A brief overview of the chapters along with th

VERBS AND ADJECTIVES

Chapter 15

Three distinct areas of grammatical meaning typically associated with verbs:

Tense

Aspect

modality

Tense and modality operate is the proposition, rather than the verb or verb phrase.

GRAMMATICAL MEANING

Serves primarily to locate the event referred to in the sentence with reference to the time at which the utterance was produced.

Primary (or absolute) tenses: encode event time directly relative to the time of speaking

Secondary (or relative) tenses: encode event time relative to a secondary reference time

Vectorial:

tense systems of most languages

grammatical terms indicate merely the direction along the timeline from speaking time to event time

TENSE

Past-event occurs before time of speaking

Present-event occurs concurrently with speaking time or includes it

Future- event is projected to occur after the time of speaking

THREE BASIC PRIMARY TENSES

Grammatically encodes degrees of remoteness as well as direction along the time line

Hodiernal: most frequent metrical system

distinguishes "today" and "not today"

METRICAL SYSTEM

Normally regarded as a property or characteristic of events and states

Says nothing about when an event occurred (except by implication

Either encodes a particular way of conceptualizing an event

Conveys information about the way the event unrolls through time

A lexical verb may encode aspectual information as part of lexical meaning

ASPECT

Change: A state of affairs can be construed as changing or as remaining constant.

Homogeneous: if it is construed as unchanging

Heterogeneous: if it is construed as changing

ASPECTUAL FEATURE: CHANGE

Some events are construed as having one or more inherent boundaries.

A boundary may be at the beginning or the end of an event

The final boundary is generally regarded as the most significant.

Telic: An event with a final boundary

Atelic: a event with no final boundary is described as atelic

ASPECTUAL FEATURE: BOUNDEDNESS

Duration: the time it takes for an event to unfold

Punctual: an event thought of as instantaneous

Durative: an event that is spread over time

ASPECTUAL FEATURE: DURATION

Homogeneous-no change is involved

Unbounded-no inherent beginning or end

Durative-persistence through time is of the essence.

May be expressed in English by adjectival expressions, prepositional phrases, or stative verbs

STATES

Differ in respect of the non-aspectual feature of agentivity

Resemble states in being unbounded and durative but they are heterogeneous

Something is `going on', but this is not construed as a movement towards an inherent point of completion

ACTIVITIES AND PROCESSES

Share the feature of durativity and heterogeneity with activities and processes

Distinguished by being telic

inherently completable

The inference of incompleteness is a generalized conversational implicature

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Events in which there is a transition from one state to another

Transition construed as being instantaneous

Heterogeneous, naturally bounded (by the point of transition), and punctual

ACHIEVEMENTS

Cannot be neatly distinguished from the other aspectual classes in terms of features

Have the same features of heterogeneity, boundedness, and punctuality as achievements.

They do not involve a transition between two states

SEMELFACTIVES

One of the most widespread aspectual distinctions

In many languages there is a formal distinction of some sort whose prototypical semantic function is to signal the perfective/imperfective contrast

There is no regular way of indicating the distinction in English

IMPERFECTIVE AND PERFECTIVE

Iterative: a series of events with a relatively short time interval between them

Habitual: also a repetition, but over a longer period, and with (potentially) longer intervals between occurrences

ITERATIVE/HABITUAL

Signal a particular attitude or opinion on the part of the speaker to the proposition expressed or the situation described

Can also indicate the degree of desirability (or otherwise) of a proposition becoming true

In English this involves the modal verbs such as- may, might, should, ought, can, and so on

MODAL EXPRESSIONS

Three main conceptual domains:

Epistemic

concerned with the degree to which a speaker is willing to commit him/herself to the truth of a proposition being expressed

Deontic

covers notions of obligation and permission

Dynamic

is concerned with ability and inability

TYPES OF MODALITY

Principal function of adjectives

The combination of Adj. + Noun prototypically restricts the domain designated by the noun alone to a subpart, and designates a subset of the entities denoted by the noun alone

There are two main positions for adjectives in English:

Attributive

Predicative

MODIFICATION

PREPOSITIONS

Chapter 16

Words which combine with noun phrases to form phrases with an adverbial function

locative (where)

temporal (when)

manner (how)

In English prepositions precede the noun phrases they govern

In some languages, words with a similar function follow their noun phrases (and may be called postpositions).

