Meaning and the Lexicon


Book Description

'Meaning and the Lexicon' brings together Ray Jackendoff's pathbreaking work on language. It traces the development of his parallel architecture, in which phonology, syntax, and semantics are independent generative components, and in which knowledge of language consists of a repertoire of stored structures.




The Novelist's Lexicon


Book Description

At a recent literary conference hosted by Villa Gillet and "Le Monde," organizers asked seventy-seven prominent authors from around the world to choose a word that opens the door to their work. Their crystalline musings, collected here for the first time, offer an extraordinary portrait of writing and reading from the perspective of the artist. Organized alphabetically, the anthology is a pleasurable and instructive book for writers, readers, and anyone seeking an intimate understanding of literature. Through these personal "passwords," authors articulate the function of language, character, plot, and structure, and, in the process, reveal their relationship with the elements of story. Jonathan Lethem discusses the independent life of furniture; A. S. Byatt describes the power of the narrative web; Etgar Keret explains the importance of "balagan," a Hebrew word meaning "total chaos"; Daniel Mendelsohn expounds on the unknowable, or what the author should or should not impart to the reader; Annie Proulx clarifies "terroir," which embodies the complexities of time, place, geography, weather, and climate; and Colum McCann details the benefits of anonymity. Other participants include Rick Moody on adumbrated; Upamanyu Chatterjee on the bildungsroman; Enrique Vila-Matas on discipline; Adam Thirwell on hedonism; Nuruddin Farah on identities; Tariq Ali on laughter; Andre Brink on the heretic; Elif Shafak on the nomad; and PA(c)ter Esterhazy on the power and potential of words, words, words.




Language and the Lexicon


Book Description

The lexicon represents the building blocks of language: words and vocabulary. Most of us think of language in terms of words, and words are also integral to the way in which linguists approach language as an object of study. The lexicon and lexical issues must be taken in consideration in every domain of language study and, conversely, the lexicon cannot be viewed in isolation from other aspects of language. 'Language and the Lexicon' provides a comprehensive yet accessible overview of lexicology, introducing the reader to the lexicon by exploring the lexical aspects of a range of different areas of language: syntax, morphology, semantics, phonology, language variation, language change, language acquisition and language processing. Assuming no prior knowledge of linguistics, the book introduces the key concepts employing examples from a wide variety of languages in order to illustrate the points made. This book is ideally suited to those approaching lexicology for the first time. With its wide breadth of focus and diverse topics, it can equally serve as a first introduction to linguistics.




Lexical Meaning


Book Description

The ideal introduction for students of semantics, Lexical Meaning fills the gap left by more general semantics textbooks, providing the teacher and the student with insights into word meaning beyond the traditional overviews of lexical relations. The book explores the relationship between word meanings and syntax and semantics more generally. It provides a balanced overview of the main theoretical approaches, along with a lucid explanation of their relative strengths and weaknesses. After covering the main topics in lexical meaning, such as polysemy and sense relations, the textbook surveys the types of meanings represented by different word classes. It explains abstract concepts in clear language, using a wide range of examples, and includes linguistic puzzles in each chapter to encourage the student to practise using the concepts. 'Adopt-a-Word' exercises give students the chance to research a particular word, building a portfolio of specialist work on a single word.




The Lexicon


Book Description

The Lexicon provides an introduction to the study of words, their main properties, and how we use them to create meaning. It offers a detailed description of the organizing principles of the lexicon, and of the categories used to classify a wide range of lexical phenomena, including polysemy, meaning variation in composition, and the interplay with ontology, syntax, and pragmatics. Elisabetta Ježek uses empirical data from digitalized corpora and speakers' judgements, combined with the formalisms developed in the field of general and theoretical linguistics, to propose representations for each of these phenomena. The key feature of the book is that it merges theoretical accounts with lexicographic approaches and computational insights. Its clear structure and accessible approach make The Lexicon an ideal textbook for all students of linguistics—theoretical, applied, and computational—and a valuable resource for scholars and students of language in the fields of cognitive science and philosophy.




