Gives an account of the English verbal lexicon which not only systematizes the meanings of lexemes within a hierarchical framework, but also demonstrates the principled connections between meaning and highlights the syntactic complementation patterns of verbs and the patterns of conceptualization in
Philosophy of Language provides a comprehensive, meticulous survey of twentieth-century and contemporary philosophical theories of meaning. Interweaving the historical development of the subject with a thematic overview of the different approaches to meaning, the book provides students with the tools necessary to understand contemporary analytic philosophy. Beginning with a systematic look at Frege's foundational theories on sense and reference, Alexander Miller goes on to offer a clear exposition of the development of subsequent arguments in the philosophy of language.
Two common beliefs in American society are that there is only one correct pronunciation and one correct spelling for each word, and that the meaning or meanings listed in "the dictionary" represent "correct" usage established by some incontrovertible authority. These views are convenient in that they enable parents to correct children, and they facilitate the assigning of qualitative values to students' spoken and written use of language. The "correct" pronunciation may vary within certain boundaries in a regional accent, but spelling and meaning are usually considered to be permanent.
Sometimes in English, we can find sentences whose structures are quite similar but with a totally different meaning. For example: He threw the ball at me vs He threw the ball to me. In this case the only difference is the preposition. However, it causes a big change in meaning as you will be able to read in the answer key.
This book explores a key issue in linguistic theory, the systematic variation in form between semantic equivalents across languages. Two contrasting views of the role of lexical meaning in the analysis of such variation can be found in the literature: (i) uniformity, whereby lexical meaning is universal, and variation arises from idiosyncratic differences in the inventory and phonological shape of language-particular functional material, and (ii) transparency, whereby systematic variation in form arises from systematic variation in the meaning of basic lexical items.