The Semantics-Pragmatics Controversy (eBook)

1 Introduction 11
1.1 The Standard Notions and Their Problems 11
1.2 Aim of the Book 17
1.3 Plan of the book 18
2 Against the Standard Notions of Literal Meaning and Non-literal Meaning 21
2.1 Literal Meaning and Context-Independence 21
2.1.1 Literal Meaning as Compositional Meaning? 22
2.1.2 Literal Meaning as Context-Independent? 27
2.1.3 Literal Meaning as Primary to Non-literal Meaning? 33
2.2 Non-literal Meaning and Conventionality 38
2.2.1 Empirical Evidence 38
2.2.2 Theoretical Considerations 44
2.3 Consequences for Lexical Meaning 52
2.3.1 Problematic Data 53
2.3.2 Approaches to Meaning in the Lexicon 59
2.3.2.1 The Maximalist Approach 60
2.3.2.2 The Intermediate Approach 64
2.3.3 Semantic Underspecification in the Lexicon 71
2.3.3.1 The Minimalist Approach 71
2.3.3.2 Ruhl’s monosemic approach 76
2.3.3.3 A Cognitive Approach 77
2.3.3.4 Underspecification and Conventionality 82
2.3.3.5 Underspecification and Semantic Relations 84
2.3.3.6 More Underspecification in the Lexicon 85
2.3.3.7 Underspecification of Semantic Composition 88
2.4 Empirical Investigations of Aspects of Semantics 90
2.4.1 Polysemy vs. Underspecification in the Lexicon 90
2.4.2 Empirical Evidence for Semantic vs. Pragmatic Processing 96
2.5 Why the Standard Notions? 101
2.6 Summary 105
3 Utterance Meaning and the Literal/Non-literal Distinction 109
3.1 Levels of Meaning 110
3.1.1 Grice’s Four Types of Meaning 110
3.1.2 Bierwisch’s Three Levels of Meaning 115
3.1.3 Summary 120
3.2 The Problem of Characterising the Level of Utterance Meaning 122
3.2.1 Explicit/Implicit Meaning 124
3.2.1.1 Explicatures 124
3.2.1.2 Implicitures 133
3.2.2 Unarticulated Constituents vs. Hidden Indexicals 137
3.2.3 Minimal Semantic Content and Full Propositionality 148
3.2.4 Minimal Proposition vs. Proposition Expressed 157
3.3 Summary 164
4 Utterance Meaning and Communicative Sense – Two Levels or One? 169
4.1 Problematic Phenomena 171
4.1.1 Metaphor 171
4.1.1.1 Traditional Characterisation and its Problems 171
4.1.1.2 Metaphor and The Similarity of Various Types of Meaning 173
4.1.1.3 Metaphor and Attributive Categories 176
4.1.1.4 Empirical Results Concerning Metaphor Interpretation 178
4.1.1.5 Formal approaches to metaphor interpretation 182
4.1.1.6 Summary 189
4.1.2 Irony 191
4.1.2.1 Traditional Characterisation and its Problems 191
4.1.2.2 Irony as echoic interpretive use 192
4.1.2.3 Irony as a Form of Indirect Negation 195
4.1.2.4 Empirical Results Concerning Irony Interpretation 198
4.1.2.5 Summary 205
4.1.3 Conversational Implicatures 206
4.1.3.1 Generalised vs. Particularised Conversational Implicature – Theoretical Approaches 206
4.1.3.2 (Mostly) Empirical Evidence Concerning GCIs 217
4.1.3.3 Summary 226
4.1.4 Speech Acts 227
4.2 Differentiating What is Said from What is Meant 232
4.2.1 What is Said/What is Meant and Indirect Speech Reports 234
4.2.2 Primary vs. Secondary Pragmatic Processes 239
4.2.3 What is Said/What is Meant and Distinct Knowledge Systems 244
4.3 Summary 252
5 Varieties of Meaning, Context and the Semantics/Pragmatics Distinction 256
5.1 Towards an Alternative Characterisation of (Non-)Literal Meaning 256
5.1.1 Literal Meaning and Types of Non-literal Meaning 258
5.1.2 Literal Meaning as ‘Minimal Meaning’ 265
5.1.3 Nature of the Processes Determining (Non)-Literal Meaning 271
5.1.4 (Non-)Literal Meaning as (Non-)Basic Meaning 278
5.2 The Nature of Context in Utterance Interpretation 285
5.2.1 Context and the Interpretation of Implicit Meaning Aspects 286
5.2.1.1 Free Enrichment and Implicit Meaning Aspects 286
5.2.1.2 Discourse Interpretation and Information from Conceptual Frames 290
5.2.1.3 Free Enrichment and Information from Conceptual Frames 294
5.2.1.4 Consequences 302
5.2.2 Context, Semantic Interpretation and the Semantics/ Pragmatics Distinction 303
5.3 Summary 314
6 Summary 317
List of Figures 321
Bibliography 323
Index 335