The Building Blocks of Meaning

Ideas for a philosophical grammar

Author

Michele Prandi | Bologna, Italy

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027223654 (Eur) | EUR 135.00

ISBN 9781588115263 (USA) | USD 203.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027295408 | EUR 135.00 | USD 203.00

The shaping of complex meanings depends on punctual and relational coding and inferencing. Coding is viewed as a vector which can run either from expression to content or from concepts to (linguistic) forms to mark independent conceptual relations. While coding relies on systematic resources internal to language, inferencing essentially depends on a layered system of autonomous shared conceptual structures, which include both cognitive models and consistency criteria grounded in a natural ontology. Inference guided by coding is not a residual pragmatic device but it is a direct way to long-term conceptual structures that guide the connection of meanings.

The interaction of linguistic forms and concepts is particularly clear in conceptual conflict where conflictual complex meanings provide insights into the roots of significance and the linguistic structure of metaphors.

Complementing a formal analysis of linguistic structures with a substantive analysis of conceptual structures, a philosophical grammar provides insights from both formal and functional approaches toward a more profound understanding of how language works in constructing and communicating complex meanings.

This monograph is ideally addressed to linguists, philosophers and psychologists interested in language as symbolic form and as an instrument of human action rooted in a complex conceptual and cognitive landscape.

[Human Cognitive Processing, 13] 2004. xviii, 521 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.13

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments | p. vii

Foreword: The Idea of Philosophical Grammar | p. ix

I. The Semiotic Background: Coding and Inferencing in the Ideation of Complex Meanings

Introduction

1. Meanings and Messages | p. 5

2. The Ideation of Complex Meanings: The Object of Philosophical Grammar | p. 33

3. At the Roots of Complex Meanings: The Object of Philosophical Grammar | p. 55

II. The Conceptual Factors of Significance: Consistency Criteria, Lexical Structures Cognitive Models and Data

Introduction

4. Consistency Criteria within Philosophic and Linguistic Reflexion | p. 103

5. The Formal Frame of Natural Ontology | p. 119

6. Lexical Structures and Lexical Information | p. 151

7. Lexical Structures, Lexical Information and Consistency Criteria | p. 203

8. Consistency Criteria as Presuppositions of Natural Attitude | p. 225

III. The Ideation of Complex Meanings: Simple Sentence, Interclausal Links, Conflictual Complex Meanings

Introduction

9. The Ideation of the Simple Process | p. 249

10. The Ideation of Interclausal Links | p. 281

11. Conflictual Complex Meanings: a Philosophical Grammar of Tropes | p. 345

12. Concluding Remarks | p. 405

Notes | p. 421

Index | p. 513

“Close scrutiny of this challenging book will pay rich dividends, since the work is full of subtle and original insights into the nature of language, far too complex to summarize in a short review. For example, the book contains intriguing observations on figures of speech, the semantic pragmatics distinction, the nature of communication, and many other areas of special interest to linguists and philosophers.”

Verena Haser, Universität Hamburg, Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft Band 27. Heft 1 (2008)

“In the thirteenth release of Benjamins' Human Cognitive Processing, Michele Prandi offers an indepth exploration of complex meanings. In the foreword, the idea of a philosophical grammar is introduced and programmatically described as the complementing interaction between grammar of conceptual structures. A study of this interaction allows for a deeper comprehension of how the linguistic system works so as to construct and to communicate complex meanings.”

Annalisa Baicchi, in Pragmatics 2007

Cited by

Cited by 33 other publications

Order by:

Arapinis, Alexandra

2015. Whole-for-part metonymy, classification, and grounding. Linguistics and Philosophy 38:1 ► pp. 1 ff.

Bernárdez, Enrique

2018. M. Prandi. Conceptual conflicts in metaphors and figurative language . Review of Cognitive Linguistics 16:2 ► pp. 528 ff.

Biagini, Francesca

2016. L’espressione della relazione concessiva fattuale in italiano e in russo. In Le lingue slave tra struttura e uso [Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici, 31], ► pp. 45 ff.

Biagini, Francesca, Anna Paola Bonola & Valentina Noseda

2019. Il corpus parallelo italiano-russo del NKRJa. Progetto di ampliamento, applicazioni e sviluppi. In Il mondo slavo e l’Europa [Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici, 43], ► pp. 35 ff.

Castagnoli, Sara

2016. Investigating trainee translators’ contrastive pragmalinguistic competence: a corpus-based analysis of interclausal linkage in learner translations. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 10:3 ► pp. 343 ff.

Fasciolo, Marco & Marie Lammert

2015. Connaissance directe et typologie nominale : comment les noms de couleurs et de bruits sont-ils définis ?. Travaux de linguistique n° 69:2 ► pp. 91 ff.

