Semantics is the study of meaning in language. This clear and comprehensive textbook is the most up-to-date introduction to the subject available for undergraduate students. It not only equips students with the concepts they need in order to understand the main aspects of semantics, it also introduces the styles of reasoning and argument which characterise the field. It contains more than 200 exercises and discussion questions designed to test and deepen readers' understanding. More inclusive than other textbooks, it clearly explains and contrasts different theoretical approaches, summarises current debates, and provides helpful suggestions for further reading. Examples are drawn both from major world languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish and English, and from minority ones. The book also highlights the connections between semantics and the wider study of human language in psychology, anthropology, and linguistics itself.

Table of Contents

* 1. Meaning in the empirical study of language;

* 2. Meaning and definition;

* 3. The scope of meaning I: external context;

* 4. The scope of meaning II: interpersonal context;

* 5. Analysing and distinguishing meanings;

* 6. Logic as a representation of meaning;

* 7. Meaning and cognition I: categorisation and cognitive semantics;

* 8. Meaning and cognition II: formalising and simulating conceptual representations;

* 9. Meaning and morphosyntax I: the semantics of grammatical categories;

* 10. Meaning and morphosyntax II: verb meaning and argument structure;

* 11. Semantic variation and change.

Dr Nicholas Riemer

BA PhD. Sydney

Senior Lecturer

nick.riemer@sydney.edu.au

+61 2 9036 7039

Research areas

* Philosophy of linguistics

* Modern English language, especially verb semantics

* meaning in language (semantic description and theory; polysemy; semantic change)

* semiotic theory (the foundations of semiotics; semiotics and grammar)

* metaphor

* language and subjectivity, especially the place of emotion in theories of language

Selected publications

Books

* 2010 Introducing Semantics. Cambridge: CUP. Publisher’s description

* 2005 The semantics of polysemy. Reading meaning in English and Warlpiri. Berlin/New York: Mouton. Errata

Articles and chapters

* 2009 (a) Grammaticality as evidence and as prediction in a Galilean linguistics.

Language Sciences 31: 612-633. Preprint

* 2009 (b) On not having read Itkonen: empiricism and intuitions in the generative data debate. Language Sciences 31: 649-662. Preprint

* 2006 Reductive paraphrase and meaning: a critique of Wierzbickian semantics.

Linguistics and Philosophy 29: 347–379. Preprint

* 2003 (a). Meaning change in verbs: the case of strike. In Blake, Barry and Kate Burridge (eds) Historical Linguistics 2001: Selected papers from the 15th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Melbourne 13-17 August 2001. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

* 2003 (b). Les Nominaux dans les complexes verbaux du warlpiri [Nominals in Warlpiri verb complexes]. Actances 12 (working papers of GDR 749, ‘Relations intercatégorielles: les variations aspecto-temporelles et les structures diathétiques’, CNRS, France), 55-72. Preprint

* 2003 (c). Servant of two masters? NSM and semantic explanation. Theoretical Linguistics 29: 283-294. Preprint

* 2003 (d). Syntactic evidence and the mental representation of polysemy. In Slezak, P. (ed) Proceedings of the Joint International Conference on Cognitive Science. Sydney: University of New South Wales, 2003.

* 2002 (a). Interpreting semantic extension: metaphor and metonymy on different levels of lexical categorization. In Cynthia Allen (ed.) Proceedings of the 2001 meeting of the Australian Linguistic Society.

* 2002 (b). Verb polysemy and the vocabulary of percussion and impact in Central Australia. The Australian Journal of Linguistics 22:1 45-96.

* 2002 (c). When is a metonymy no longer a metonymy? In Dirven, René and Ralf Pörings (eds) Metaphor and Metonymy in Comparison and Contrast. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

* 2001 (a). Interpreting Semantic Extension: Metaphor and Metonymy on Different Levels of Lexical Categorization. In Cynthia Allen (ed), Proceedings of the 2001 conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. Full text

* 2001 (b). Remetonymizing metaphor: Hypercategories in semantic extension. Cognitive Linguistics 12-4 379-401.

* 1998. The Grammaticalization of Impact: bang and slap in English. The Australian Journal of Linguistics 18:2 1998. Preprint