Cruse D.A. Lexical Semantics

Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. — 321 p. — (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics).Lexical Semantics is about the meaning of words. Although obviously a central concern of linguistics, the semantic behaviour of words has been unduly neglected in the current literature, which has tended to emphasize sentential semantics and its relation to formal systems of logic. In this textbook D. A. Cruse establishes in a principled and disciplined way the descriptive and generalizable facts about lexical relations that any formal theory of semantics will have to encompass. Among the topics covered in depth are idiomaticity, lexical ambiguity, synonymy, hierarchical relations such as hyponymy and meronymy, and various types of oppositeness. Syntagmatic relations are also treated in some detail. The discussions are richly illustrated by examples drawn almost entirely from English. Although a familiarity with traditional grammar is assumed, readers with no technical linguistic background will find the exposition always accessible. All readers with an interest in semantics will find in this original text not only essential background but a stimulating new perspective on the field.A contextual approach to lexical semantics
Introductory
Meaning and grammar
The data of semantics
Disciplining intuitions
The meaning of a word
Notes
The syntagmatic delimitation of lexical units
Introductory
Semantic constituents
Semantic constituents which fail the test
Indicators, tallies and categor'isers
Phonetic elicitors of semantic traits
Words
Idioms
Degrees of opacity
Idioms and collocations
Idiom and 'dead' metaphor
Notes
The paradigmatic and syntactic delimitation of
lexical units
Introductory
Selection and modulation of senses
Indirect' tests for ambiguity
Direct criteria for ambiguity
Some difficult cases
Non-lexical sources of ambiguity
Establishment of senses
Sense-spectra
Syntactic delimitation
Lexemes
Notes
Introducing lexical relations
Preliminaries
Congruence
Cognitive synonymy
Hyponymy
Compatibility
Incompatibility
Congruence variants
Partial relations
Quasi-r elations
Pseudo-relations
Para-relations
Syntagmatic relations of meaning between lexical units
Notes
Lexical configurations
Introductory
Hierarchies
Proportional series
Notes
Taxonomies
Hyponymy and incompatibility
Taxonymy
Characteristics of natural taxonomies
Over-specification, under-specification and the generic level
Notes
Meronomies
Introductory: parmts and pieces
Defining rneronym
Aspects of transitivity: integral parts and attachments
Characteristics of meronomies
Close relatives of the part-whole relation
Meronomies and taxonomies
Non- branching hierarchies
Introductory
From branching to non-branching
Chains, helices and cycles
Ranks, grades and degrees
Opposites I: complementaries and antonyms
Oppositeness
Complementaries
Sub-classes of antonyms
Inherentness
Implicit superlatives
Stative verbs
Contrastive aspects
Opposites 11: directional oppositions
Directional opposites
Directions
Antipodals
Counterparts
Reversives
Relational opposites : converses
Indirect converses
Congruence variants and pseudo-opposites
Notes
Opposites : general questions
Impartiality
Polarity
Linguistic polarity and natural polarity
Logical polarityNeutralisation and semantic markedness
The nature of opposition
What makes a 'good' opposition?
Notes
Synonymy
Absolute synonyms and the scale of synonymity
Cognitive synonyms
Plesionyms
Congruence relations and synonymy
'Absolute', 'cognitive' and 'plesio-' relations outside
synonymy
Notes
Subject index
Author index