Semantics and Pragmatics: Drawing a Line

This book explores new territory at the interface between semantics and pragmatics, reassessing a number of linguistic phenomena in the light of recent advances in pragmatic theory. It presents stimulating insights by experts in linguistics and philosophy, including Kent Bach, Philippe de Brabanter, Max Kölbel and François Recanati. The authors begin by reassessing the definition of four theoretical concepts: saturation, free pragmatic enrichment, completion and expansion. They go on to confront (sub)disciplines that have addressed similar issues but that have not necessarily been in close contact, and then turn to questions related to reported speech, modality, indirect requests and prosody.

Chapters investigate lexical pragmatics and (cognitive) lexical semantics and other interactions involving experimental pragmatics, construction grammar, clinical linguistics, and the distinction between mental and linguistic content. The authors bridge the gap between different disciplines, subdisciplines and methodologies, supporting cross-fertilization of ideas and indicating the empirical studies that are needed to test current theoretical concepts and push the theory further.

Readers will find overviews of the ways in which concepts are defined, empirical data with which they are illustrated and explorations of the theoretical frameworks in which concepts are couched.  This exciting exchange of ideas has its origins in the editors’ workshop series on the theme ‘The semantics/pragmatics interface: linguistic, logical and philosophical perspectives’, held at the University of Lille 3 in 2012-13. Scholars of linguistics, logic and philosophy and those interested in the research benefits of crossing disciplines will find this work both accessible and thought-provoking, especially those with an interest in pragmatic theory or semantics.

Chapter 1. Introduction (Ilse Depraetere, Raphael Salkie).- Part I: Drawing a Line.- Chapter 2. Free pragmatic enrichment, expansion, saturation, completion: A view from linguistics (Ilse Depraetere, Raphael Salkie).- Chapter 3. Response by Kent Bach (Kent Bach).- Part II: Crossing Borders.- Chapter 4. Is pragmatics about mind reading? (Siobhan Chapman).- Chapter 5. Pragmatics between experiment and rationality (Anton Benz).- Chapter 6. Lexical pragmatics, explicature and ad hoc concepts (Alison Hall).- Chapter 7. A cognitive, usage-based view on lexical pragmatics (Maarten Lemmens).- Chapter 8. What’s pragmatics doing outside constructions? (Bert Cappelle).- Chapter 9. Constructions, templates and pragmatics (Frank Liedtke).- Chapter 10. Early intervention at the interface: Semantic-pragmatic strategies for facilitating conversation with children with developmental disabilities (Susan Foster-Cohen, Tze Peng Wong).- Chapter 11. A response to Foster-Cohen and Wong: Appropriate pragmatic behavior (Gerhard Schaden).- Chapter 12. About concerns (Max Kölbel).- Chapter 13.About the lekton: Response to Max Kölbel (François Recanati).- Part III: Exploring New Territory.- Chapter 14. Why quotation is not a linguistic phenomenon, and why it calls for a pragmatic theory (Philippe Debrabanter).- Chapter 15. Response by Raphael Salkie. Demonstrating vs depicting: Reply to Philippe Debrabanter (Raphael Salkie).- Chapter 16. The meanings of non-finite have and the semantics-pragmatics interface (Ilse Depraetere).- Chapter 17. The comprehension of indirect requests: Previous work and future directions (Nicolas Ruytenbeek).- Chapter 18. Prosody, procedures and pragmatics (Kate Scott).- Conclusion (Billy Clark).

Raphael Salkie is Professor of Language Studies at the University of Brighton. He has taught at the Universities of Poitiers, Paris XIII, Paris VII, and Lille3, as well as the University of Zimbabwe.

Both Editors have published widely on tense, aspect and modality, the semantics/pragmatics interface being in the foreground of their publications. They organised and actively contributed to the workshop series ‘The semantics/pragmatics interface: linguistic, logical and philosophical perspectives’. Both have been involved in translation teaching and research. Their joint publication, ‘Tense’, appeared in the Routledge Handbook of Semantics, Nick Riemer (ed.), published in 2015.