Publishing Partner: Cambridge University Press CUP Extra Publisher Login
amazon logo
More Info


New from Cambridge University Press!

ad

The Structural Design of Language

By Thomas S. Stroik, Michael T. Putnam

In this book, Stroik and Putnam take on Turing's challenge. They argue that the narrow syntax – the lexicon, the Numeration, and the computational system – must reside, for reasons of conceptual necessity, within the performance systems.


Book Information

   

Title: The Limits to Debate
Subtitle: A Revised Theory of Semantic Presupposition
Written By: Noel Burton-Roberts
Series Title: Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 51
Description:

Exponents and critics of semantic presupposition have almost invariably based their discussion on the (’Standard’) definition of presupposition implied by Frege and Strawson. In this study Noel Burton-Roberts argues convincingly against this definition, that leads it to a three-valued semantics. He presents a very simple semantic definition which is weaker, more general and leads to a semantics more easily interpreted as two-valued with gaps. The author shows that a wide range of intuitive facts that eluded the Standard definition follow directly from this (’Revised’) definition itself: facts about the presuppositions of compound sentences and modal sentences, about presuppositional conflict and about differences in the logical status of simple sentences suffering from presupposition failure. The book includes a detailed argument that an ambiguity of natural language negation, generally assumed to be necessary to the defence of semantic presupposition, is neither possible nor necessary in a presuppositional semantics. Noel Burton-Roberts has made an authoritative contribution to a debate which has involved philosophers and linguists for many years. His command of the issues, his clarity of exposition and his theoretical insight may well serve to change the boundaries of that debate.

Publication Year: 2009
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Review: Become a Reviewer
BibTex: View BibTex record
Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories
Semantics

Versions:
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 052110193X
ISBN-13: 9780521101936
Prices: U.K. £ 19.99
U.S. $ 36.99