An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language General Editor Heinz Giegerich, Professor of English Linguistics (University of Edinburgh) Editorial Board Laurie Bauer (University of Wellington) Derek Britton (University of Edinburgh) Olga Fischer (University of Amsterdam) Norman Macleod (University of Edinburgh) Donka Minkova (UCLA) Katie Wales (University of Leeds) Anthony Warner (University of York) An Introduction to English Syntax Jim Miller An Introduction to English Phonology April McMahon An Introduction to English Morphology Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy An Introduction to International Varieties of English Laurie Bauer An Introduction to Middle English Simon Horobin and Jeremy Smith An Introduction to Old English Richard Hogg An Introduction to Early Modern English Terttu Nevalainen An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics Patrick Griffiths Edinburgh University Press © Patrick Griffiths, 2006 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Janson and Neue Helvetica by Norman Tilley Graphics and printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN-10 7486 1631 (hardback) ISBN-13 978 7486 1631 ISBN-10 7486 1632 (paperback) ISBN-13 978 7486 1632 The right of Patrick Griffiths to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Contents List of figures and tables Preface viii x Studying meaning Overview 1.1 Pragmatics distinguished from semantics 1.2 Types of meaning 1.3 Semantics Summary Exercises Recommendations for reading Notes 1 15 21 22 23 23 Adjective meanings Overview 2.1 Using language to give the meanings of words 2.2 Sense relations relevant to adjectives 2.3 Constructions with adjectives Summary Exercises Recommendations for reading Notes 24 24 24 25 34 38 38 40 40 Noun vocabulary Overview 3.1 The has-relation 3.2 Hyponymy 3.3 Incompatibility 3.4 Count nouns and mass nouns Summary Exercises 41 41 41 46 52 54 56 57 vi AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS Recommendations for reading Notes 58 58 Verbs and situations Overview 4.1 Causatives 4.2 Situation types Summary Exercises Recommendations for reading Notes 59 59 60 66 75 75 76 76 Figurative language Overview 5.1 Literal and figurative usage 5.2 Irony, presuppositions and metonymy 5.3 Metaphor Summary Exercises Recommendations for reading Notes 78 78 79 82 86 90 90 91 91 Tense and aspect Overview 6.1 Tense 6.2 Aspect Summary Exercises Recommendations for reading Notes 93 93 96 100 107 108 109 109 Modality, scope and quantification Overview 7.1 Modality 7.2 Relative scope 7.3 Quantification Summary Exercises Recommendations for reading Notes 110 110 111 121 123 129 129 130 131 CONTENTS vii Pragmatics Overview 8.1 Conversational implicature 8.2 Presuppositions 8.3 Speech acts Summary Exercises Recommendations for reading Notes 132 132 134 143 148 153 153 155 155 Connecting utterances to the background Overview 9.1 Definiteness 9.2 Clefts and passives 9.3 Focal stress Summary Exercises Recommendations for reading Notes 157 157 158 160 167 169 170 171 171 Suggested answers to the exercises Bibliography Index 172 186 189 List of figures and tables Figures 2.1 Complementaries divide their domain without remainder 2.2 There is middle ground between antonyms 2.3 Simple cases of an adjective modifying a noun are like the intersection of sets 3.1 Suburbs and houses: parts can have parts 3.2 Superordinates can be hyponyms and vice versa 3.3 Hyponymy passes through intermediate levels 3.4 Hyponym senses get successively more detailed 3.5 Part of the hyponym hierarchy of English nouns 3.6 Parts that some superordinates have 3.7 Some hyponyms of meal 6.1 The main time relationships in Example (6.1) 7.1 Corgis and vegetarians I labels the intersection of the two sets, C ∩ V 7.2 Corgis and meat eaters M labels a subset of corgis that are not meat eaters, C – M 28 30 36 43 48 48 49 50 51 52 94 124 125 Tables 1.1 Semantic information and pragmatic considerations in the interpretation of Example (1.1) 2.1 The patterns of entailment that define four different sense relations 3.1 Examples of two kinds of spatial parts 3.2 Distinguishing between count and mass nouns 4.1 Examples of causative sentences with an entailment from each 4.2 Three kinds of one-clause causative with an entailment from each viii 32 44 55 61 64 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES 4.3 Tests to distinguish four verb-based situation types 4.4 The four situation types classified on presence of goals and agents 6.1 Two-part labels for tense–aspect combinations, with examples 6.2 The compatibility of some deictic adverbials with past, present and future time 6.3 A range of sentences which all have habitual as a possible interpretation 7.1 Core semantics of some markers of modality in English 9.1 A selection of indefinite and definite forms ix 69 71 96 99 101 119 158 ... as language users, we gain experience as both senders and addressees and develop intuitions about the meaning an utterance is 10 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS likely to carry... An Introduction to English Syntax Jim Miller An Introduction to English Phonology April McMahon An Introduction to English Morphology Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy An Introduction to International... them to make headway with a range of intermediate-level books about semantics and pragmatics At the end of each chapter there is a section of recom- xii AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS