From Etymology to Pragmatics

From Etymology to Pragmatics
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 188
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781316582336
ISBN-13 : 1316582337
Rating : 4/5 (337 Downloads)

Book Synopsis From Etymology to Pragmatics by : Eve Sweetser

Download or read book From Etymology to Pragmatics written by Eve Sweetser and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1991-07-26 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a distinct approach to the analysis of the multiple meanings of English modals, conjunctions, conditionals and perception verbs. Although such ambiguities cannot easily be accounted for by feature-analyses of word meaning, Eve Sweetser's argument shows that they can be analysed both readily and systematically. Meaning relationships in general cannot be understood independently of human cognitive structure, including the metaphorical and cultural aspects of that structure. Sweetser shows that both lexical polysemy and pragmatic ambiguity are shaped by our metaphorical folk understanding of epistemic processes and of speech interaction. Similar regularities can be shown to structure the contrast between root, epistemic and 'speech-act' uses of modal verbs, multiple uses of conjunctions and conditionals, and certain processes of historical change observed in Indo-European languages. Since polysemy is typically the intermediate step in semantic change, the same regularities observable in polysemy can be extended to an analysis of semantic change. This book will attract students and researchers in linguistics, philosophy, the cognitive sciences, and all those interested in metaphor.


From Etymology to Pragmatics Related Books

From Etymology to Pragmatics
Language: en
Pages: 192
Authors: Eve Sweetser
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 1990 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book offers a new approach to the analysis of the multiple meanings of English modals, conjunctions, conditionals, and perception verbs. Although such ambi
From Etymology to Pragmatics
Language: en
Pages: 188
Authors: Eve Sweetser
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 1991-07-26 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book offers a distinct approach to the analysis of the multiple meanings of English modals, conjunctions, conditionals and perception verbs. Although such
Studies in the History of the English Language
Language: en
Pages: 505
Authors: Donka Minkova
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-08-22 - Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The 19 papers in this volume are a selection from a UCLA conference intended to take stock of the state of the field at the beginning of the new millenium and t
Developmental Pragmatics
Language: en
Pages: 464
Authors: Elinor Ochs
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 1979 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume brings together essays on the structure of language and the use of language during the course of its acquisition. -- pref.
The Familiar Letter in Early Modern English
Language: en
Pages: 288
Authors: Susan M. Fitzmaurice
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2002 - Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This research monograph examines familiar letters in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English to provide a pragmatic reading of the meanings that writers mak