The linguistic sign at the lexicon-syntax interface: Assumptions and implications of the Generative Lexicon Theory
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Klaas Willems
Klaas Willems (b. 1965) is a professor at Ghent University 〈Klaas.Willems@UGent.be〉. His research interests include the syntax-semantics interface, epistemology and historiography of the language sciences, and philosophy and phenomenology of language. His publications includeKasus, grammatische Bedeutung und kognitive Linguistik (1997); “Logical polysemy and variable verb valency” (2006);Naturalness and iconicity in language (ed. with L. de Cuypere, 2008); and “Intuition, introspection, and observation in linguistic inquiry” (2012).
Abstract
This article explores the basic assumptions of Generative Lexicon Theory (GL) and the implications for the general theory of the linguistic sign that arise from the generative mechanisms “selective binding,” “co-composition,” and “type coercion.” The article focuses on the assumption underlying GL that interpretation and polysemy are part of lexical structure. It is shown that encoded lexical meaning and inferred non-lexical knowledge cannot be clearly distinguished in GL. In order to be consistent, GL must also be supplemented by a theory of “normal language use” and be able to account for semantic underspecification in a semiotically coherent way.
About the author
Klaas Willems (b. 1965) is a professor at Ghent University 〈Klaas.Willems@UGent.be〉. His research interests include the syntax-semantics interface, epistemology and historiography of the language sciences, and philosophy and phenomenology of language. His publications include Kasus, grammatische Bedeutung und kognitive Linguistik (1997); “Logical polysemy and variable verb valency” (2006); Naturalness and iconicity in language (ed. with L. de Cuypere, 2008); and “Intuition, introspection, and observation in linguistic inquiry” (2012).
©[2013] by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead
- Linguistics through its proper mirror-glass: Saussure, signs, segments
- The interrelation of metaphors and metonymies in sign systems of visual art: An example analysis of works by V. I. Surikov
- Information-theoretic confirmation of semiotic structures
- An information-based semiotic analysis of theories concerning theories
- An integrational response to Searlean realism, or how language does not relate to consciousness
- Peirce, meaning, and the Semantic Web
- The puzzling world of Harry Potter
- The sign system of human pretending
- Place and subjectivity in contemporary world: An analysis of Lost in Translation based on the semiotics of passion
- Peirce and the specification of borderline vagueness
- Marks as masks: A study of traditional African occupations and their visual indices
- The linguistic sign at the lexicon-syntax interface: Assumptions and implications of the Generative Lexicon Theory
- Presence of la femme: The semiotic silence
- On trans-semiosis
- Individual variation in participants' account of their own interaction
- From funeral to wedding ceremony: Change in the metaphoric nature of the Chinese color term white