In English, prepositions are often homophonous with words with a different function.

PRESPOSITIONS

Two ways of approaching the semantic description of a linguistic element that displays a range of meanings in different contexts.

Monosemic approach:

Look for a single general meaning underlying all the variants

attribute the variations to local contextual effects

only the underlying general meaning is stored in long-term memory

Polysemic approach:

Accept that multiple senses are individually stored in long-term memory

Different contexts can make different selections

SEMANTIC DESCRIPTION APPROACH

Must determine whether the different meanings of a word in different contexts are due to the selection of different senses or to contextual modulation of one and the same sense.

PRINCIPLED POLYSEMY MODEL

Starting from the primary sense of a word: ask whether or not the meaning of the word in a given context can be inferred from the primary sense taken together with features of the context.

If the answer is in the negative: the word in question in the context in question represents a different sense from the primary sense.

DETERMINATION PROCESS

Not derived by extension from any other sense in the network

All the other senses in the network are derived from it either directly or indirectly.

Has a formal relationship to the other senses in the network

PRIMARY SENSE IN A NETWORK

Differences in the interpretation of prepositions can occur due to differences of vantage point.

Descriptions assume that each speaker is using him/herself as vantage point in formulating the utterance.

VANTAGE POINT

Canonical front and back:

inherent orientation of many objects

If an object X has a canonical front and back:

in front of X is ambiguous

can mean either "at or near the canonical front of X" or "situated somewhere on an imaginary line between X and the relevant vantage point"

If an object X does not have a canonical front and back:

the expression in front of X means "situated somewhere on an imaginary line between X and the relevant vantage point"

ORIENTATION

Basic sense from which all the other senses are directly or indirectly derived

Involves one entity being in a static spatial relation to another, such that the first entity is higher than the second

The terms trajector (henceforward TR) and landmark (henceforward LM) are used to distinguish the two entities

For over, the TR is higher than the LM.

The trajector for a spatial preposition can be defined as the entity whose location is being specified

The landmark is the entity with respect to which the trajector is being located.

OVER

The primary sense of in comprises a spatial relationship and a functional feature.

The functional feature is that of CONTAINMENT

It is not necessary for the TR to be completely surrounded by the LM for in to be appropriate

IN (THE PRIMARY SENSE)

The spatial relationship involves:

an LM which possesses an exterior

a boundary

an interior where the TR is located

IN (SPATIAL RELATIONSHIP)

Carry over from the CONTAINMENT functional feature of the primary sense

Development of this sense is motivated by the fact:

there is a tight correlation between being located in a bounded LM and a particular state

conferred by virtue of being so located

IN (THE PRIMARY SENSE)

“IN” can be employed with certain states:

conceptualized as constraining the TR

posing difficulty in leaving

EMPLOYMENT OF “IN”

Denotes a spatial relationship

TR is directed towards a highlighted LM either by virtue of its motion or by virtue of its inherent orientation

When the TR is animate and in motion:

the LM is typically interpreted with the associated function of "goal“

TO (THE PRIMARY SENSE)

Involves two elements:

a bounded LM

an entry point, an exit point, and a continuous series of points connecting entry point and exit point.

This evokes an associated functional feature of PATH.

THROUGH (THE PRIMARY SENSE)

Sense Development:

the correlation in experience between motion along a path and purposeful activity, leading eventually to through signaling "purposeful activity" in the absence of "motion along a path".

