Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics

List of figures and tables viii Preface x 1 Studying meaning 1(23) Overview 1(3) 1.1 Pragmatics distinguished from semantics 4(5) 1.2 Types of meaning 9(6) 1.3 Semantics 15(6) Summary 21(1) Exercises 22(1) Recommendations for reading 23(1) Notes 23(1) 2 Adjective meanings 24(17) Overview 24(1) 2.1 Using language to give the meanings of words 24(1) 2.2 Sense relations relevant to adjectives 25(9) 2.3 Constructions with adjectives 34(4) Summary 38(1) Exercises 38(2) Recommendations for reading 40(1) Notes 40(1) 3 Noun vocabulary 41(18) Overview 41(1) 3.1 The has-relation 41(5) 3.2 Hyponymy 46(6) 3.3 Incompatibility 52(2) 3.4 Count nouns and mass nouns 54(2) Summary 56(1) Exercises 57(1) Recommendations for reading 58(1) Notes 58(1) 4 Verbs and situations 59(19) Overview 59(1) 4.1 Causatives 60(6) 4.2 Situation types 66(9) Summary 75(1) Exercises 75(1) Recommendations for reading 76(1) Notes 76(2) 5 Figurative language 78(15) Overview 78(1) 5.1 Literal and figurative usage 79(3) 5.2 Irony, presuppositions and metonymy 82(4) 5.3 Metaphor 86(4) Summary 90(1) Exercises 90(1) Recommendations for reading 91(1) Notes 91(2) 6 Tense and aspect 93(17) Overview 93(3) 6.1 Tense 96(4) 6.2 Aspect 100(7) Summary 107(1) Exercises 108(1) Recommendations for reading 109(1) Notes 109(1) 7 Modality; scope and quantification 110(22) Overview 110(1) 7.1 Modality 111(10) 7.2 Relative scope 121(2) 7.3 Quantification 123(6) Summary 129(1) Exercises 129(1) Recommendations for reading 130(1) Notes 131(1) 8 Pragmatics 132(25) Overview 132(2) 8.1 Conversational implicature 134(9) 8.2 Presuppositions 143(5) 8.3 Speech acts 148(5) Summary 153(1) Exercises 153(2) Recommendations for reading 155(1) Notes 155(2) 9 Connecting utterances to the background 157(15) Overview 157(1) 9.1 Definiteness 158(2) 9.2 Clefts and passives 160(7) 9.3 Focal stress 167(2) Summary 169(1) Exercises 170(1) Recommendations for reading 171(1) Notes 171(1) Suggested answers to the exercises 172(14) Bibliography 186(3) Index 189