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Last update:
8 February 2010

© John Benjamins
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Drawing the Boundaries of Meaning

Neo-Gricean studies in pragmatics and semantics in honor of Laurence R. Horn

Edited by Betty J. Birner and Gregory Ward
Northern Illinois University / Northwestern University

2006. xii, 350 pp.
Publishing status: Available

HardboundIn stock
978 90 272 3090 4 / EUR 125.00 / USD 188.00
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e-BookAvailable from e-book platforms
978 90 272 9305 3 / EUR 125.00 / USD 188.00
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One of the most lively and contentious issues in contemporary linguistic theory concerns the elusive boundary between semantics and pragmatics, and Professor Laurence R. Horn of Yale University has been at the center of that debate ever since his groundbreaking 1972 UCLA dissertation. This volume in honor of Horn brings together the best of current work at the semantics/pragmatics boundary from a neo-Gricean perspective. Featuring the contributions of 22 leading researchers, it includes papers on implicature (Kent Bach), inference (Betty Birner), presupposition (Barbara Abbott), lexical semantics (Georgia Green, Sally McConnell-Ginet, Steve Kleinedler & Randall Eggert), negation (Pauline Jacobson, Frederick Newmeyer, Scott Schwenter), polarity (Donka Farkas, Anastasia Giannakidou, Michael Israel), implicit variables (Greg Carlson & Gianluca Storto), definiteness (Barbara Partee), reference (Ellen Prince, Andrew Kehler & Gregory Ward), and logic (Jerrold Sadock, Francis Jeffry Pelletier & Andrew Hartline). These original papers represent not only a fitting homage to Larry Horn, but also an important contribution to semantic and pragmatic theory.


Table of contents

Introduction
ix–xi
Where have some of the presuppositions gone?
Barbara Abbott
1–20
The top 10 misconceptions about implicature
Kent Bach
21–30
Inferential relations and noncanonical word order
Betty J. Birner
31–51
Sherlock Holmes Was In No Danger
Greg N. Carlson and Gianluca Storto
53–70
Free choice in Romanian
Donka F. Farkas
71–94
Polarity, questions, and the scalar properties of even
Anastasia Giannakidou
95–116
Discourse particles and the symbiosis of natural language processing and basic research
Georgia M. Green
117–135
Saying less and meaning less
Michael Israel
137–156
I can’t seem to figure this out
Pauline Jacobson
157–175
Referring expressions and conversational implicature
Andrew Kehler and Gregory Ward
177–193
Indexi-lexicography
Steve Kleinedler and Randall Eggert
195–215
Why defining is seldom ‘just semantics’: Marriage and marriage
Sally McConnell-Ginet
217–240
Negation and modularity
Frederick J. Newmeyer
241–261
A note on Mandarin possessives, demonstratives, and definiteness
Barbara H. Partee
263–280
On a homework problem of Larry Horn’s
Francis Jeffry Pelletier and Andrew Hartline
281–293
Impersonal pronouns in French and Yiddish: Semantic reference vs. discourse reference
Ellen F. Prince
295–315
Motors and switches: An exercise in syntax and pragmatics
Jerrold M. Sadock
317–325
Fine-tuning Jespersen’s Cycle
Scott A. Schwenter
327–344
Index
345–350


The very high quality of the papers in this volume and its widecoverage give a representative sample of current research in the fieldsof pragmatics and semantics, and will be of interest for researchers ofdifferent persuasions. Its qualities mirror the open-mindedness,creativity, and intellectual curiosity of the exceptional scholar it isdedicated to.
Brenda Laca, Université Paris 8 and CNRS-UMR 7023, on Linguist List 18.2280, 2007