01 pages i-xii prelims 24/3/06 15:47 Page i An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics 01 pages i-xii prelims 24/3/06 15:47 Page ii Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language General Editor Heinz Giegerich, Professor ofEnglish Linguistics (University ofEdinburgh) Editorial Board Laurie Bauer (University ofWellington) Derek Britton (University ofEdinburgh) Olga Fischer (University ofAmsterdam) Norman Macleod (University ofEdinburgh) Donka Minkova (UCLA) Katie Wales (University ofLeeds) Anthony Warner (University ofYork) titles in the series include 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 ofEnglish 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 01 pages i-xii prelims 24/3/06 15:47 Page iii An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics Patrick Griffiths Edinburgh University Press 01 pages i-xii prelims 24/3/06 15:47 Page iv © 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 0 7486 1631 4 (hardback) ISBN-13 978 0 7486 1631 2 ISBN-10 0 7486 1632 2 (paperback) ISBN-13 978 0 7486 1632 9 The right ofPatrick Griffiths to be identified as author ofthis work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 01 pages i-xii prelims 24/3/06 15:47 Page v Contents List of figures and tables viii Preface x 1 Studying meaning 1 Overview 1 1.1 Pragmatics distinguished from semantics 4 1.2 Types ofmeaning 9 1.3 Semantics 15 Summary 21 Exercises 22 Recommendations for reading 23 Notes 23 2 Adjective meanings 24 Overview 24 2.1 Using language to give the meanings ofwords 24 2.2 Sense relations relevant to adjectives 25 2.3 Constructions with adjectives 34 Summary 38 Exercises 38 Recommendations for reading 40 Notes 40 3 Noun vocabulary 41 Overview 41 3.1 The has-relation 41 3.2 Hyponymy 46 3.3 Incompatibility 52 3.4 Count nouns and mass nouns 54 Summary 56 Exercises 57 01 pages i-xii prelims 24/3/06 15:47 Page vi vi AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS Recommendations for reading 58 Notes 58 4 Verbs and situations 59 Overview 59 4.1 Causatives 60 4.2 Situation types 66 Summary 75 Exercises 75 Recommendations for reading 76 Notes 76 5 Figurative language 78 Overview 78 5.1 Literal and figurative usage 79 5.2 Irony, presuppositions and metonymy 82 5.3 Metaphor 86 Summary 90 Exercises 90 Recommendations for reading 91 Notes 91 6 Tense and aspect 93 Overview 93 6.1 Tense 96 6.2 Aspect 100 Summary 107 Exercises 108 Recommendations for reading 109 Notes 109 7 Modality, scope and quantification 110 Overview 110 7.1 Modality 111 7.2 Relative scope 121 7.3 Quantification 123 Summary 129 Exercises 129 Recommendations for reading 130 Notes 131 01 pages i-xii prelims 24/3/06 15:47 Page vii CONTENTS vii 8 Pragmatics 132 Overview 132 8.1 Conversational implicature 134 8.2 Presuppositions 143 8.3 Speech acts 148 Summary 153 Exercises 153 Recommendations for reading 155 Notes 155 9 Connecting utterances to the background 157 Overview 157 9.1 Definiteness 158 9.2 Clefts and passives 160 9.3 Focal stress 167 Summary 169 Exercises 170 Recommendations for reading 171 Notes 171 Suggested answers to the exercises 172 Bibliography 186 Index 189 01 pages i-xii prelims 24/3/06 15:47 Page viii List of figures and tables Figures 2.1 Complementaries divide their domain without remainder 28 2.2 There is middle ground between antonyms 30 2.3 Simple cases ofan adjective modifying a noun are like the intersection ofsets 36 3.1 Suburbs and houses: parts can have parts 43 3.2 Superordinates can be hyponyms and vice versa 48 3.3 Hyponymy passes through intermediate levels 48 3.4 Hyponym senses get successively more detailed 49 3.5 Part ofthe hyponym hierarchy ofEnglish nouns 50 3.6 Parts that some superordinates have 51 3.7 Some hyponyms ofmeal 52 6.1 The main time relationships in Example (6.1) 94 7.1 Corgis and vegetarians. Ilabels the intersection ofthe two sets, C ∩V (cid:2) 124 7.2 Corgis and meat eaters. M labels a subset ofcorgis that are not meat eaters, C – M 125 Tables 1.1 Semantic information and pragmatic considerations in the interpretation ofExample (1.1) 3 2.1 The patterns ofentailment that define four different sense relations 32 3.1 Examples oftwo kinds ofspatial parts 44 3.2 Distinguishing between count and mass nouns 55 4.1 Examples ofcausative sentences with an entailment from each 61 4.2 Three kinds ofone-clause causative with an entailment from each 64 viii 01 pages i-xii prelims 24/3/06 15:47 Page ix LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ix 4.3 Tests to distinguish four verb-based situation types 69 4.4 The four situation types classified on presence ofgoals and agents 71 6.1 Two-part labels for tense–aspect combinations, with examples 96 6.2 The compatibility ofsome deictic adverbials with past, present and future time 99 6.3 A range ofsentences which all have habitual as a possible interpretation 101 7.1 Core semantics ofsome markers ofmodality in English 119 9.1 A selection ofindefinite and definite forms 158