{"id":75,"date":"2008-10-28T13:06:47","date_gmt":"2008-10-28T11:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=75"},"modified":"2008-10-29T17:49:16","modified_gmt":"2008-10-29T15:49:16","slug":"numerous-meanings-the-meaning-of-english-cardinals-and-the-legacy-of-paul-grice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=75","title":{"rendered":"Numerous meanings: The meaning of English cardinals and the legacy of Paul Grice."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" \/><meta name=\"ProgId\" content=\"Word.Document\" \/><meta name=\"Generator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 11\" \/><meta name=\"Originator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 11\" \/>\n<link href=\"file:\/\/\/C:%5CDOKUME%7E1%5CLOCALU%7E1%5CLOKALE%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml\" rel=\"File-List\" \/><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"PlaceType\"><\/o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"PlaceName\"><\/o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"City\"><\/o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"place\"><\/o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>  <w:WordDocument>   <w:View>Normal<\/w:View>   <w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom>   <w:HyphenationZone>21<\/w:HyphenationZone>   <w:PunctuationKerning\/>   <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas\/>   <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false<\/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>   <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false<\/w:IgnoreMixedContent>   <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false<\/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>   <w:Compatibility>    <w:BreakWrappedTables\/>    <w:SnapToGridInCell\/>    <w:WrapTextWithPunct\/>    <w:UseAsianBreakRules\/>    <w:DontGrowAutofit\/>   <\/w:Compatibility>   <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4<\/w:BrowserLevel>  <\/w:WordDocument> <\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>  <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState=\"false\" LatentStyleCount=\"156\">  <\/w:LatentStyles> <\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object  classid=\"clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D\" id=ieooui><\/object>\n\n\n<style> st1\\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } <\/style>\n\n <![endif]--><\/p>\n<style><!--  \/* Font Definitions *\/  @font-face \t{font-family:\"MS Mincho\"; \tpanose-1:2 2 6 9 4 2 5 8 3 4; \tmso-font-alt:\"\uff2d\uff33 \u660e\u671d\"; \tmso-font-charset:128; \tmso-generic-font-family:roman; \tmso-font-format:other; \tmso-font-pitch:fixed; \tmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;} @font-face \t{font-family:\"\\@MS Mincho\"; \tpanose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; \tmso-font-charset:128; \tmso-generic-font-family:roman; \tmso-font-format:other; \tmso-font-pitch:fixed; \tmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}  \/* Style Definitions *\/  p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal \t{mso-style-parent:\"\"; \tmargin:0cm; \tmargin-bottom:.0001pt; \tmso-pagination:widow-orphan; \tfont-size:12.0pt; \tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\"; \tmso-fareast-font-family:\"MS Mincho\"; \tmso-ansi-language:EN-AU; \tmso-fareast-language:JA;} @page Section1 \t{size:612.0pt 792.0pt; \tmargin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt; \tmso-header-margin:36.0pt; \tmso-footer-margin:36.0pt; \tmso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 \t{page:Section1;} -->\u00a0<\/style>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">Numerous meanings: <\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">The meaning of English cardinals and the legacy of Paul Grice.<strong> <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">By <strong>Bert Bultinck<\/strong>. <st1:city w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Oxford<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>: Elsevier, 2005. Pp. 327. ISBN <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/isbn\/0080445578\">0080445578<\/a>. $99.95.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 6pt 0cm 18pt; text-align: right; line-height: 150%\" align=\"right\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">Reviewed by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.griffith.edu.au\/arts-languages-criminology\/school-languages-linguistics\/staff\/dr-michael-haugh\"><strong>Michael Haugh<\/strong><\/a>, <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:placename w:st=\"on\"><em>Griffith<\/em><\/st1:placename><em> <st1:placetype w:st=\"on\">University<\/st1:placetype><\/em><\/st1:place><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">The issue of what English cardinal numbers mean may seem at first glance a fairly specialized topic, but as Bert Bultinck comprehensively demonstrates in his study, resolving this issue has significant implications not only for theorizing about the interface between semantics and pragmatics, but also for the methodological stance that underpins much theorizing in the field of pragmatics. <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\"><o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">The book consists of six chapters. Ch. 1, \u2018Introduction\u2019 (1\u20133), contains a very brief statement of the primary focus of B\u2019s study, while Ch. 6, \u2018Conclusion\u2019 (303\u201310), gives a succinct overview of the main findings of his study. The bulk of the content of this book thus lies in the intervening four chapters.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\"><o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">Ch. 2, \u2018The Gricean theory of implicature\u2019 (5\u201359), is a general discussion of the theory of implicature proposed by H. Paul Grice and subsequent modifications of it by neo-Griceans and relevance theorists. The focus here is on a particular type of implicature, namely generalized conversational implicature, and its relationship to the logical meaning of expressions. B concludes that conventional meaning should be identified with \u2018familiar meaning\u2019 by examining the frequency of different senses in corpora, a theme that is crucial to this study.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\"><o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">In Ch. 3, \u2018Three decades of Gricean numerals\u2019 (61\u2013101), B focuses on the literature associated with the arguments for and against the Gricean view of cardinals. Alternatives to the Gricean approach are also found to be inadequate by B, who thus introduces an \u2018absolute value\u2019 approach to cardinals, which is further elaborated upon in the following two chapters.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\"><o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">Ch. 4, \u2018General corpus analysis of the forms and functions of English cardinals\u2019 (103\u201366), constitutes a corpus-based analysis of the different syntactic characteristics and functions of cardinals. The forms and functions of \u2018two\u2019 are taken to be representative of other cardinals, although \u2018zero\u2019 is considered to be an exceptional case, and so is given a separate treatment in the last section of the chapter. This analysis shows that while numbers can be used to specify cardinality, there are other uses such as in mathematical calculations and time expressions, among other things. There is, however, a correlation to be found between adnominal uses of numerals and cardinality, according to B\u2019s analysis.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\"><o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">In Ch. 5, \u2018 \u201cAt least n\u201d, \u201cexactly n\u201d, \u201cat most n\u201d and \u201cabsolute value\u201d readings\u2019 (167\u2013302), B finally tackles the question of what constitutes the \u2018coded\u2019 meaning of cardinals. While one of the key findings of this corpus-based analysis is that cardinals actually have numerous meanings, B argues that the \u2018absolute value\u2019 (i.e. with no modal commitment) is the most frequent meaning to be found in the corpus and thus is the conventional (or \u2018coded\u2019) meaning of cardinals. While the \u2018exactly n\u2019 interpretation is also quite common, it is argued by B that this arises due to the influence of restrictors and definiteness on the \u2018absolute value\u2019. The \u2018at least\u2019 and \u2018at most\u2019 readings of cardinals are found to be much less frequent, arising from extralinguistic material in the cotext (and occasionally the context).<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\"><o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\">B\u2019s study shows that the Gricean\/neo-Gricean view of cardinals is problematic in light of an analysis of the actual usage of numerals. More importantly, however, B demonstrates that a corpus-based analysis has considerable value in furthering our understanding of the meaning of lexical items that appear to lie at the crossroads of semantics and pragmatics.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"line-height: 150%\"><span style=\"font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial\" lang=\"EN-US\"><o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Numerous meanings: The meaning of English cardinals and the legacy of Paul Grice. By Bert Bultinck. Oxford: Elsevier, 2005. Pp. 327. ISBN 0080445578. $99.95. Reviewed by Michael Haugh, Griffith University The issue of what English cardinal numbers mean may seem at first glance a fairly specialized topic, but as Bert Bultinck comprehensively demonstrates in his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}