The Semantics of Case

The Semantics of Case
Author: Olga Kagan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2020-04-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 110841642X

Based on data from a wide range of languages, the book discusses the ways in which case interacts with meaning.

Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles

Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles
Author: Seppo Kittilä
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2011
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027206805

The chapters of this volume scrutinize the interplay of different combinations of case, animacy and semantic roles, thus contributing to our understanding of these notions in a novel way. The focus of the chapters lies on showing how animacy affects argument marking. Unlike previous studies, these chapters primarily deal with lesser studied phenomena, such as animacy effects on spatial cases and the differences between cases and adpositions in the coding of spatial relations. In addition, theoretical and diachronic issues related to case and semantic roles are also discussed; for example, what is case, how do cases develop and what are the functional differences between cases and adpositions? The chapters deal with a variety of different languages including Uralic languages, Indo-European languages, Basque, Korean and Vaeakau-Taumako. The book is appealing to anyone interested in case, animacy and/or semantic roles.

A Geography of Case Semantics

A Geography of Case Semantics
Author: Laura A. Janda
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1993
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9783110126723

No detailed description available for "A Geography of Case Semantics".

Theories of Case

Theories of Case
Author: Miriam Butt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 15
Release: 2006-02-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 052179322X

This 2006 textbook introduces the various theories of case, and how they account for its distribution across languages.

The Semantics of Grammar

The Semantics of Grammar
Author: Anna Wierzbicka
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 629
Release: 1988-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027286124

“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 lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primitives), and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language and thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations. Analyzing data from a number of different languages (including English, Russian and Japanese) the author explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She attemps to demonstrate that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.

The Evolution of Case Grammar

The Evolution of Case Grammar
Author: Remi Van Trijp
Publisher:
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2017-06-26
Genre: Case grammar
ISBN: 9783944675848

There are few linguistic phenomena that have seduced linguists so skillfully as grammatical case has done. Ever since Panini (4th Century BC), case has claimed a central role in linguistic theory and continues to do so today. However, despite centuries worth of research, case has yet to reveal its most important secrets. This book offers breakthrough explanations for the understanding of case through agent-based experiments in cultural language evolution. The experiments demonstrate that case systems may emerge because they have a selective advantage for communication: they reduce the cognitive effort that listeners need for semantic interpretation, while at the same time limiting the cognitive resources required for doing so.

Cultural Semantics and Social Cognition

Cultural Semantics and Social Cognition
Author: Carsten Levisen
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110294656

Presenting original, detailed studies of keywords of Danish, this book breaks new ground for the study of language and cultural values. Based on evidence from the semantic categories of everyday language, such as the Danish concept of hygge (roughly meaning, ‘pleasant togetherness’), the book provides an integrative socio-cognitive framework for studying and understanding language-particular universes. It is argued that the worlds we live in are not linguistically and conceptually neutral, but rather that speakers who live by Danish concepts are likely to pay attention to their world in ways suggested by central Danish keywords and lexical grids. By means of a sophisticated semantic methodology, the author accounts for the meanings of even highly culture-specific and untranslatable linguistic concepts. The book offers new tools for comparative research into the diversity of semantic and cultural systems in contemporary Europe. Additionally, it contributes to the emerging discipline of cultural semantics, and to the ongoing debates of linguistic diversity, metalanguage, and the use of linguistic evidence in studies of culture and social cognition.

Semantics and The Lexicon

Semantics and The Lexicon
Author: James Pustejovsky
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9401119724

The goal of this book is to integrate the research being carried out in the field of lexical semantics in linguistics with the work on knowledge representation and lexicon design in computational linguistics. Rarely do these two camps meet and discuss the demands and concerns of each other's fields. Therefore, this book is interesting in that it provides a stimulating and unique discussion between the computational perspective of lexical meaning and the concerns of the linguist for the semantic description of lexical items in the context of syntactic descriptions. This book grew out of the papers presented at a workshop held at Brandeis University in April, 1988, funded by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. The entire workshop as well as the discussion periods accom panying each talk were recorded. Once complete copies of each paper were available, they were distributed to participants, who were asked to provide written comments on the texts for review purposes. VII JAMES PUSTEJOVSKY 1. INTRODUCTION There is currently a growing interest in the content of lexical entries from a theoretical perspective as well as a growing need to understand the organization of the lexicon from a computational view. This volume attempts to define the directions that need to be taken in order to achieve the goal of a coherent theory of lexical organization.

The Role of Semantic, Pragmatic, and Discourse Factors in the Development of Case

The Role of Semantic, Pragmatic, and Discourse Factors in the Development of Case
Author: Jóhanna Barðdal
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2009-03-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027289921

The aim of this volume is to bring non-syntactic factors in the development of case into the eye of the research field, by illustrating the integral role of pragmatics, semantics, and discourse structure in the historical development of morphologically marked case systems. The articles represent fifteen typologically diverse languages from four different language families: (i) Indo-European: Vedic Sanskrit, Russian, Greek, Latin, Latvian, Gothic, French, German, Icelandic, and Faroese; (ii) Tibeto-Burman, especially the Bodic languages and Meithei; (iii) Japanese; and (iv) the Pama-Nyungan mixed language Gurindji Kriol. The data also show considerable diversity and include elicited, archival, corpus-based, and naturally occurring data. Discussions of mechanisms where change is obtained include semantically and aspectually motivated synchronic case variation, discourse motivated subject marking, reduction or expansion of case marker distribution, case syncretism motivated by semantics, syntax, or language contact, and case splits motivated by pragmatics, metonymy, and subjectification.