What Do We Talk About When We Talk?
Speculative grammar and the semantics and pragmatics of focus
This monograph deals with the aboutness of language. First, the sense in which language is about or reflects both reality and a mental picture of reality is turned into a cornerstone of a reflectionist or Speculative Grammarian semantics and pragmatics. Second, the Speculative Grammar idea is made concrete in a logico-linguistic account of the way language is about the whole of reality as well as about certain fractions of it. Third, the reflectionist perspective is used for a universalist account of the way speech acts are about their subjects, topics, and foci.
[Pragmatics & Beyond, II:3] 1981. vi, 122 pp.
Publishing status:
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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0. Introduction | p. 1
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1. Speculative Grammar | p. 3
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1.0. Introduction
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1.1. Ontology
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1.2. Philosophy of mind
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1.3. Semantics versus pragmatics
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1.4. An objection and a truism
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2. Focus and logic | p. 35
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2.0. Introduction
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2.1. Logic and reflection
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2.2. Logic and focus
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3. Focus and subject-topic research | p. 67
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3.1. Introduction
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3.2. Focus and its linguistic reflection
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3.3. A-SF languages
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3.4. P-SF languages
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3.5. PF-SF languages
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3.6. General conclusion
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Footnotes | p. 103
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Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Sperber, Dan & Ira A. Noveck
2004. Introduction. In Experimental Pragmatics, ► pp. 1 ff. 
Swiggers, Pierre
1986. Semiotics in the Low Countries. In The Semiotic Sphere, ► pp. 343 ff.
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General