| This course examines the complex relations between grammatical/lexical meanings and meanings which originate outside of language. We distinguish between linguistic meanings and: (1) the ad hoc context-induced narrowed down concepts they actually introduce into discourse; (2) derived (so-called non-literal) meanings; (3) conversational implicatures; (4) cognitive concepts. We examine the complex relations obtaining between linguistic meanings and each of the above. Relevant questions addressed: Which of the above meanings contribute to the truth-conditional interpretation of the sentence? Which are universal? How can we account for the derivation of (1), (2) and (3) from linguistic meaning? How convincing are current experiments testifying to language-specific biases in the development of (4)? Can we explain semanticization (the creation of new linguistic meanings) as the conventionalization of (1), (2), or (3)? Prominent theories to be discussed are pragmatic inferencing theories, psycholinguistic theories about literal/nonliteral language, theories of grammaticization, and current proposals about language and cognition. |