El presente libro es una ampliación, realizada por su propio autor, del ya clásico Lenguaje, significado y contexto, también publicado por Paidós. Aunque mantiene su estructura general, Lyons ha ampliado sustancialmente el ámbito de la materia tratada para introducir algunos asuntos no abordados en el trabajo anterior, sobre todo los avances de la semántica lingüística durante la década de los ochenta. El trabajo resultante es una guía inapreciable, el mejor manual posible sobre el tema, pues facilita aclaraciones precisas sobre los términos especializados y explica la relación existente entre la semántica lingüística, la semántica formal o filosófica y la pragmática contemporánea.
Very interesting read. Might have liked the author to take more specific point to declare his own leanings in philosophical matters. But his approach of walking the student into the history in such a way that the present and future would be illumined can really not be faulted. Will have to definitely follow up with some more up to date work on aspect, reference, and the mapping of structures into physical hardware (really not at issue in this book, but some coverage of functions and nested parameterization hints at it). My personal focus on the past has been way more pragmatic in the sense of, "what are the rules for this language" or "how do I map this language to that". The philosophical approach underpinning different paths in linguistic meaning was both frustrating to read about, and well worth confronting.