THE EXTENDED ACTION SENSE

A particular outcome is facilitated by a particular

LMs provide the means whereby the outcome is achieved.

Meaning arises from the close association in experience between paths and means of achieving particular goals.

THE “MEANS” SENSE

A large number of temporal uses of prepositions are related to spatial construals of the same lexical form.

Generally accepted on historical and developmental grounds the spatial uses are primary.

Temporal uses of prepositions:

involve construing time as a line on which points can be located

line usually has a direction-future ahead of the TR and the past behind.

passage of time is construed as motion towards the future of the TR relative to the LM

the TR construed as stationary and the LM moving

SPACE AND TIME

In some cases:

there is no precise spatial model

there are sufficient points of resemblance to make the derivation intelligible

time is construed as a quantity

there can be more or less

ADDITIONAL CASES OF SPACE AND TIME

SPEECH ACTS

Chapter 18

Must express propositions with a particular illocutionary force

Speech Acts: particular kinds of action (stating, promising, warning, and so on) we perform when communicating

There are three sorts of things that one is doing in the course of producing an utterance:

locutionary acts

perlocutionary acts

illocutionary acts.

COMMUNICATION

The utterance of certain noises

Certain words in a certain construction

Utterance of them with a certain sense and a certain reference

Conflates a number of distinguishable:

produce an utterance inscription

compose a sentence

Contextualize

LOCUTIONARY ACTS

Acts performed by means of language

Use language as a tool

Defining element- external to the locutionary

Act does not consist in saying certain things in a certain way, but in having a certain effect, which in principle could have been produced in some other way

PERLOCUTIONARY ACTS

Acts internal to the locutionary act

Once the locutionary act has been performed, if the contextual conditions are appropriate, so has the illocutionary act.

Same illocutionary act can be performed via different locutionary acts

ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS

Illocutionary force: the illocutionary act aimed at by producing an utterance

there is no communication without illocutionary force

How does a speaker convey, or a hearer understand, the illocutionary force of an utterance?

distinguish between explicit and implicit illocutionary force

There is a specific linguistic signal whose function is to encode illocutionary force

two types: lexical and grammatical

IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT ILLOCUTIONARY FOCE

Function is to signal specific speech acts

Have certain peculiar properties which set them apart from non-performative performative verbs.

Can generally be recognized by the fact that they can occur normally with “hereby”

Can be used either performatively or descriptively

PERFORMATIVE VERBS

Most languages have grammatical ways of indicating the illocutionary force of an utterance

Four sentential forms:

Declarative

Interrogative

Imperative

Exclamative

GRAMMATICAL PERFORMATIVITY

Can exhibit a wide range of illocutionary force

Doubts have been expressed as to whether declarative form encodes any sort of speech act at all

Austin: drew a distinction between performative sentences and constatives

declaratives fell into the latter category.

DECLARATIVES

Used to ask questions

Express ignorance on some point

Aim at eliciting a response from a hearer which will remove the ignorance

INTERROGATIVE

YES/NO: effectively specify a proposition and express ignorance as to its truth

Wh-questions

present an incomplete proposition

aim at eliciting a response which completes the skeleton proposition that results in a true proposition

TWO SORTS OF QUESTION

Cannot be performed by any performative verbs

expresses a psychological attitude to a fact.

One exclaims by calling something out in a loud voice

The word exclaim does not encode an illocutionary act because is too loaded with manner meaning

EXCLAMATIONS

Certain types of utterance whose properties seem to suggest that even implicit performatives have a `hidden' or underlying explicit performative verb.

Every implicit performative has a `deep' structure

If there is an underlying performative verb with a first person subject and second person indirect object, then the mystery is explained.

PERFORMATIVE HYPOTHESIS

No antecedent for the reflexive pronoun

If there is an underlying performative verb with a first person subject and second person indirect object, the mystery is explained.

