Linguistic Meaning Meets Linguistic Form

Abstract

This book steers a middle course between two opposing conceptions that currently dominate the field of semantics, the logical and cognitive approaches. It brings to light the inadequacies of both frameworks, and argues along with the Columbia School that linguistic semantics must be grounded on the linguistic sign itself and the meaning it conveys across the full range of its uses. The book offers 12 case studies demonstrating the explanatory power of a sign-based semantics, dealing with topics such as complementation with aspectual and causative verbs, control and raising, wh- words, full-verb inversion, and existential-there constructions. It calls for a radical revision of the semantics/pragmatics interface, proposing that the dividing-line be drawn between semiologically-signified notional content (i.e. what is linguistically encoded) and non-semiologically-signified notional content (i.e. what is not encoded but still communicated). This highlights a dimension of embodiment that concerns the basic design architecture of human language itself: the ineludable fact that the fundamental relation on which language is based is the association between a mind-engendered meaning and a bodily produced sign. It is argued that linguistic analysis often disregards this fact and treats meaning on the level of the sentence or the construction, rather than on that of the lower-level linguistic items where the linguistic sign is stored in a stable, permanent, and direct relation with its meaning outside of any particular context. Building linguistic analysis up from the ground level provides it with a more solid foundation and increases its explanatory power.