The Logic of Language: Language From Within Volume II - Hardcover

Seuren, Pieter A. M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199559481 ISBN 13: 9780199559480

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2010

Synopsis

The Logic of Language opens a new perspective on logic. Pieter Seuren argues that the logic of language derives from the lexical meanings of the logical operators. These meanings, however, prove not to be consistent. Seuren solves this problem through an indepth analysis of the functional adequacy of natural predicate logic and standard modern logic for natural linguistic interaction. He then develops a general theory of discourse-bound interpretation, covering discourse incrementation, anaphora, presupposition and topic-comment structure, all of which, the author claims, form the 'cement' of discourse structure.

This is the second of a two-volume foundational study of language, published under the title Language from Within. Pieter Seuren discusses such apparently diverse issues as the ontology underlying the semantics of language, speech act theory, intensionality phenomena, the machinery and ecology of language, sentential and lexical meaning, the natural logic of language and cognition, and the intrinsically context-sensitive nature of language - and shows them to be intimately linked. Throughout his ambitious enterprise, he maintains a constant dialogue with established views, reflecting their development from Ancient Greece to the present. The resulting synthesis concerns central aspects of research and theory in linguistics, philosophy and cognitive science.

About this title

About the Author

Pieter Seuren is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. He was a lecturer in linguistics first at Cambridge, then Oxford, before moving to the Radboud University in Nijmegen in 1974 as Professor of the Philosophy of Language. Here he remained until his retirement in 1999, having in 1995 changed his appointment to Professor of Theoretical Linguistics. His books include Discourse Semantics (Blackwell 1985), Semantic Syntax (Blackwell 1996) and A View of Language (OUP 2001).

Review

Review from other book by this author:
"This collection of articles from Pieter Seuren, my first linguistics teacher, will introduce to a wider public one of linguistic's most original minds, a scholar who has never feared to tread his own path and whose students have benefitted not only from his insight but also from his example. The
articles in this collection, ranging from formal semantics to Creole studies, raise essential questions at the heart of linguistic theory and practice."

--Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

"This book collects the best work of one of the world's most original linguistic thinkers ... This is a book of real, enduring value."

--Folia Linguistica

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0199559481
• ISBN 13: 9780199559480
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 446