Overview

How meaning works-from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music-and how meaning is connected to truth. How meaning works-from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music-and how meaning is connected to truth. We communicate through language, connecting what we mean to the words we say. But humans convey meaning in other ways as well, with facial expressions, hand gestures, and other methods. Animals, too, can get their meanings across without words. In What It All Means, linguist Philippe Schlenker explains how meaning works, from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music. He shows that these extraordinarily diverse types of meaning can be studied and compared within a unified approach-one in which the notion of truth plays a central role. ""It's just semantics"" is often said dismissively. But Schlenker shows that semantics-the study of meaning-is an unsung success of modern linguistics, a way to investigate some of the deepest questions about human nature using tools from the empirical and formal sciences. Drawing on fifty years of research in formal semantics, Schlenker traces how meaning comes to life. After investigating meaning in primate communication, he explores how human meanings are built, using in some cases sign languages as a guide to the workings of our inner ""logic machine."" Schlenker explores how these meanings can be enriched by iconicity in sign language and by gestures in spoken language, and then turns to more abstract forms of iconicity to understand the meaning of music. He concludes by examining paradoxes, which-being neither true nor false-test the very limits of meaning.

Full Product Details

Author:   Philippe Schlenker
Publisher:   MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:   MIT Press
Weight:   0.567kg
ISBN:  

9780262047432

ISBN 10:   0262047438
Pages:   520
Publication Date:   22 November 2022
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Prologue: Primate Meanings xxiii 1 Meaning in the Wild 1 Part I: The Building Blocks of Meaning 37 2 Visible Logic: Sign Language and Pronouns 39 3 Me, Me, Me! Perspectives in Language 69 4 Nouns and Verbs: Objects and Events 91 5 Beyond the Here and Now I: From Objects to Situations 111 6 Beyond the Here and Now II: Describing and Classifying Objects and Situations 127 Part II: Using Meaning 145 7 Logic Machine I: Predicate Logic 147 8 Logic Machine II: English as a Formal Language 157 9 Logic Machine III: The Expressive Power of Human Language 173 10 Not Quite Saying It: Focus and Implicatures 197 11 Not At Issue: Presuppositions, Supplements, and Expressives 225 Part III: Extending Meaning 245 12 Iconicity Revisited: Sign with Iconicity Versus Speech with Gestures 247 13 Grammar in Gestures 265 14 Meaning in Gestures 287 15 Meaning in Music 303 Epilogue: The Limits of Truth 339 16 The Limits of Truth I: The Riddle of Paradoxes 341 17 The Limits of Truth II: Solving the Riddle of Paradoxes 355 Conclusion 383 Appendix: Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax in Speech and in Sign 389 Glossary 405 Going Further 415 Notes 429 Illustration Sources 451 Index 455

Reviews

"""It’s one of the best popular science books on linguistics I’ve ever read: a page-turner brimming with fascinating pieces of information, including Schlenker’s own theories."" –Marc van Oostendorp, Professor of Dutch and Academic Communication, Radboud University of Nijmegen"

"""It’s one of the best popular science books on linguistics I’ve ever read: a page-turner brimming with fascinating pieces of information, including Schlenker’s own theories."" –CNRS"

Author Information

Philippe Schlenker is Senior Research Fellow at Centre national de la recherche scientifique (Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris) and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University. His work spans all aspects of meaning, from philosophical logic to formal semantics, in both spoken and signed languages.

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