Publications

Publication details [#3776]

Givón, Talmy. 1982. Logic vs. pragmatics, with human language as the referee: Toward an empirically viable epistemology. Journal of Pragmatics 6 : 81–133.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
context | context dependence | definite description | language change | lexical meaning | logic | meaning | presupposition | reference | topic
Journal WWW
www.sciencedirect.com/web-editions

Annotation

G. argues that the meaning system in natural language is inherently pragmatic in nature. He tackles the deductive logicians' approach to such phenomena as reference, definite description, and presupposition, and he discusses some complex cases that formal logicians have always avoided, such as topic relevance, context dependence, and the relativity of lexical meaning, language change, etc.

Reviewed by

Clark, Herbert H. and Barbara C. Malt. 1984. Psychological constraints on language. In Kintsch, Walter, James R. Miller and Peter G. Polson, eds. Method and tactics in cognitive science. L. Erlbaum. pp. 191–214.

Reprints

Kintsch, Walter, James R. Miller and Peter G. Polson. 1984. Deductive vs. pragmatic processing in natural language. In Kintsch, Walter, James R. Miller and Peter G. Polson, eds. Method and tactics in cognitive science. L. Erlbaum. pp. 137–190.