not this view can be maintained has receded. The syntax-semantics interaction is now often seen as a process in which the syntax builds representations which, at the abstract level of logical form, are sent for interpretation to the semantics component of the language faculty. In the first extended discussion of the hypothesis of direct compositionality for twenty years, this book considers whether its abandonment might have been premature and whether in fact direct compositionality is not after all a simpler and more effective conception of the grammar than the conventional account of the syntax-semantics interface in generative grammar. It contains contributions from both sides of the debate, locates the debate in the setting of a variety of formal theories, and draws on examples from a range of languages and a range of empirical phenomena.
Direct Compositionality features in the following genres: Grammar, syntax and morphology, Philosophy of language
Direct Compositionality is available in Paperback, Hardback
Direct Compositionality was written by Chris , Associate Professor of Linguistics at New York University, Barker and published by Oxford University Press
Direct Compositionality has 448 pages
Yes it is part of Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics series
£26.09