Lexical Meaning in Dialogic Language Use: (9 Dialogue Studies)

Lexical Meaning in Dialogic Language Use addresses a number of central issues in the field of lexical semantics. Starting off from an action-theoretical view of communication meaning is defined as something that speakers do in dialogic language use. Meaning as ‘meaning-in-use’ opens up a new perspective on a number of aspects: how can we define the lexical unit? What about the make-up of the meaning side? Does polysemy really exist? And is encyclopaedic information to be fully integrated into the lexicon?These questions are examined along the analyses of authentic lexical material from corpora. At the end exemplary lexical entries represent both the expression and meaning side of the analyzed material, providing incentive not only for theory but also for practical applications like foreign language teaching, lexicography, translational studies, and so forth. This book will appeal to anyone interested in language use and meaning and understanding especially.

Table of Contents:
1. Preface; 2. 1. The whole and its parts; 3. 2. State-of-the-art theories; 4. 3. Theoretical foundation; 5. 4. Methodological preliminaries; 6. 5. The semantic analysis (Part I): The semantic interplay of subject-NP and VP; 7. 6. The semantic analysis (Part II): New lexical entries. A pilot study; 8. 7. Conclusion; 9. References; 10. Index

Review :
The book is interesting in many respects. It challenges traditional approaches to lexical meaning and tries to give coherentexplanations of how speakers understand meanings of words in utterances. Feller’s monograph proves to be invaluable in pointing to the fact that the lexical potential to express a predicative function ‘‘is independent of the communicative function on the utterance level’’ (p. 168). The results of his investigations undoubtedly should be stimulating for research in lexical pragmatics, and concerning its practical application, in lexicography as well as in language pedagogy. Feller’s study demonstrates the potential of integrating the lexicalist approach to the analysis of textual cohesion and coherence with Weigand’s discourse based, procedural theory of speech act analysis, which relies on the textual utilization of encyclopedic information and schematic, conceptually valid knowledge. I believe that through such an integration we will be able to gain a new, pragmatically relevant basis for understanding the textual coding as well as the decoding of contextual types of information.