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DANIEL WEDGWOOD - Shifting the Focus

Title: Shifting the Focus
Description: Elsevier, 2005. Hardcover. Pp: 311. How direct is the mapping between linguistic constructions and their interpretations? Much less direct than we commonly assume, according toDaniel Wedgwood. Extending current ideas from frameworks like Relevance Theory and Dynamic Syntax, Wedgwood upholds a radical position onmodelling linguistic competence: the idea of interfacing static syntactic and semantic representations must be abandoned in favour of models of the incremental construction of meaning during parsing-which may involve significant pragmatic enrichment. In illustration, Wedgwood presents a detailed study of a key meeting point of grammar and pragmatics: focus, in particular its syntactic expression in Hungarian. The result is astrikingly simple explanation of a complex set of syntactico-semantic phenomena, touching on information structure, negation, quantification andcomplex predication. For its clear and bold theoretical argumentation and its novel analysis of some notorious data, this book will be of interestto all linguists, philosophers and computational linguists concerned with the relationships between syntax, semantics, pragmatics and informationstructure."Wedgwood's book tackles two difficult tasks at once. It makes a radical contribution to debate about the basic form of linguistic theory and presents an impressively broad and deep example of specific linguistic analysis. This book will interest anyone concerned with the interrelations of structure and meaning in natural languages - whether on a philosophical level or via numerous concrete proposals on issues like the interaction of information structure with quantification and negation."Professor James R Hurford, University of Edinburgh, UK"A novel and radical dynamic perspective on language, with Hungarian as a case study. Anyone interested in how the web of syntax and semantics fit together with properties of general reasoning should not miss out on this book."Professor Ruth Kempson, King's College, London, UK- Broad theoretical perspective: offers a coherent overall picture of syntax, semantics and pragmatics - and how they inter-relate - Combines a bold new approach with the insights of existing theory- Thorough, novel analysis of linguistic phenomena that historically occupy an important place in the literature, as illustration of a carefully laid out theoretical position- Extends and integrates research from a variety of linguistic domains and frameworks - Comprehensive informal discussion as well as formalised analysis. ISBN: 9780080445779. Cond./Kwaliteit: Goed.

Keywords: 9780080445779

Price: EUR 24.50 = appr. US$ 26.63 Seller: De Slegte
- Book number: 2067368

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