Formal Approaches to Semantics and Pragmatics : Japanese and Beyond

This volume presents an exploration of a wide variety of new formal methods from computer science, biology and economics that have been applied to problems in semantics and pragmatics in recent years. Many of the contributions included focus on data from East Asian languages, particularly Japanese and Korean. The collection reflects on a range of new empirical issues that have arisen, including issues related to preference, evidentiality, and attention. Separated into several sections, the book presents discussions on: information structure, speech acts and decisions, philosophical themes in semantics, and new formal approaches to semantic and pragmatic theory. Its overarching theme is the relation between different kinds of content, from a variety of perspectives. The discussions presented are both theoretically innovative and empirically motivated.