Lexicon


Book Description

"About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell. Lexicon reads like Elmore Leonard high out of his mind on Snow Crash." —Lev Grossman, New York Times bestselling author of The Magicians and The Magician King “Best thing I've read in a long time . . . a masterpiece.” —Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool Stick and stones break bones. Words kill. They recruited Emily Ruff from the streets. They said it was because she's good with words. They'll live to regret it. They said Wil Parke survived something he shouldn't have. But he doesn't remember. Now they're after him and he doesn't know why. There's a word, they say. A word that kills. And they want it back . . .




Dictionary of Untranslatables


Book Description

Characters in some languages, particularly Hebrew and Arabic, may not display properly due to device limitations. Transliterations of terms appear before the representations in foreign characters. This is an encyclopedic dictionary of close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms and concepts that defy easy—or any—translation from one language and culture to another. Drawn from more than a dozen languages, terms such as Dasein (German), pravda (Russian), saudade (Portuguese), and stato (Italian) are thoroughly examined in all their cross-linguistic and cross-cultural complexities. Spanning the classical, medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary periods, these are terms that influence thinking across the humanities. The entries, written by more than 150 distinguished scholars, describe the origins and meanings of each term, the history and context of its usage, its translations into other languages, and its use in notable texts. The dictionary also includes essays on the special characteristics of particular languages--English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Originally published in French, this one-of-a-kind reference work is now available in English for the first time, with new contributions from Judith Butler, Daniel Heller-Roazen, Ben Kafka, Kevin McLaughlin, Kenneth Reinhard, Stella Sandford, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tylus, Anthony Vidler, Susan Wolfson, Robert J. C. Young, and many more.The result is an invaluable reference for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the multilingual lives of some of our most influential words and ideas. Covers close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms that defy easy translation between languages and cultures Includes terms from more than a dozen languages Entries written by more than 150 distinguished thinkers Available in English for the first time, with new contributions by Judith Butler, Daniel Heller-Roazen, Ben Kafka, Kevin McLaughlin, Kenneth Reinhard, Stella Sandford, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tylus, Anthony Vidler, Susan Wolfson, Robert J. C. Young, and many more Contains extensive cross-references and bibliographies An invaluable resource for students and scholars across the humanities




Expanding the Lexicon


Book Description

The creation of new lexical units and patterns has been studied in different research frameworks, focusing on either system-internal or system-external aspects, from which no comprehensive view has emerged. The volume aims to fill this gap by studying dynamic processes in the lexicon – understood in a wide sense as not being necessarily limited to the word level – by bringing together approaches directed to morphological productivity as well as approaches analyzing general types of lexical innovation and the role of discourse-related factors. The papers deal with ongoing changes as well as with historical processes of change in different languages and reflect on patterns and specific subtypes of lexical innovation as well as on their external conditions and the speakers’ motivations for innovating. Moreover, the diffusion and conventionalization of innovations will be addressed. In this way, the volume contributes to understanding the complex interplay of structural, cognitive and functional factors in the lexicon as a highly dynamic domain.




Understanding English Grammar


Book Description

Unlike other textbooks, it helps students to understand grammar rather than see it as a set of facts and rules.




Analyzing Grammar


Book Description

Analyzing Grammar is a clear introductory textbook on grammatical analysis, designed for students beginning to study the discipline. Covering both syntax (the structure of phrases and sentences) and morphology (the structure of words), it equips them with the tools and methods needed to analyze grammatical patterns in any language. Students are shown how to use standard notational devices such as phrase structure trees and word-formation rules, as well as prose descriptions. Emphasis is placed on comparing the different grammatical systems of the world's languages, and students are encouraged to practice the analyses through a diverse range of problem sets and exercises. Topics covered include word order, constituency, case, agreement, tense, gender, pronoun systems, inflection, derivation, argument structure and grammatical relations, and a useful glossary provides a clear explanation of each term. Accessibly written and comprehensive, Analyzing Grammar is set to become a key text for all courses in grammatical analysis.