All Questions
23 questions
0
votes
0
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91
views
How do I tell when a sentence is totally meaningless?
Consider the sentence:
Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.
It is meaningful, but to a person like me who does not know what the words "ontogeny", "recapitulation" and "...
- 109
11
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Why is "Colourless green ideas sleep furiously" considered meaningless?
Forewarning: I'm a philosopher, and I'm broadly ignorant of linguistics, so forgive me in advance for any misconceptions or stupid questions.
I think that it's regarded as common knowledge in ...
- 24
2
votes
1
answer
149
views
Is there a reason why certain verbs use certain cases?
For examples, in German there are certain verbs that always use the dative cases and others that always use the accusative case. Is there a logical or semantical reason for this?
Does the use of a ...
- 121
3
votes
3
answers
274
views
Are there two senses of "grammar" with respect to semantics?
Are there two senses of "grammar"?
Is it correct that
in linguistics, semantics (and maybe also pragmatics) belongs to and is specified in grammar? (My impression from limited reading of a ...
- 913
0
votes
0
answers
79
views
Relation Between Unreal & Past Tense Forms
Background
I am learning English grammar. Having been confused about modal usage, I decided to pick out a book on the subject, coming to "Modality and the English Modals" by F. R. Palmer. In ...
- 109
3
votes
1
answer
130
views
What is the difference between if and if-then?
According to [33]. Davis, W. (1983). Weak and strong conditionals. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 64(1), 57-71., there exist two versions of if conditional as shown below.
(1) a. If it is humid, ...
- 211
1
vote
2
answers
1k
views
Grammatical function vs. Semantic role
What is the difference between grammatical functions and semantic roles? Are they the same?
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
146
views
The semantics of grammatical transformations? [closed]
Please see the following:
We start with a sentence/clause like -
Mr Wilkins is the oldest person in the village.
It seems like we can "transform" the clause using certain "grammatical rules":
Mr ...
- 347
0
votes
0
answers
56
views
Do nouns in simple apposition semantically unpack to predicate nominatives in English?
A Koine Greek grammar states that nouns in simple apposition are semantically understood as predicate nominatives.
So, "Paul the apostle" unpacks to "Paul is the apostle" and "the apostle is Paul" ...
user27672
1
vote
0
answers
58
views
Determining the semantic "complexity" of a grammar computationally from text
I'm working on a computational text analysis project which uses ngram data from journal articles, and I'm trying to find a way to measure some aspect of the semantic "complexity" of the grammar in one ...
- 111
2
votes
1
answer
108
views
Sentence ambiguitiy
The sentence “Why did everyone’s father think that Tom said that you were fired?” is supposedly ambiguous in three different ways. However, I can’t seem to get any ambiguous reading from it. I have ...
- 135
2
votes
1
answer
250
views
Standardized and ambiguity-free language
Is there exist a language (the natural or the constructed one) with a completely standardized and ambiguity-free rules, and which is suitable for the modern use?
I am wondering for a language which ...
- 129
3
votes
0
answers
44
views
Grammar induction from grammaticality rules
Let's have formalisation of grammaticality judgments in some deduction system. Is it possible to learn/induce grammar from rules that govern grammaticality judgments? Is there theory, that connects ...
- 499
1
vote
2
answers
89
views
Can the need for ambiguity lead to merge of grammatical person, or other semantic merge?
My mother tongue doesn't distinguish 3.SG.F and 3.SG.M in speech. In some cases I feel the redundancy of it and the need for ambiguity of the grammatical person when I speak a language which ...
- 1,087
1
vote
5
answers
480
views
All that glitters is confusing!
"All that is gold does not glitter"
"Not all that is gold glitters"
The first phrase appears in Lord of the Rings, modified from Shakespeare, and contextually implies that "Aragorn is vastly more ...
- 129
2
votes
0
answers
48
views
Markers that affect intensity of the imperative mood
I'm working on a project that explores how imperative mood varies in 'intensity'.
For example, one can 'soften' the tone of a directive by including the speaker in the command:
"Let's go to school"...
- 121
2
votes
2
answers
288
views
Downward entailing verbs: is the verb "remember" downward entailing?
I have some doubts if there is downward entailing environment with "remember":
a. Mary forgot that she saw anyone.
b. Mary forgot that anyone saw her.
c. #Mary remembered that she saw anyone.
d. #...
3
votes
0
answers
60
views
Connections between combinatory categorial grammars and abstract categorial grammars?
Are there connections/translation or common tools usage/adaptation between combinatory (concrete) categorial grammars (incl. Lambek calculus) and abstract categorial grammars? Can tools for one of ...
- 499
0
votes
0
answers
164
views
Introductory linguistic theory books [duplicate]
I'm wondering where a good place (or good places) to start learning about linguistic (grammar, syntactic and semantic) theories would be. I'm essentially a complete novice in this domain. Any sort ...
1
vote
3
answers
120
views
How to figure out how a language may force one to think [closed]
I have many times looked up on the internet, "How to think in a language," or other such pretaining terms, but that often comes up with ways to literally think in a language in terms of language ...
- 607
4
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What is the relationship between lambda calculus and logical form?
I was introduced to lambda calculus as a notation to express the semantics of a phrase, based on the semantics of its parts.
I am under the impression lambda calculus does more than that, but I don’t ...
- 215
2
votes
1
answer
144
views
Why do time adverbials like "yesterday" have a different distribution than adverbials like "always?"
Consider these two sentences below, which employ some kind of temporal adverbial / adjunct.
(I) Yesterday John won the Turkey Raffle.
(II) John always wins the Turkey Raffle.
My question is, why ...
- 484
0
votes
2
answers
5k
views
English vs. Esperanto (in grammar, vocabulary, semantics) [closed]
I know Esperanto is constructed on the basis of Romance languages; but what are the main differences and similarities between English and Esperanto?
Especially from the following aspects:
grammar (...
- 203