Full Description
The basic claims of traditional truth-conditional semantics are that the semantic interpretation of a sentence is connected to the truth of that sentence in a situation, and that the meaning of the sentence is derived compositionally from the semantic values meaning of its constituents and the rules that combine them. Both claims have been subject to an intense debate in linguistics and philosophy of language. The original research papers collected in this volume test the boundaries of this classic view from a linguistic and a philosophical point of view by investigating the foundational notions of composition, values and interpretation and their relation to the interfaces to other disciplines. They take the classical theories one step further and closer to a realistic semantic theory that covers speaker's intentions, the knowledge of discourse participants, meaning of fiction and literature, as well as vague and paradoxical utterances.
Ede Zimmermann is a pioneering researcher in semantics whose students, friends, and colleagues have collected in this volume an impressive set of studies at the interfaces of semantics. How do meanings interact with the context and with intentions and beliefs of the people conversing? How do meanings interact with other meanings in an extended discourse? How can there be paradoxical meanings? Researchers interested in semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, anyone interested in foundational and empirical issues of meaning, will find inspiration and instruction in this wonderful volume. Kai von Fintel, MIT Department of Linguistics
Contents
Composition, Values, and Interpretation: An Introduction to Elements of Semantic Theory 1
Daniel Gutzmann, Jan Köpping, and Cécile Meier
Part 1: Composition
Does Context Change?
Manfred Kupffer
The Live Principle of Compositionality
Paul Dekker
Operators for Definition by Paraphrase
Mats Rooth
Part 2: Values
Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans? More on Missing
Kjell Johan Sæbø
Information, Issues, and Attention
Ivano Ciardelli, Jeroen Groenendijk, and Floris Roelofsen
A Truth-conditional Account of Free-choice Disjunction
Graeme Forbes
Being Tolerant about Identity?
Robert van Rooij
The Property Paradox in (Not So Plain) English
Philippe Schlenker
Part 3: Interpretation
Dear Ede! Semantics and Pragmatics of Vocatives
Regine Eckardt
On the Meaning of Fictional Texts
Matthias Bauer and Sigrid Beck
Notes on Disagreement
Udo Klein and Marcus Kracht
Was glaubt EDE, wer der Mörder ist? On D-trees, Embedded Foci, and Indirect Scope Marking
Malte Zimmermann
A New Type of Informative Tautology: Für Unbefugte Betreten Verboten!
Manfred Krifka
