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Iceberg semantics is a new framework of Boolean semantics for mass nouns and count nouns in which the interpretation of a noun phrase rises up from a generating base and floats with its base on its Boolean part set, like an iceberg. The framework is shown to preserve the attractive features of classical Boolean semantics for count nouns; the book argues that Iceberg semantics forms a much better framework for studying mass nouns than the classical theory does.
Iceberg semantics uses its notion of base to develop a semantic theory of the differences between mass nouns and count nouns and between different types of mass nouns, in particular between prototypical mass nouns (here called mess mass nouns) like water and mud versus object mass nouns (here called neat mass nouns) like poultry and pottery. The book shows in detail how and why neat mass nouns pattern semantically both with mess mass nouns and with count nouns.
Iceberg semantics is a compositional theory and in Iceberg semantics the semantic distinctions defined apply to noun phrases of any complexity. The book studies in depth the semantics of classifier noun phrases (like three glasses of wine) and measure noun phrases (like three liters of wine). The classical wisdom is that classifier interpretations are count. Recent literature has argued compellingly that measure interpretations are mass. The book shows that both connections follow from the basic architecture of Iceberg semantics.
Audience: Scholars and students in linguistics - in particular semantics, pragmatics, computational linguistics and syntax - and neighbouring disciplines like logic, philosophy of language, and cognitive science.
List of contents
Introduction.- Lecture one: Mountains and Icebergs.- Lecture two: Basic Iceberg Semantics.- Lecture three: Iceberg Semantics for Modifiers.- Lecture four: Classifiers and Measures.- Lecture five: Iceberg Semantics for Classifiers and Measures.- Lecture six: Iceberg Semantics for Mass Nouns.- Lecture seven: Neat Mass Nouns.- Lecture eight: Iceberg Semantics for Partitives and Fission Shift.- Lecture nine: Notes on Abstract Mass Nouns.
About the author
Fred Landman is Professor of Semantics in the Linguistics Department at Tel Aviv University.
He received his Ph.D. at the University of Amsterdam. He was Associate Professor of Semantics at Cornell University before moving to Tel Aviv. He is the recipient of a Humboldt Foundation Research Award.
Landman has published many articles on a wide range of topics in semantics, including well known articles on groups and plurality, polarity sensitive any, the progressive, the adjectival theory of indefinites, and the mass-count distinction. He is the author of four previous books: Towards a Theory of Information, Structures for Semantics, Events and Plurality, and Indefinites and the Type of Sets.
