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1 - Formal Semantics and the Problem of Nominalizations

from Part I - Lexico-Semantic Aspects of Complex Words

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Rochelle Lieber
Edited by
Lívia Körtvélyessy  and
Pavol Štekauer
Lívia Körtvélyessy
Affiliation:
P. J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia
Pavol Štekauer
Affiliation:
P. J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia
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Summary

This paper discusses the ways in which formal or model theoretic semantics has difficulty addressing questions of lexical semantics, specifically questions that arise in accounting for the pervasive polysemy of deverbal nominalizations like German Bemalung (painting) and English blending. Formal or model theoretic semantics has largely neglected issues in which analysis of complex words comes to the fore. I briefly review the history of model theoretic semantics and its relation to lexical semantics and illustrate the tendency for conceptual semantics to be quietly integrated into referential semantics, as, for example, in a recent article by Pross (2019). I conclude with a brief sketch of how Lieber’s (2004, 2016) Lexical Semantic Framework treats the polysemy of deverbal nominalizations.

Keywords

nominalizationspolysemymodel theoretic semanticsconceptual semanticsLexical Semantic Framework
Type
Chapter
Information
Complex Words
Advances in Morphology
 , pp. 19 - 35
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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