Logics of Conversation

by Nicholas Asher (Editor), Alex Lascarides (Editor), David D. McDonald (Contribution by)

People often mean more than they say. Grammar on its own is typically insufficient for determining the full meaning of an utterance; the assumption that the discourse is coherent or 'makes sense' has an important role to play in determining meaning as well. Logics of Conversation presents a dynamic semantic framework called Segmented Discourse Representation Theory, or SDRT, where this interaction between discourse coherence and discourse interpretation is explored in a logically precise manner. Combining ideas from dynamic semantics, commonsense reasoning and speech act theory, SDRT uses its analysis of rhetorical relations to capture intuitively compelling implicatures. It provides a computable method for constructing these logical forms and is one of the most formally precise and linguistically grounded accounts of discourse interpretation currently available. The book will be of interest to researchers and students in linguistics and in philosophy of language.

552 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Tú · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me this is the toughest book ever written in the field of linguistics! Yes it focuses on the logics and makes great contribution to the study of rhetorical relations. But when it comes to the mathematical parts, i was like "what the fuck!"

Overall, an impressively thick wtf book.