LSRL 49: Non-Truth-Conditional Semantics in Spanish

Non-Truth-Conditional Semantics in Spanish

Conceptual and Procedural Meaning

Xosé Rosales Sequeiros
University of Greenwich

This book explores current semantic theory applied to Spanish, focussing on a number of key aspects within non-truth-conditional semantics. It involves applications of this branch of semantics to various areas of Spanish language. In doing so, it critically considers earlier approaches to the study of semantic meaning, such as truth-conditional semantics, Speech Act theory, and Gricean conventional implicatures. The book argues that those earlier approaches to linguistic semantics do not stand up to closer scrutiny and thus are subject to a number of counterexamples. In particular, there are various arguments which show that those approaches are not sufficient, and often not even necessary, for the development of a comprehensive and unified account of linguistic semantics involving non-truth-conditional meaning.

An alternative approach is then discussed based on recent developments in the field which shows that it is possible to provide a unified account of linguistic semantics by making two fundamental new distinctions: on the one hand, a distinction between conceptual and procedural meaning; and, on the other, a distinction between explicit and implicit communication. These two distinctions combined with the various levels of representation available in linguistic communication allow us to capture the variety of linguistic meaning encountered in language.

In applying and developing these concepts, a number of areas are covered within Spanish. Firstly, the current framework is applied to sentence adverbials and parentheticals. Secondly, discourse and pragmatic connectives will be discussed in the light of the new developments. Thirdly, the new framework is applied to discourse particles and interjections. Finally, a number of mood indicators are considered, including imperative and interrogative forms, where a third distinction between descriptive and interpretive propositional attitudes is used to develop an alternative account.

ISBN 9783895868795. LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 49. 186pp. 2007.