Practical Theories and Empirical Practice : a linguistic perspective.

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In this chapter I examine the ways in which languages encode the distinction between location and place, generally, and between objects and their uses in space, in particular. I develop a type-theoretic semantic formalism to model the notion of 'function', whether associated with a region or location on the one hand, or a class of objects, such as artifactual devices, on the other hand. The functional value of an object is encoded as a modal expression in the Telic role of the Qualia Structure associated with a lexical item. Finally, I illustrate how this representation helps explain the linguistic behaviour of such expressions in language. Keywords: Generative Lexicon; preposition; qualia; space; type-theoretic semantics.

In this chapter I examine the ways in which languages encode the distinction between location and place, generally, and between objects and their uses in space, in particular. I develop a type-theoretic semantic formalism to model the notion of 'function', whether associated with a region or location on the one hand, or a class of objects, such as artifactual devices, on the other hand. The functional value of an object is encoded as a modal expression in the Telic role of the Qualia Structure associated with a lexical item. Finally, I illustrate how this representation helps explain the lingu.

Practical Theories and Empirical Practice; Editorial page; Title page; LCC data; Dedication; Table of contents; List of contributors; Preface; Practical theories and empirical practice -- facets of a complex interaction; 1 Linguistics -- the 'scientific' study of language; 2 Methodological facets; 3 The volume and its chapters: Thematic perspective; 4 The volume and its chapters: Methodological considerations; 4.1 Contextualisation; 4.2 Methods and meta-theory; 4.2.1 How can we arrive at convincing evidence?; 4.2.2 What can we learn for successful cross-linguistic comparison?

1.1 The use of stimuli in linguistic investigation1.2 The Trobriand Islanders and their language Kilivila; 2. Kilivila colour terms in 1983 and in 2008; 2.1 Method, consultants and results of my 1983 study on Kilivila colour terms; 2.2 Results of my 2008 study on Kilivila colour terms; 2.2.1 Consultants and methods; 2.2.2 Results; 2.3 Colour terms in Kilivila then and now; 3. Pacific Islanders talking about taste then and now; 3.1 Taste terms gathered in 1982 and 1983; 3.2 My 2008 study on Kilivila taste terms; 3.2.1 Methods and consultants; 3.2.2 Results.

3. Sentence comprehension draws upon the understander's own action knowledge4. Problems, questions, and implications; 5. Conclusions; References; Infants' encoding of social interaction as a conceptual foundation for the acquisition of argument structure; 1. Prelinguistic event representation and linguistic coding; 2. Tracking of agents and spaces in a ditransitive give-and-take-event in the first year of life; 3. Conclusions and outlook; References; Referring to colour and taste in Kilivila: stability and change in two lexical domainsof sensory perception; 1. Introduction.

3.3 Pacific Islanders talking about taste then and now4. An aside with an excursus to the Torres Straits Islands; 5. Concluding remarks; References; Yucatec demonstratives in interaction; 1. Introduction; 2. A sketch of the expression of spatial deixis in Yucatec; 3. Demonstratives in spontaneous interactions: Hanks (1990, 2005); 4. Demonstratives in elicited productions: The questionnaire study; Anchor 92; 4.2 The semantics of the non-immediate forms; 4.3 The role of attention direction; 5. Discussion; References; Many languages, one knowledge base; 1. Motivation and background 2. Application domain: social cognition.

4.2.2.1 Cross-linguistic elicitation tasks. The ideal cross-linguistic elicitation task is a task that is designed for usage with all languages and all cultures, that is well-designed with regard to the aims it wants to achieve, easy to administer, and th4.2.2.2 Comparative basis; 4.2.3 What might the future hold for linguistic research?; 5 Conclusion; References; The embodiment of linguistic meaning; 1. Language comprehension is based on complex and specific visual imagery; 2. Imagery during sentence comprehension drives action planning processes.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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