Natural Language Semantics

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Summary: Natural Language Semantics
Review: Allan reviews some of the basic concepts of semantics, ranging from the hazy line between pragmatics and semantics to cognitive semantics. Through out this book, he offers sample problems and questions that further understanding of sometimes difficult subject matter. While not dwelling too long on particular operators, such as the lambda operator, Allan gives thorough and helpful definitions of logical forms and their use in semantics. Most interesting to students or linguistic hobbyists are his explanations of cognitive semantics (e.g., his discussion of Whorf's theories and basic color terms) and connotation versus denotation. Near the end of the book, the material is markedly more difficult and abstract, but overall it is an approachable and useful text. Anyone looking for a good introduction to semantics that doesn't talk down to nor lose its readers would be greatly rewarded by owning a copy of this book.