Semantics as Science

An introductory linguistics textbook that takes a novel approach: studying linguistic semantics as an exercise in scientific theory construction.

This introductory linguistics text takes a novel approach, one that offers educational value to both linguistics majors and nonmajors. Aiming to help students not only grasp the fundamentals of the subject but also engage with broad intellectual issues and develop general intellectual skills, Semantics as Science studies linguistic semantics as an exercise in scientific theory construction. Semantics offers an excellent medium through which to acquaint students with the notion of a formal, axiomatic system—that is, a system that derives results from a precisely articulated set of assumptions according to a precisely articulated set of rules.
 
The book develops semantic theory through the device of axiomatic T-theories, first proposed by Alfred Tarski more than eighty years ago, introducing technical elaboration only when required. It adopts Japanese as its core object of study, allowing students to explore and investigate the real empirical issues arising in the context of non-English structures, a non-English lexicon and non-English meanings. The book is structured as a laboratory science text that poses specific empirical questions, with 25 short units, each of which can be covered in one class session. The layout is engagingly visual, designed to help students understand and retain the material, with lively illustrations, examples, and quotations from famous scholars. 

Richard K. Larson is Professor of Linguistics at Stony Brook University and author of Grammar as Science.
 

Preface for Teachers xv
Acknowledgments xxi
PART I Setting Out 1
Unit 1 What Is Semantics? 5
Unit 2 The Domain of Semantics 21
Unit 3 The Form of Semantic Theory 33
Unit 4 Introducing T-Theories 47
Part II Building a Semantic Theory 67
Unit 5 Simple Sentences 71
Unit 6 Extending the Theory I 85
Unit 7 Extending the Theory II 95
Unit 8 Names and Predicates 115
Unit 9 More on Predicates 129
Unit 10 Semantic Components 159
Unit 11 Participant Roles 183
Unit 12 Events and Adverbs 203
Unit 13 More on Proper Nouns 225
Part III Semantic Theory and the World 243
Unit 14 Tense and Other Times 247
Unit 15 Modals and Other Worlds 265
Unit 16 Scope and Entailment 283
Unit 17 Variable References and Context 303
Unit 18 Indexicals 321
Unit 19 "Displaced" Elements 341
Unit 20 Quantifiers I (Sets) 361
Unit 21 Quantifiers II (Determiners) 375
Unit 22 Quantifiers III (Rules) 391
Part IV Semantic Theory and the Mind 415
Unit 23 T-Theories as Formal Systems 419
Unit 24 Knowing a Semantic Theory 439
Unit 25 The Nature of Semantic Values 449
References 465
Index 469