The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory

by Shalom Lappin, Chris Fox

Overview

The second edition of The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory presents a comprehensive introduction to cutting-edge research in contemporary theoretical and computational semantics.

• Features completely new content from the first edition of The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory
• Features contributions by leading semanticists, who introduce core areas of contemporary semantic research, while discussing current research
• Suitable for graduate students for courses in semantic theory and for advanced researchers as an introduction to current theoretical work

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781119046820
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	02/12/2019
Series:	Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	784
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Shalom Lappin is Emeritus Professor of Computational Linguistics at King's College London, UK, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Member of the Academia Europaea. He is currently Director of the Centre for Linguistic Theory and Studies in Probability at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Visiting Professor in the Cognitive Science Group in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London, UK. He is co-editor, with Alexander Clark and Chris Fox, of The Handbook of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing (Wiley Blackwell, 2010), co-author, with Alexander Clark, of Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus (Wiley Blackwell, 2011), and co-author of Foundations of Intensional Semantics (with Chris Fox, Blackwell, 2005).

Chris Fox is a Reader in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, UK. He is the author of The Ontology of Language (2000) and co-author of Foundations of Intensional Semantics (with Shalom Lappin, Blackwell, 2005).

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Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors ix

Preface xv

Introduction 1

Part I Quantifiers, Scope, Plurals, and Ellipsis 7

1 Generalized Quantifiers in Natural Language Semantics 9
Dag Westerståhl

2 Scope 40
Chris Barker

3 Plurals 77
Yoad Winter and Remko Scha

4 Ellipsis 114
Ruth Kempson, Ronnie Cann, Arash Eshghi, Eleni Gregoromichelaki, and Matthew Purver

Part II Modification, Presupposition, Tense, and Modality 141

5 Adjectival Modification and Gradation 143
Daniel Lassiter

6 Presupposition and Implicature 168
Christopher Potts

7 The Semantics of Tense and Aspect: A Finite-State Perspective 203
Tim Fernando

8 Conditionals and Modality 237
Magdalena Kaufmann and Stefan Kaufmann

Part III Nondeclaratives 271

9 Semantics of Questions 273
Andrzej Wiśniewski

10 The Semantics of Imperatives 314
Chris Fox

Part IV Type Theory and Computational Semantics 343

11 Constructive Type Theory 345
Aarne Ranta

12 Type Theory with Records for Natural Language Semantics 375
Robin Cooper and Jonathan Ginzburg

13 Curry Typing, Polymorphism, and Fine-Grained Intensionality 408
Shalom Lappin

14 Semantic Complexity in Natural Language 429
Ian Pratt-Hartmann

15 Implementing Semantic Theories 455
Jan van Eijck

16 Vector Space Models of Lexical Meaning 493
Stephen Clark

17 Recognizing Textual Entailment 523
Mark Sammons

Part V Interfaces 559

18 Natural Logic 561
Lawrence S. Moss

19 The Syntax-Semantics Interface: Semantic Roles and Syntactic Arguments 593
Malka Rappaport Hovav and Beth Levin

20 Reference in Discourse 625
Andrew Kehler

21 Probabilistic Semantics and Pragmatics: Uncertainty in Language and Thought 655
Noah D. Goodman and Daniel Lassiter

22 Semantics and Dialogue 687
David Schlangen

23 Semantics and Language Acquisition 714
Eve V. Clark

Author Index 735

Subject Index 745

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This handbook gives an overview of some of the recent developments in semantic theory. The articles are written by well-known semanticists, who are invariably at the top of their field in the domain at hand. This leads to high quality papers that are almost without exception a great pleasure to read......I am sure the book will be widely used for reference and initial introduction to new topics by both researchers and students."Henriette De Swart, University of Utrecht

"This book collects state-of-the-art discussions in virtually all the fundamental areas of semantic inquiry. Leading scholars in the field present and critically discuss each topic in an assessible, self contained way. The result is a quite vivid and exciting picture of the ground-breaking progress made in semantics over the past twenty years. For the expert, Lappin's volume will constitute an extremely valuable up-to-date resource on current reseach; for the beginner, an effective pedagogical aid. A most welcome accomplishment." Gennaro Chierchia, University of Milan