What It All Means: Semantics for (Almost) Everything

Description

How meaning works—from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music—and how meaning is connected to truth. We communicate through language, connecting what we mean to the words we say. But humans convey meaning in other ways as well, with facial expressions, hand gestures, and other methods. Animals, too, can get their meanings across without words. In What It All Means, linguist Philippe Schlenker explains how meaning works, from monkey calls to human language, from spoken language to sign language, from gestures to music. He shows that these extraordinarily diverse types of meaning can be studied and compared within a unified approach—one in which the notion of truth plays a central role. “It's just semantics” is often said dismissively. But Schlenker shows that semantics—the study of meaning—is an unsung success of modern linguistics, a way to investigate some of the deepest questions about human nature using tools from the empirical and formal sciences. Drawing on fifty years of research in formal semantics, Schlenker traces how meaning comes to life. After investigating meaning in primate communication, he explores how human meanings are built, using in some cases sign languages as a guide to the workings of our inner “logic machine.” Schlenker explores how these meanings can be enriched by iconicity in sign language and by gestures in spoken language, and then turns to more abstract forms of iconicity to understand the meaning of music. He concludes by examining paradoxes, which—being neither true nor false—test the very limits of meaning. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Our Inner Meaning Machine What Is Semantics? The Road Ahead A Note on References, Terminology, and Audiovisual Examples How to Read This Book Prologue: Primate Meanings 1 Meaning in the Wild 1.1 A Snake Encounter in Uganda 1.2 Our Primate Cousins 1.3 Semantics: Vervet and Diana Calls 1.4 Elusive Syntax: Titi Calls 1.5 Pragmatics: The Informativity Principle 1.6 Putting It All Together: Campbell’s Calls 1.7 Bilingualism in the Wild 1.8 Call Evolution 1.9 Ape Communication: Calls 1.10 Ape Communication: Gestures 1.11 Conclusion I: THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF MEANING 2 Visible Logic: Sign Language and Pronouns 2.1 Sign Languages in History 2.2 Sign versus Spoken Languages 2.3 Pronouns as Logical Variables 2.4 Iconicity 2.5 Iconic Variables: A First Look 2.6 Iconic Variables: Iconicity in Action 2.7 Plural Pronouns 2.8 Conclusion 3 Me, Me, Me! Perspectives in Language 3.1 The First-Person Perspective 3.2 Perspectival Thoughts and Indexicals 3.3 Thought Reports and Logophoric Pronouns 3.4 The Perspectival Nature of the English Infinitive 3.5 The English First Person 3.6 Context Shift: The First-Person in Zazaki and Amharic 3.7 Visible Context Shift in Sign Language 3.8 Conclusion 4 Nouns and Verbs: Objects and Events 4.1 Singular, Plural, Mass 4.2 Making It Visible: Repetitions in Sign Language 4.3 Grammar Meets Iconicity 4.4 The Noun/Verb Analogy: Plurals versus Pluractionals 4.5 Count/Mass versus Telic/Atelic 4.6 Adjectives and Adverbs 4.7 Conclusion 5 Beyond the Here and Now I: From Objects to Situations 5.1 Situations 5.2 Tenses as Pronouns 5.3 Moods as Pronouns 5.4 Temporal Pronouns in Sign Language 5.5 Modal Pronouns in Sign Language 5.6 Conclusion 6 Beyond the Here and Now II: Describing and Classifying Objects and Situations 6.1 Puzzles with If 6.2 Definite Descriptions of Objects: The Meaning of The 6.3 Definite Descriptions of Situations: The Meaning of When and If 6.4 Classifying by Proximity: Objects 6.5 Classifying by Proximity: Temporal Situations 6.6 Classifying by Proximity: Modal Situations 6.7 Conclusion II: USING MEANING 7 Logic Machine I: Predicate Logic 7.1 Formal versus Natural Languages 7.2 The Syntax of Predicate Logic: Getting Rid of Ambiguities 7.3 The Semantics of Predicate Logic: Adding Meaning 7.4 Conclusion 8 Logic Machine II: English as a Formal Language 8.1 English as a Formal Language: Syntax 8.2 English as a Formal Language: Semantics 8.3 Explaining Structural Ambiguities 8.4 Using Structural Ambiguities 8.5 