What Is Meaning? : Fundamentals Of Formal Semantics Hardcover

Paul H. Portner

What is Meaning? Fundamentals of Formal Semantics is a concise introduction to the field of semantics as it is actually practiced. Through simple examples, pictures, and metaphors, Paul Portner presents the field's key ideas about how language works. * explains the fundamental ideas and some of the most significant results of modern semantic theory * combines foundational discussion with simplified analyses of complex phenomena to provide readers with a sense of the fascination to be found in the details of the human language * includes exercises and thought-provoking questions to facilitate learning

1405109173

9781405109178

English

John Wiley and Sons Ltd

11-02-2005

248

Paul H. Portner is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science at Georgetown University. He is co-editor of Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings (with Barbara H. Partee, Blackwell, 2002) as well as the author of numerous articles on topics such as mood and modality, tense and aspect, and the syntax/semantics interface.

An excellent book for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. Portner's approachable, yet serious, presentation gives the reader a firm understanding of the breadth and depth of the science of natural language meaning. Kai von Fintel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology