Philosophy of Linguistics: 14 (Handbook of the Philosophy of Science) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0444517472 ISBN 13: 9780444517470

Publisher: North Holland, 2012

Synopsis

Philosophy of Linguistics investigates the foundational concepts and methods of linguistics, the scientific study of human language. This groundbreaking collection, the most thorough treatment of the philosophy of linguistics ever published, brings together philosophers, scientists and historians to map out both the foundational assumptions set during the second half of the last century and the unfolding shifts in perspective in which more functionalist perspectives are explored. The opening chapter lays out the philosophical background in preparation for the papers that follow, which demonstrate the shift in the perspective of linguistics study through discussions of syntax, semantics, phonology and cognitive science more generally. The volume serves as a detailed introduction for those new to the field as well as a rich source of new insights and potential research agendas for those already engaged with the philosophy of linguistics.

Part of the Handbook of the Philosophy of Science series edited by:

Dov M. Gabbay, King's College, London, UK;Paul Thagard, University of Waterloo, Canada; and John Woods, University of British Columbia, Canada.

• Provides a bridge between philosophy and current scientific findings
• Encourages multi-disciplinary dialogue
• Covers theory and applications

About this title

About the Author

Dov M. Gabbay is Augustus De Morgan Professor Emeritus of Logic at the Group of Logic, Language and Computation, Department of Computer Science, King's College London. He has authored over four hundred and fifty research papers and over thirty research monographs. He is editor of several international Journals, and many reference works and Handbooks of Logic.

From the Back Cover

At the centre of cognitive science, linguistics abuts a number of disciplines -- philosophy, logic, psychology, artificial intelligence, and anthropology. Enormous strides were made in the development of linguistics as a formal discipline over the last half century, starting with Chomsky's work on the modelling of human language applying ideas from formal language theory, to be followed shortly thereafter by alternative linguistic models of syntax, meaning, language acquisition and processing. Work on developing computational implementations of these models duly followed. New insights into the nature of language and linguistic knowledge emerged, with increasingly robust tools for language modelling. As these developed, it became clear that aspects of language in use which earlier had been set aside as intransigent, could now be formally modelled. So in the last twenty years, theorists turned to modelling how the language system interacts with functional and context-dependent aspects of language use.

This handbook lays out this narrative through its successive chapters. Early chapters set out the overall philosophical perspective, assumptions of alternative formal systems, and horizons that open up by setting linguistic models against philosophical and computational backgrounds. With assumptions about semantics having been introduced, later chapters address the tensions and new resolutions that are now being explored in giving due recognition to the endemic context-sensitivity of natural language. The volume is essential reading for those interested in theoretical study of language, and in the development of linguistic theorising.

Edition details

• Publisher: North Holland
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0444517472
• ISBN 13: 9780444517470
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 598
• Editor: Kempson Ruth, Fernando Tim, Asher Nicholas