Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics

Patrick Griffiths was a professor of English at Beppu University, Japan. He taught courses on semantics, the structure of English, psycholinguistics and general linguistics at a number of universities, including Beppu, the University of the South Pacific, and in the UK at York University and York St John. Chris Cummins is Reader in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Edinburgh. His other works include Pragmatics (EUP, 2019) and Constraints on Numerical Expressions (2015), and he co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics (2019) with Napoleon Katsos.

• CONTENTSPrefacePreface to the third edition1. Studying meaningOverview1.1 Sentences and utterances1.2 Types of meaning1.2.1 Denotation, sense, reference and deixis1.3 Semantics vs. pragmatics1.3.1 A first outline of semantics1.3.2 A first outline of pragmaticsSummaryExercises2. Sense relationsOverview2.1 Propositions and entailment2.2 Compositionality2.3 Synonymy2.4 Complementarity, antonymy, converseness and incompatibility2.5 Hyponymy2.5.1 Hierarchies of hyponymsSummaryExercisesRecommendations for readingNotes3. NounsOverview3.1 The has-relation3.1.1 Inferring existence from the has-relation3.1.2 Hyponymy, prototypes, and the has-relation3.1.3 Parts can have parts3.1.4 Spatial parts3.1.5 Ends and beginnings3.1.6 Body part terms, metaphor and has-relations3.2 Count nouns and mass nounsSummaryExercisesRecommendations for reading4. AdjectivesOverview4.1 Gradability4.1.1 Non-gradable adjectives4.2 Combining adjective meanings with noun meanings4.2.1 Non-intersective adjectives with broader denotations4.2.2 Privative adjectives4.2.3 Relative adjective meaningsSummaryExercisesRecommendations for reading5. VerbsOverview5.1 Verb types and arguments5.1.1 Other kinds of arguments5.2 Causative verbs5.2.1 Identifying embedded situations5.3 Thematic relationsSummaryExercisesRecommendations for readingNotes6. Tense and aspectOverview6.1 Talking about events in time6.2 Tense6.2.1 Preliminaries6.2.2 Present, Past and Future6.2.3 Tense and adverbials6.3 Aspect6.3.1 Habituality and simple aspect6.3.2 Progressive aspect6.3.3 Perfect aspect6.3.4 Perfect aspect or tense?SummaryExercisesRecommendations for reading7. Modality, scope and quantificationOverview7.1 Modality7.1.1 Modal verbs and tense7.1.2 Epistemic and deontic modality7.2 Semantic scope7.3 Quantification7.3.1 Some basics about sets7.3.2 Simple quantifiers in terms of sets7.3.3 Proportional quantifiers7.3.4 Distributivity and collectivity7.3.5 Quantifier scopeSummaryExercisesRecommendations for reading8. Pragmatic inferenceOverview8.1 Some ways of conveying additional meanings8.2 The Gricean maxims8.2.1 Quantity implicatures8.2.2 Scalar implicatures8.2.3 Relevance implicatures8.2.4 Manner implicatures8.3 Relevance Theory8.4 PresuppositionsSummaryExercisesRecommendations for reading9. Figurative languageOverview9.1 Literal and figurative usage9.2 Metaphor9.3 Metonymy9.4 Simile9.5 Irony9.6 HyperboleSummaryExercisesRecommendations for reading10. Utterances in contextOverview10.1 Tailoring utterances to the audience10.2 Definiteness10.3 Given and new material10.3.1 Pseudo-clefts10.3.2 It-clefts10.3.3 Passives10.3.4 Lexical and syntactic converses10.3.5 Focal stress10.4 The Question Under DiscussionSummaryExercisesRecommendations for reading11. Doing things with wordsOverview11.1 Speech acts11.2 Indicators of speech acts11.2.1 Syntactic cues and indirect speech acts11.2.2 Lexical cues11.2.3 Cues based on conversation structure11.2.4 Integrating the informationSummaryExercisesRecommendations for readingSuggested answers to the exercisesBibliographyIndex