Lexical Meaning (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)
Cambridge University Press, 10/28/2010
EAN 9780521677646, ISBN10: 0521677645
Paperback, 276 pages, 24.7 x 17.2 x 1.3 cm
Language: English
The ideal introduction for students of semantics, Lexical Meaning fills the gap left by more general semantics textbooks, providing the teacher and the student with insights into word meaning beyond the traditional overviews of lexical relations. The book explores the relationship between word meanings and syntax and semantics more generally. It provides a balanced overview of the main theoretical approaches, along with a lucid explanation of their relative strengths and weaknesses. After covering the main topics in lexical meaning, such as polysemy and sense relations, the textbook surveys the types of meanings represented by different word classes. It explains abstract concepts in clear language, using a wide range of examples, and includes linguistic puzzles in each chapter to encourage the student to practise using the concepts. 'Adopt-a-Word' exercises give students the chance to research a particular word, building a portfolio of specialist work on a single word.
Part I. Meaning and the Lexicon
1. The lexicon - some preliminaries
2. What do we mean by meaning?
3. Components and prototypes
4. Modern componential approaches - and some alternatives
Part II. Relations among Words and Senses
5. Meaning variation
polysemy, homonymy and vagueness
6. Lexical and semantic relations
Part III. Word Classes and Semantic Types
7. Ontological categories and word classes
8. Nouns and countability
9. Predication
verbs, events, and states
10. Verbs and time
11. Adjectives and properties.
'A lucid, explanatory, problem-oriented textbook promoting original student research. The Adopt-a-Word scheme is ingenious.' Carita Paradis, Linnaeus University