Wierzbicka, Anna (1988). The semantics of grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.18
Abstract:
This book presents a radically semantic approach to syntax and morphology. It offers a methodology that makes it possible to demonstrate, on an empirical basis, that syntax is neither autonomous nor arbitrary, but that it follows from semantics. It is shown that every grammatical construction encodes a certain semantic structure, which can be revealed and rigorously stated, so that the meanings encoded in grammar can be compared in a precise and illuminating way, within one language and across language boundaries. The author develops a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals or near-universals (and, ultimately, on a system of universal semantic primes) and shows that the same semantic metalanguage can be used for explicating lexical, grammatical and pragmatic aspects of language. She thus offers a method for an integrated linguistic description based on semantic foundations.
Analysing data from a number of different languages, the author also explores the notion of ethnosyntax and, via semantics, links syntax and morphology with culture. She demonstrates that the use of a semantic metalanguage based on lexical universals makes it possible to rephrase the Humboldt-Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in such a way that it can be tested and treated as a program for empirical research.
Table of contents:
I. The semantics of syntax
1. The semantics of English complementation in a cross-linguistic perspective
2. Ethno-syntax and the philosophy of grammar
3. The semantics of causative constructions in a cross-linguistic perspective
4. The Japanese ‘adversative’ passive in a typological context (Are grammatical categories vague or multiply polysemous?)
5. Why can you have a drink when you can’t *have an eat?
6. The semantics of ‘internal dative’ in English
II. The semantics of morphology
7. The meaning of a case: a study of the Polish dative
8. The semantics of case marking
9. What’s in a noun? (Or: How do nouns differ in meaning from adjectives?)
10. Oats and wheat: mass nouns, iconicity, and human categorization
More information:
Chapter 2 builds on: Ethno-syntax and the philosophy of grammar (1979)
Chapter 4 builds on: Are grammatical categories vague or polysemous? The Japanese ‘adversative’ passive in a typological context (1979)
Chapter 5 builds on: Why can you have a drink when you can’t *have an eat? (1982)
Chapter 6 builds on: The semantics of ‘internal dative’ in English (1986)
Chapter 7 builds on: The meaning of a case: A study of the Polish dative (1986)
Chapter 8 builds on: The semantics of case marking (1983)
Chapter 9 builds on: What’s in a noun? (Or: How do nouns differ in meaning from adjectives?) (1986)
Chapter 10 builds on: Oats and wheat: The fallacy of arbitrariness (1985)
Rating:
Research carried out by one or more experienced NSM practitioners
Tags listed below are in addition to those listed at the end of the entries for the earlier work on which this book builds.
