{"id":1027,"date":"2010-08-17T22:00:29","date_gmt":"2010-08-17T20:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2010-08-09T10:56:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-09T08:56:54","slug":"default-semantics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=1027","title":{"rendered":"Default semantics"},"content":{"rendered":"
Default semantics:<\/strong> Foundations of a compositional theory of acts of communication. By K. M. Jaszczolt<\/strong>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. 279. ISBN 0199261989<\/a>. $49.95.<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Michael Haugh<\/strong><\/a>, Griffith University<\/em><\/p>\n

The issue of how we understand what speakers mean when communicating is central to the field of pragmatics, but has increasingly been adopted as also being crucial to the field of semantics. In this volume, Jaszczolt argues that insights from truth-conditional pragmatics should be combined with discourse representation theory to yield an account of meaning as constituting dynamic, compositional, and truth-conditional merger representations of word meaning, sentence structure (semantic information), default meanings, and conscious inference (pragmatic information).<\/p>\n

The book is divided into two main parts.\u00a0 Part 1, \u2018Foundations\u2019, consists of three chapters that outline J\u2019s theory of default semantics. In Ch. 1, \u2018Meaning representation: Setting the scene\u2019 (3\u2013 39), J argues that the various levels of meaning representation proposed in semantics and pragmatics can be superseded by a single level of \u2018merger representation\u2019. Ch. 2, \u2018Default meanings\u2019 (40\u201369), then outlines previous approaches to the place of defaults in communicating meaning, before introducing J\u2019s important distinction between \u2018cognitive defaults\u2019 and \u2018sociocultural defaults\u2019. In Ch. 3, \u2018Compositionality and merger representations\u2019 (70\u2013102), J goes on to outline another core proposal in her theory of default semantics, namely, that compositionality is best understood at the level of (dynamic) merger representations.<\/p>\n

In Part 2, \u2018Some applications\u2019, the theory of default semantics is applied to a number of semantic phenomena and expression in English. Chs. 4\u20136 focus on phenomena traditionally analyzed in semantics, while Chs. 7\u20139 discuss phenomena that have traditionally been of concern in pragmatics. Ch. 10, \u2018Concluding remarks and future prospects\u2019 (239\u201342), briefly summarizes the key features of default semantics and some of the possible limitations of such an approach.<\/p>\n

Ch. 4, \u2018Defaults for definite descriptions\u2019 (105\u201319), focuses on expressions involving the<\/em> + nominal that are used about objects. J moves from a discussion of previous approaches to definite descriptions to outlining how default semantics can be utilized in explicating referential and attributive interpretations. In Ch. 5, \u2018Default semantics for propositional attitude reports\u2019 (120\u201346), J focuses on how default semantics applies to the analysis of how speakers represent the state of mind of other people, in particular, belief reports involving expressions such as believe<\/em> and think<\/em>. Ch. 6, \u2018Futurity and English will\u2019 (147\u201386), goes on to discuss future tense\/aspect in English, with a particular focus on the use of the modal will<\/em>. It is proposed by J that time and modality are closely connected, so that the semantic category of temporality may be a misnomer.<\/p>\n

Ch. 7, \u2018Default semantics for presupposition as anaphora\u2019 (187\u2013204), builds on previous proposals that presuppositions be analyzed as anaphoric expressions rather than pragmatic phenomena, while Ch. 8, \u2018The myth of sentential connectives?\u2019 (205\u201321), argues that the apparent controversy surrounding sentential connectives such as and<\/em> in neo-Gricean and relevance theoretic pragmatics is based on the (misleading) assumption that such connectives form a natural category. Finally, in Ch. 9, \u2018Default semantics for number terms\u2019 (222\u201338), J outlines how default semantics produces a punctual \u2018exactly\u2019 semantics of number terms that obviates the complications of neo-Gricean approaches to cardinals.<\/p>\n

J\u2019s study contains important insights for researchers in the fields of semantics and pragmatics, and an interesting proposal for how many of the \u2018border disputes\u2019 between semantics and pragmatics might be resolved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Default semantics: Foundations of a compositional theory of acts of communication. By K. M. Jaszczolt. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. 279. ISBN 0199261989. $49.95. Reviewed by Michael Haugh, Griffith University The issue of how we understand what speakers mean when communicating is central to the field of pragmatics, but has increasingly been adopted as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1028,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}