Conclusion 9 Logic Machine III: The Expressive Power of Human Language 9.1 English Is More Expressive than Predicate Logic 9.2 Extending the Logical Approach to English 9.3 Logical Form in Hungarian 9.4 Logical Form in English 9.5 The Dynamic Logic of Language 9.6 Logic in Grammar 9.7 Conclusion 10 Not Quite Saying It: Focus and Implicatures 10.1 What Is Said and What Isn’t 10.2 Moore’s Paradox 10.3 The Form and Meaning of Focus 10.4 Focus in Public Communication 10.5 Scalar Implicatures 10.6 Negative-like Environments 10.7 When Children Are More ‘Logical’ than Adults 10.8 Implicatures Take Time 10.9 Misleading with Implicatures 10.10 Conclusion 11 Not at Issue: Presuppositions, Supplements, and Expressives 11.1 What Presuppositions Are 11.2 Weak and Strong Presuppositions 11.3 Presuppositions and Linguistic Context 11.4 Supplements 11.5 Expressives 11.6 Conclusion III: EXTENDING MEANING 12 Iconicity Revisited: Sign with Iconicity versus Speech with Gestures 12.1 The Importance of Gestures 12.2 Iconic Modulations 12.3 Co-speech Gestures Trigger Presuppositions 12.4 Post-Speech Gestures Trigger Supplements 12.5 Pro-Speech Gestures Can Be at Issue . . . but They Are Not Words 12.6 Conclusion 13 Grammar in Gestures 13.1 Homesigners 13.2 Gestural Grammar: Pointing and Agreement Verbs 13.3 Gestural Grammar: Nouns 13.4 Gestural Grammar: Verbs 13.5 Gestural Grammar: Context Shift 13.6 Conclusion 14 Meaning in Gestures 14.1 The Inferential Typology of Language 14.2 Gestural Supplements 14.3 Gestural Implicatures 14.4 Gestural Presuppositions 14.5 Gestural Expressives 14.6 From Gestures to Visual Animations 14.7 Conclusion 15 Meaning in Music 15.1 The Metamorphoses of a Sunrise 15.2 Meaning in Music—Really? 15.3 Bernstein’s Challenge 15.4 From Sound to Music 15.5 Revisiting Strauss’s Sunrise 15.6 Musical Inferences from Normal Auditory Cognition I: Frequency 15.7 Musical Inferences from Normal Auditory Cognition II: Loudness and Speed 15.8 Musical Inferences from Harmony 15.9 Musical Truth 15.10 Emotions 15.11 Conclusion EPILOGUE: THE LIMITS OF TRUTH 16 The Limits of Truth I: The Riddle of Paradoxes 16.1 Liars 16.2 Tarski’s Challenge 16.3 Varieties of Paradoxes 16.4 Why Are There Paradoxes? 16.5 Beyond Truth and Falsity 16.6 Truth-Tellers 16.7 Empirical Liars 16.8 Conclusion 17 The Limits of Truth II: Solving the Riddle of Paradoxes 17.1 The Challenge 17.2 What Is the Meaning of ‘True’? 17.3 Constructing the Meaning of ‘True’ 17.4 Ungrounded Statements: Liars versus Truth-Tellers 17.5 Does the Third Truth Value Really Matter? 17.6 Hidden Self-Reference: Berry’s Paradox 17.7 Anselm’s Argument 17.8 The Liar’s Revenge 17.9 Conclusion Appendix I: Illustrating Kripke’s Construction Appendix II: Berry’s Paradox and Anselm’s Argument Conclusion The Diversity of Meaning Operations in Nature The Importance of Sign Languages Varieties of Iconic Enrichments Beyond Language The Scientific Humanities Appendix: Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax in Speech and in Sign Glossary Going Further On Language in General Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Conclusion Appendix Notes Introduction Chapter 1: Meaning in the Wild Chapter 2: Visible Logic: Sign Language and Pronouns Chapter 3: Me, me, me! Perspectives in Language Chapter 4: Nouns and Verbs: Objects and Events Chapter 5: Beyond the Here and Now I: From Objects to Situations Chapter 6: Beyond the Here and Now II: Describing and Classifying Objects and Situations Chapter 7: Logic Machine I: Predicate Logic Chapter 8: Logic Machine II: English as a Formal Language Chapter 9: Logic Machine III: The Expressive Power of Human Language Chapter 10: Not Quite Saying It: Focus and Implicatures Chapter 11: Not at Issue: Presuppositions, Supplements, and Expressives Chapter 12: Iconicity Revisited: Sign with Iconicity versus Speech with Gestures Chapter 13: Grammar in Gestures Chapter 14: Meaning in Gestures Chapter 15: Meaning in Music Chapter 16: The Limits of Truth I: The Riddle of Paradoxes Chapter 17: The Limits of Truth II: Solving the Riddle of Paradoxes Conclusion Appendix: Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax in Speech and in Sign Illustration Sources Index