REFLEXIVES

Problems occur with adverbs and performative hypothesis

Interpretation of many adverbs requires the presence of verbs not proposed in the Performative Hypothesis

INTERPRETATION OF ADVERBS

Assertives: commit the speaker to the truth of the expressed proposition

Directives: have the intention of eliciting some sort of action on the part of the hearer

Commissives: commit the speaker to some future action

Expressives: make known the speaker's psychological attitude to a presupposed state of affairs

Declaratives: bring about a change in reality

CLASSIFYING SPEECH ACTS

Are usually called happiness conditions or felicity conditions

Some are conditions on any sort of linguistic communication

speaker and hearer understand one another (usually speak the same language)

can hear one another

CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL PERFORMANCE SPEECH ACTS

Do not define the speech act

Necessary if they do not hold- the act has not been carried out

Declarative speech acts:

the person performing the act must have authority to do it, and must do it in appropriate circumstances and with appropriate

Command- the speaker must:

be in authority over the hearer

must believe that the desired action has not already been carried out

Must believe that it is possible for the hearer to carry it out.

PREPARATORY CONDITIONS

Sincerity conditions: the person performing the act must have appropriate beliefs or feelings in performing the act of asserting

Essential conditions: define the act being carried out

SINCERITY AND ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS

REFERENCE AND DEIXIS

Chapter 19

Types of reference:

Definite

Indefinite

Generic

THREE TYPES OF REFERENCE

The most crucial for the functioning of language.

The intended referential target is necessarily a particular entity

The speaker intends that the referential target should be uniquely identified for the hearer

The act of reference brings an implicit assurance the hearer has enough information to identify the referent

DEFINITE REFERENCE

Normal input and output conditions hold

The act of reference is embedded in a more inclusive speech act.

The speaker intends that the hearer should recognize his intention to refer by virtue of his having produced the utterance in question.

The part of the utterance the production of which is intended to signal the intention to refer, should have a form which conventionally performs this function.

Identification of the referents of definite referring expressions is necessary so that the hearer can reconstruct the proposition being expressed by the speaker

DEFINITE REFERENCE (CONTINUED)

The identity of the referent is not relevant to the message.

Only the class features indicated are presented as relevant.

The use of an indefinite implicates that reference is not knowingly being made to an item defined by the linguistic expression used.

INDEFINITE REFERENCE

Reference to a class of referents

Two sorts of proposition involving generic reference as argument:

Collective reading- something is predicated of the whole class referred to

Distributed reading- something is predicated of each member of the class

GENERIC REFERENCE

The referent that the proposition is about

Often corresponds with the subject of the sentence expressing sing the proposition

Often corresponds with the first element in the sentence

Cannot be characterized without taking context into account

TOPIC

Usually applied to declarative sentences

It is the part of the sentence which is crucial to the ability of the sentence to convey a piece of information to the hearer

Three main types of focus structure:

predicate focus

argument focus

sentence focus

FOCUS

NP with definite determiners

The types of help that speakers give to hearers:

(Note: A given expression may incorporate more than one of these.)

describing

pointing

naming

TYPES OF DEFINITE REFERRING EXPRESSIONS

There are two diametrically opposed extreme positions:

Proper names have no meaning whatsoever

this is usually expressed by saying that they have extension, but no intension.

Proper names function as abbreviated descriptions

they stand for the sum of the properties ties that distinguish the bearer from all other referents

they get their meaning by association, not with generic concepts, in the way that common nouns

PROPER NAMES

Things that can be referred to in the course of a discourse

Are either entities or propositions

Syntax-expressed by categories that function as arguments

NPs, pronouns, certain types of subordinate clause

Expressions which function as predicates do not refer to anything

attribute properties to referents

designate relations between referents.

DISCOURSE REFERENTS

Does not require familiarity with or knowledge of the referent

Does require that the hearer have a mental representation of the referent which can function as a locus for attaching new information

IDENTIFIABILITY OF REFERENTS

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