Read more
"The second edition of
The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory surveys the field from a completely fresh perspective, with a new emphasis on formalisms and methods, and a closer focus on a wider range of phenomena than its distinguished predecessor. It will be read by linguists, philosophers, computational linguists, cognitive scientists, and others seeking to comprehend the continuing developments and rapid progress that have occurred in this area over the intervening decades."
Mark Steedman, University of Edinburgh, UK The study of the semantics of natural language has evolved rapidly over the last two decades. Reflecting great strides made in the field, the second edition of
The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory presents a detailed and systematic view of cutting-edge research, methodologies, and developments in contemporary theoretical and computational semantics. New and revised contributions by leading international semanticists highlight the radical shift in methods and theories that now shape linguistic semantic research. These include the application of modern computational techniques, type theory, and probabilistic models--methodologies that capture previously untapped subtleties of meaning and interpretation in natural language. The chapters of the
Handbook also show these recent innovations have brought semantics into closer collaboration with ongoing research in computer science, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. Forward-looking and timely, the second edition of
The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory provides insights into the bold new ideas that are now shaping research in semantic theory.
List of contents
Notes on Contributors ix
Preface xv
Introduction 1
Part I Quantifiers, Scope, Plurals, and Ellipsis 7
1 Generalized Quantifiers in Natural Language Semantics 9
Dag Westerståhl 2 Scope 40
Chris Barker 3 Plurals 77
Yoad Winter and Remko Scha 4 Ellipsis 114
Ruth Kempson, Ronnie Cann, Arash Eshghi, Eleni Gregoromichelaki, and Matthew Purver Part II Modification, Presupposition, Tense, and Modality 141 5 Adjectival Modification and Gradation 143
Daniel Lassiter 6 Presupposition and Implicature 168
Christopher Potts 7 The Semantics of Tense and Aspect: A Finite-State Perspective 203
Tim Fernando 8 Conditionals and Modality 237
Magdalena Kaufmann and Stefan Kaufmann Part III Nondeclaratives 271
9 Semantics of Questions 273
Andrzej Wi¿niewski 10 The Semantics of Imperatives 314
Chris Fox Part IV Type Theory and Computational Semantics 343 11 Constructive Type Theory 345
Aarne Ranta 12 Type Theory with Records for Natural Language Semantics 375
Robin Cooper and Jonathan Ginzburg 13 Curry Typing, Polymorphism, and Fine-Grained Intensionality 408
Shalom Lappin 14 Semantic Complexity in Natural Language 429
Ian Pratt-Hartmann 15 Implementing Semantic Theories 455
Jan van Eijck 16 Vector Space Models of Lexical Meaning 493
Stephen Clark 17 Recognizing Textual Entailment 523
Mark Sammons Part V Interfaces 559 18 Natural Logic 561
Lawrence S. Moss 19 The Syntax-Semantics Interface: Semantic Roles and Syntactic Arguments 593
Malka Rappaport Hovav and Beth Levin 20 Reference in Discourse 625
Andrew Kehler 21 Probabilistic Semantics and Pragmatics: Uncertainty in Language and Thought 655
Noah D. Goodman and Daniel Lassiter 22 Semantics and Dialogue 687
David Schlangen 23 Semantics and Language Acquisition 714
Eve V. Clark Author Index 735
Subject Index 745
About the author
Shalom Lappin is Emeritus Professor of Computational Linguistics at King's College London, UK, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Member of the Academia Europaea. He is currently Director of the Centre for Linguistic Theory and Studies in Probability at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Visiting Professor in the Cognitive Science Group in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London, UK. He is co-editor, with Alexander Clark and Chris Fox, of
The Handbook of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing (Wiley Blackwell, 2010), co-author, with Alexander Clark, of
Linguistic Nativism and the Poverty of the Stimulus (Wiley Blackwell, 2011), and co-author of
Foundations of Intensional Semantics (with Chris Fox, Blackwell, 2005).
Chris Fox is a Reader in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, UK. He is the author of
The Ontology of Language (2000) and co-author of
Foundations of Intensional Semantics (with Shalom Lappin, Blackwell, 2005).
