Reminder: History and Philosophy of Linguistics Reading Group
Next meeting:
Tuesday, 19 August, 5.00-6.30pm, Woolley S361
Reading:
Rastier, François. Forthcoming. Interpretative Semantics. Routledge Handbook of
Semantics.
Abstract:
Saussurean linguistics initiated a tradition of semantic investigation
characterized by a non-referentialist and non-compositional conception of
language (Hjelmslev) and a systematic description of contexts and texts
(Greimas, Coseriu, Pottier). This stream of research was unified in
Interpretative Semantics, whose programme was formulated in the mid-1980s. In
recognizing the deficits of the logico-grammatical paradigm, Interpretative
Semantics offers a unified theory extending from the word to the text and then
up to the corpus. Since the global determines the local, the corpus being
described bears on the meaning of the text, which in turn determines the
meaning of its units right down to the morpheme. As in construction grammars,
the problem of semiosis (the matching of content and expression) therefore
takes on a criterial status.
Applications of interpretative semantics extend from the description of
Amerindian languages to computational linguistics. In parallel with the
development of the concept of text, interpretative semantics offers a new
articulation between text linguistics, document-based philology, and the
hermeneutics of finished works.
Since meaning is made from differences, the methodology adopted is historical
and comparative, like that of anthropology and most of the social sciences.
Recognizing the complexity of languages – defined as cultural formations –
interpretative semantics is therefore a stakeholder in cultural semiotics.
Reading available from:
http://hplinguistics.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/83824765/Rastier%20interpretative%20semantics.pdf
(English translation)
http://hplinguistics.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/83824768/Rastier%20Sémantique%20interprétative.pdf
(French original)
Nick Riemer, the translator, will be present at the meeting, and welcomes any
feedback on the translation.
Enquiries: [email protected]
All welcome!
_______________________________________________
SydPhil mailing list: http://bit.ly/sydphil
New archive: http://bit.ly/SydPhilArchive
To UNSUBSCRIBE, change your MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS, find ANSWERS TO COMMON
PROBLEMS, or visit our ONLINE ARCHIVES, please go to the LIST INFORMATION PAGE:
http://bit.ly/sydphil ... and if you can't get to that page, try the EMERGENCY
PAGE: http://bit.ly/SydPhilEmergency
