Theories of Lexical Symantics

✍ Scribed by Dirk Geeraerts

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 362
• Series: Oxford Linguistics
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Theories of Lexical Semantics offers a comprehensive overview of the major traditions of word meaning research in linguistics. In spite of the growing importance of the lexicon in linguistic theory, no overview of the main theoretical trends in lexical semantics is currently available. This book fills that gap by charting the evolution of the discipline from the mid nineteenth century to the present day. It presents the main ideas, the landmark publications, and the dominant figures of five traditions: historical-philological semantics, structuralist semantics, generativist semantics, neostructuralist semantics, and cognitive semantics. The theoretical and methodological relationship between the approaches is a major point of attention throughout the text: going well beyond a mere chronological enumeration, the book does not only describe the theoretical currents of lexical semantics, but also the undercurrents that have shaped its evolution.

✦ Table of Contents

Oxford U. Press - Theories of Lexical Symantics (2010) (ATTiCA)......Page 1
Contents......Page 8
List of Figures......Page 11
Preface......Page 12
Introduction......Page 14
1. Historical-philological Semantics......Page 22
1.1.1. Speculative etymology......Page 23
1.1.2. The rhetorical tradition......Page 26
1.1.3. Lexicography......Page 28
1.2. The nature of meaning......Page 30
1.2.1. Bréal on meaning and mind......Page 31
1.2.2. Paul on context and usage......Page 35
1.2.3. Variant voices......Page 37
1.3. Classifications of semantic change......Page 46
1.3.1. Main types of change......Page 47
1.3.2. Lower-level patterns......Page 52
1.3.3. Classificatory complexities......Page 56
1.4. Beyond historical-philological semantics......Page 63
Further sources for Chapter 1......Page 66
2. Structuralist Semantics......Page 68
2.1. The structuralist conception of meaning......Page 69
2.1.1. Arguing against historical-philological semantics......Page 70
2.1.2. Types of structuralist semantics......Page 73
2.2.1. Trier’s concept of lexical fields......Page 74
2.2.2. Lexical fields and syntagmatic relations......Page 78
2.2.3. Lexical fields and formal relations......Page 81
2.2.4. The discreteness of lexical fields......Page 86
2.3. Componential analysis......Page 91
2.3.1. Componential analysis in American ethnosemantics......Page 92
2.3.2. Componential analysis in European structuralist semantics......Page 95
2.4. Relational semantics......Page 101
2.4.1. Major sense relations......Page 103
2.4.2. Theoretical issues......Page 109
2.5. Beyond structuralist semantics......Page 112
Further sources for Chapter 2......Page 119
3. Generativist Semantics......Page 122
3.1.1. Formal dictionary entries......Page 123
3.1.2. The emulation of structuralist semantics......Page 125
3.2.1. Minimal or maximal semantics?......Page 127
3.2.2. Decompositional or axiomatic semantics?......Page 134
3.3. Beyond generativist semantics......Page 138
Further sources for Chapter 3......Page 143
4. Neostructuralist Semantics......Page 145
4.1. Elaborating the decompositional approach......Page 147
4.1.1. Natural Semantic Metalanguage......Page 148
4.1.2. Conceptual Semantics......Page 158
4.1.3. Two-Level Semantics......Page 163
4.1.4. Generative Lexicon......Page 168
4.2. Elaborating the relational approach......Page 177
4.2.1. WordNet......Page 179
4.2.2. Lexical functions......Page 182
4.2.3. Distributional corpus analysis......Page 186
Further sources for Chapter 4......Page 200
5. Cognitive Semantics......Page 203
5.1. Prototypicality and salience......Page 204
5.1.1. Prototypicality effects......Page 205
5.1.2. Radial networks and polysemy......Page 213
5.1.3. Basic levels and onomasiological salience......Page 220
5.2. Conceptual metaphor and metonymy......Page 224
5.2.1. Conceptual Metaphor Theory......Page 225
5.2.2. Mental spaces and blending......Page 231
5.2.3. Conceptual metonymy......Page 234
5.3. Idealized Cognitive Models and frames......Page 243
5.3.1. Idealized Cognitive Models......Page 245
5.3.2. Frame semantics and FrameNet......Page 246
5.4. Usage and change......Page 250
5.4.1. Invited inference and pragmatics......Page 251
5.4.2. Mechanisms and regularities......Page 254
5.5. Cognitive semantics in context......Page 260
5.5.1. Meaning in the mind......Page 261
5.5.2. Meaning in culture and society......Page 270
5.5.3. Meaning in text and discourse......Page 279
Further sources for Chapter 5......Page 288
Conclusion......Page 294
References......Page 309
C......Page 349
G......Page 350
K......Page 351
N......Page 352
S......Page 353
W......Page 354
Z......Page 355
C......Page 356
F......Page 357
L......Page 358
O......Page 359
S......Page 360
T......Page 361
Z......Page 362