Word meaning and concept expressed
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Robyn Carston,
Abstract
The concept expressed by the use of a word in a context often diverges from its lexically encoded context-independent meaning: it may be more specific or more general (or a combination of both) than the lexical meaning. Grasping the intended concept involves a pragmatic process of relevance-driven adjustment or modulation of the lexical meaning in interaction with the rest of the utterance and with contextual information. The issue addressed here is the nature of the input to the pragmatic process of meaning adjustment, that is, the nature of the standing (encoded) meaning of the word type. The widespread assumption that lexical meaning is conceptual, hence directly expressible, is challenged and a case made for the merits of an account of word type meaning in non-conceptual terms.
©[2012] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Introduction: Special issue on cognitive pragmatics and its interfaces in linguistics
- Pragmatic demands on the form of grammar: Theoretical and methodological limitations on the grammatical code
- Language as tools for interaction: Grammar and the dynamics of ellipsis resolution
- Differential case-marking: Syntactic descriptions and pragmatic explanations
- Word meaning and concept expressed
- Redefining logical constants as inference markers
- The relevance of tones: Prosodic meanings in utterance interpretation and in relevance theory
- A pragmatic perspective on the phonological values of utterance-final boundary tones in East Norwegian intonation
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Introduction: Special issue on cognitive pragmatics and its interfaces in linguistics
- Pragmatic demands on the form of grammar: Theoretical and methodological limitations on the grammatical code
- Language as tools for interaction: Grammar and the dynamics of ellipsis resolution
- Differential case-marking: Syntactic descriptions and pragmatic explanations
- Word meaning and concept expressed
- Redefining logical constants as inference markers
- The relevance of tones: Prosodic meanings in utterance interpretation and in relevance theory
- A pragmatic perspective on the phonological values of utterance-final boundary tones in East Norwegian intonation
