Analyzing meaning: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics

Study overview of the reviewed opening

Kroeger’s preface explains why semantics and pragmatics are taught together despite the breadth of each field. The book aims to provide a foundation for further study rather than exhaustive coverage. Its descriptive approach makes the subject accessible to linguistics students without requiring previous formal logic or set theory.

The assumed preparation is nevertheless substantial: students should have studied morphology and syntax and know some phonological terminology. The six-unit route moves from foundational ideas through word meaning and implicature into composition, modality, causation, tense and aspect. The preface emphasises cumulative reading because later chapters draw on earlier distinctions.

The resource also serves fieldworkers who need to discuss meaning carefully in grammatical descriptions. Translation and lexicography appear as possible applications, but they are not the main instructional focus. Exercises may be used for discussion or homework, and the preface identifies options for reducing a course’s scope. This page covers the preface and contents, not separate analyses of all semantic phenomena in the book.

Book contents

1. 1 The meaning of meaning
2. 2 Referring, denoting, and expressing
3. 3 Truth and inference
4. 4 The logic of truth
5. 5 Word senses
6. 6 Lexical sense relations
7. 7 Components of lexical meaning
8. 8 Grice’s theory of Implicature
9. 9 Pragmatic inference after Grice
10. 10 Indirect Speech Acts
11. 11 Conventional implicature and use-conditional meaning
12. 12 How meanings are composed
13. 13 Modeling compositionality
14. 14 Quantifiers
15. 15 Intensional contexts
16. 16 Modality
17. 17 Evidentiality
18. 18 Because
19. 19 Conditionals
20. 20 Aspect and Aktionsart
21. 21 Tense
22. 22 Varieties of the Perfect
23. References

Questions for study

The following prompts are Academic Master’s editorial material.

• Why study semantics and pragmatics together?
• How can prior morphosyntax help with analysing meaning?
• What makes cumulative reading important for this course sequence?

Sources and coverage

Preface read in full (PDF pages 13–14); digital-edition identifiers, licence and contents checked.

Source edition · Source licence