Functional Semantics

A Theory of Meaning, Structure and Tense in English

Peter Harder

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9783110149418
• eBook ISBN: 9783110818758
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

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Table of contents

• Preface
• Part One: Meaning
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Meaning and the pursuit of knowledge: the world behind the word
• 2.1. Introduction
• 2.2. Plato on language and ideas
• 2.3. Aristotle: words and categories
• 2.4. Language and metaphysics in Plato and Aristotle
• 2.5. From classical to modern ontology: logic and the "linguistic turn"
• 2.6. The rise and fall of logical reconstruction
• 2.7. Logical and linguistic semantics
• 3. Meaning and cognition
• 3.1. Introduction
• 3.2. The "classical" computational approach
• 3.3. Language and meaning in the "classical" view
• 3.4. Intentionality, mental content and rules
• 3.5. Intentionality and information
• 3.6. The second cognitive revolution: cognitive linguistics and connectionism
• 3.7. Pan-cognitivism: turning behaviourism on its head
• 3.8. Continuity and differentiation: a delicate balance
• 3.9. Cognition: the differentiation and interrelation of skills
• 3.10. Problems with the word "conceptual" as used in cognitive linguistics
• 3.11. Conclusion: conceptual meaning — and why it is not enough
• 4. Meaning in a functional perspective
• 4.1. Introduction
• 4.2. The intellectual history of the functional perspective on language
• 4.3. What is "function" (if anything)?
• 4.4. Types of functional contexts
• 4.5. A functional account of language and meaning
• 4.6. Meaning and representation: procedural semantics
• 4.7. Concepts and conceptual linguistic meaning in the procedural perspective
• 4.8. Searle on representation and interaction
• 5. Semantics and pragmatics in a functional theory of meaning
• 5.1. Introduction
• 5.2. Pragmatics, truth, and Plato
• 5.3. Coded functions and utterance function
• 5.4. The principle of sense
• 5.5. Relevance versus sense: translating interaction into information
• 5.6. Final remarks
• Part Two: Structure
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The functional basis of linguistic structure
• 2.1. Introduction
• 2.2. The ontology of levels
• 2.3. Component-based and function-based structure
• 2.4. Saussurean structuralism: a functional reconstruction
• 2.5. Structure and substance — arbitrariness and motivation
• 2.6. American structuralism: the Bloomfield-Chomsky tradition
• 2.7. Autonomy in generative thinking: the Pygmalion effect revisited
• 2.8. Generative autonomy: empty or absurd?
• 2.9. Underlying structure I: significant generalizations and the naming fallacy
• 2.10. Underlying structure II: distribution vs semantics
• 2.11. Autonomy: final remarks
• 3. Clause structure in a functional semantics
• 3.1. Introduction
• 3.2. On content and expression in syntax
• 3.3. The nature of content elements
• 3.4. Scope and layered clause structure
• 3.5. Process and product in syntactic description The clause as recipe for interpretive action
• 3.6. The nature of syntax: cognitive and evolutionary perspectives
• 3.7. The relation between expression and content syntax
• 3.8. Differences in relation to standard Functional Grammar
• 3.9. Semantic clause structure and grammatical universals
• 4. Conceptual meaning in a functional clause structure
• 4.1. Introduction
• 4.2. Language structure in Cognitive Grammar
• 4.3. Cognitive Grammar and the distinction between clause meaning and interpretation
• 4.4. Conceptualization embedded in interaction: the top-down aspect of syntactic structure
• 4.5. A closer look at non-conceptual meaning
• 4.6. Two forms of incompleteness: functional and conceptual dependence
• 4.7. Relations between functional and conceptual aspects of "element" meanings
• 4.8. Dependence and the division of labour between coded and uncoded meaning
• 4.9. Scope, function and semantic relations: the multidimensionality of semantic structure
• 5. Summary: function, structure, and autonomy
• Part Three: Tense
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The meanings of tenses
• 2.1. Some central positions and concepts
• 2.2. Individual content elements: the deictic tenses
• 2.3. The future
• 2.4. The perfect
• 2.5. The place of tense meanings in the general theory of semantic clause structure
• 3. Tense & Co: time reference in the simple clause
• 3.1. Introduction
• 3.2. Logical vs. functional operators
• 3.3. Time-referential formulae as emerging from meaning plus structure
• 3.4. Reference time: a family resemblance concept
• 3.5. Tense time, adverbial time and topic time
• 3.6. Adverbials in complex tenses
• 4. Beyond the simple clause
• 4.1. Tense in subclauses: general remarks
• 4.2. Indirect speech
• 4.3. Tense in conditionals
• 4.4. Functional content syntax and "normal" syntax
• 4.5. Tense and discourse
• 5. Conclusion
• 5.1. Overview
• 5.2. Meaning
• 5.3. Structure
• 5.4. Survey of times
• 5.5. Conceptualization embedded in interaction
• 5.6. Semantics and pragmatics
• Notes
• References
• Index of names
• Index of subjects