Fedriani, Chiara & Michele Prandi

2014. Exploring a diachronic (re)cycle of roles. Studies in Language 38:3 ► pp. 566 ff.

Fedriani, Chiara & Michele Prandi

2016. Exploring a diachronic (re)cycle of roles. In Advances in Research on Semantic Roles [Benjamins Current Topics, 88], ► pp. 133 ff.

Fradin, Bernard

2008. Réka Benczes, Creative compounding in English (=Human Cognitive Processing 19). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins, 2006. xvi + 206pp. ISBN 90-272-2373-4 (hardbound).. Word Structure 1:1 ► pp. 83 ff.

Gobbo, Federico

2012. Rassegna di Mambretti & Bracchi (2011): Dizionario etimologicoetnografico dei dialetti di Livigno e Trepalle DELT. Language Problems and Language Planning 36:2 ► pp. 183 ff.

Gross, Gaston

2012. Chapitre 12. Les actions. In Manuel d’analyse linguistique, ► pp. 253 ff.

Hackett, Paul M. W.

2021. Ontological Categorisation and Mereology. In Facet Theory and the Mapping Sentence, ► pp. 25 ff.

Insacco, Gioia

2017. Cicli lessicali nei nomi deverbali in "-mento" e "-zione". Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. Studia de Cultura 1:9 ► pp. 72 ff.

Landheer, Ronald

2002. La métaphore, une question de vie ou de mort ?. Semen :15

Novokhatko, Anna

2017. The linguistic treatment of metaphor in Quintilian. Pallas :103 ► pp. 311 ff.

Parodi, Giovanni & Gina Burdiles

2019. Los pronombres neutros ‘esto’, ‘eso’ y ‘aquello’ como mecanismos encapsuladores en el discurso de la economía. Spanish in Context 16:1 ► pp. 104 ff.

Parodi, Giovanni, Richard Evans, Le An Ha, Ruslan Mitkov, Cristóbal Jesus Julio Vergara & Raúl Ignacio Olivares-López

2022. A sequence labelling approach for automatic analysis of ello: tagging pronouns, antecedents, and connective phrases. Language Resources and Evaluation 56:1 ► pp. 139 ff.

PARODI, GIOVANNI, CRISTOBAL JULIO, LAURA NADAL, ADRIANA CRUZ & GINA BURDILES

2019. Stepping back to look ahead: neuter encapsulation and referent extension in counter-argumentative and causal relations in Spanish. Language and Cognition 11:3 ► pp. 431 ff.

Pecorari, Filippo

2015. La coesione testuale dei lanci di agenzia: uno studio delle anafore di ordine superiore. Revue Romane 50:1

Pecorari, Filippo

2015. La coesione testuale dei lanci di agenzia. Revue Romane. Langue et littérature. International Journal of Romance Languages and Literatures 50:2 ► pp. 222 ff.

Prandi, Michele

2006. L’ontologia naturale: uno sguardo da linguista. Rivista di estetica :32 ► pp. 177 ff.

Prandi, Michele

2010. Tipología de las metáforas: Implicaciones para la traducción. Mutatis Mutandis. Revista Latinoamericana de Traducción 3:2 ► pp. 304 ff.

Prandi, Michele

2012. A Plea for Living Metaphors: Conflictual Metaphors and Metaphorical Swarms. Metaphor and Symbol 27:2 ► pp. 148 ff.

Prandi, Michele

2016. Selection Restrictions as Ultimate Presuppositions of Natural Ontology. Topoi 35:1 ► pp. 73 ff.

Prandi, Michele

2023. De la dimension relationnelle du lexique à la syntaxe : une frontière à retracer. In Concert mondial de linguistique française, ► pp. 91 ff.

Rizzato, Ilaria

2021. Conceptual Conflicts in Metaphors and Pragmatic Strategies for Their Translation. Frontiers in Psychology 12

Rybarkiewicz, Dorota

2020. Dialetheism and Metaphor. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 62:1 ► pp. 95 ff.

Santulli, Francesca & Chiara Degano

2022. Agreement through Language. In Agreement in Argumentation [Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology, 31], ► pp. 49 ff.

Strik Lievers, Francesca

2015. Synaesthesia. Functions of Language 22:1 ► pp. 69 ff.

Strik Lievers, Francesca

2018. Synaesthesia and Other Figures. What the Senses Tell Us About Figurative Language. In Sensory Perceptions in Language, Embodiment and Epistemology [Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, 42], ► pp. 193 ff.

Strik Lievers, Francesca, Marianna Bolognesi & Bodo Winter

2021. The linguistic dimensions of concrete and abstract concepts: lexical category, morphological structure, countability, and etymology. Cognitive Linguistics 32:4 ► pp. 641 ff.

Trim, Richard

2018. Conceptual Conflicts in Metaphors and Figurative Language. Metaphor and Symbol 33:4 ► pp. 315 ff.

Visconti, Jacqueline

2006. The role of lexical semantics in semantic change. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 38:1 ► pp. 207 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 september 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects