1st Edition
Definitions Implications for Syntax, Semantics, and the Language of Thought
By Annabel Cormack
Copyright 1999
362 Pages
by
Routledge
374 Pages
by
Routledge
362 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
The answer to the question "How can we understand and use a definition?" provides new constraints on natural language and on the internal language in which meaning is mentally represented. Most syntax takes the sentence as the basic unit for well-formedness, but definitions force us to focus on words and phrases, and hence to focus on compositional syntax in parallel with compositional semantics.... Read more
Preface Acknowledgments 1 Theoretical Preliminaries Introduction A little simple syntax Reelevance theory The 'language of thought' hypothesis Model theoretic semantics The formal interpretation of defintions 2 Dictionary Definitions Introduction Simple nouns Simple adjectives Elimination of simple nouns and adjectives Dictionary definitions-elimination and complements Problem definitions 3 Text Definitions Introduction Characteristics of text definitions Interpretation of simple definitions Complex definitions with 'if' or 'when' Notes
Biography
Annabel Cormack
"Cormack's thesis is overall a remarkably finished piece of work... A reader...will find Cormack's theis methodologically innovative, theoretically interesting, and intellectually challenging." -- Heidi Harley,Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona
