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Prelude: Framing the Problem of Language and Meaning

  • Edward McDonald
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the The M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics Series book series (TMAKHLFLS)

Abstract

Meaning is the “big problem” of language:

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Primary sources

Aristotle

  2. http://folk.uio.no/amundbjo/grar/interpretatio/texts/Minio-Paluello_Interpretatio.pdfGoogle Scholar
  3. Aristotle (1938) Categories. On Interpretation. Prior Analytics. Translated by H. P. Cooke, Hugh Tredennick. Loeb Classical Library 325. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MAGoogle Scholar

Xunzi

  1. 正名 8, 11Google Scholar
  2. https://ctext.org/xunzi/zheng-mingGoogle Scholar
  3. Xunzi (2014) Xunzi: the complete text. Translated and with an introduction by Eric L. Hutton. Princeton: Princeton University PressGoogle Scholar

Saussure

  1. de Saussure F (1916) Cours de linguistique générale, eds Charles Bally & Albert Sechehaye (c. Albert Riedlinger). Lausanne & Paris: Payot. Saussure, Ferdinand de. 1959. Course in general linguistics, Trans. Wade Baskin. New York: Philosophical Library. Saussure, Ferdinand de. 2011. Course in General Linguistics. Trans. Wade Baskin, eds Perry Meisel and Haun Saussy. New York: Columbia University PressGoogle Scholar

Suggestions for further reading

    Aristotle

    1. Ackrill J (1963) Categories and De Interpretatione, translated with notes. Oxford University Press, OxfordGoogle Scholar
    2. Anagnostopoulos G (2007) The Blackwell guide to Aristotle. Blackwell, OxfordGoogle Scholar
    3. Bakker EJ (ed.) (2010/2014) A companion to the Ancient Greek language. Blackwell companions to the Ancient World. 2010. Blackwell (hardback), Oxford; 2014. Wiley Blackwell (paperback), ChichesterGoogle Scholar
    4. Barnes J (1995) The Cambridge companion to Aristotle. Cambridge University Press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
    5. de Jonge CC, van Ophuijsen JM (2014) Greek philosophers on language. In Bakker (ed.), pp 485–498Google Scholar
    6. Schmidhauser (2014) The birth of grammar in Greece. In Bakker (ed.), pp 499–511Google Scholar
    7. Shields C (2012) The Oxford handbook on Aristotle. Oxford University Press, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
    8. Shields C (2016) “Aristotle”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/aristotle/>8. Hylomorphism

    Xunzi

    1. Chen CY (2000) Classical Chinese philosophies of language: logic and ontology. In: Auroux S, Koerner EFK, Niedere H-J, Versteegh K (eds) History of the language sciences: an international handbook on the evolution of the study of language from the beginnings to the present, vol 1. de Gruyter, Berlin, pp 19–36Google Scholar
    2. Goldin PR (2018) “Xunzi”, the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/xunzi/>7. Rectifying Names (zhengming 正名)
    3. Graham AC (1989) Disputers of the Tao: philosophical argument in ancient China. Open Court, La SalleGoogle Scholar
    4. Hutton EL (2016) Dao companion to the philosophy of Xunzi. Springer, Dordrecht.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7745-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar

    Saussure

    1. Bouissac P (2010) Saussure: a guide for the perplexed. Continuum, LondonGoogle Scholar
    2. Godel R (1984) F. de Saussure’s Theory of Language. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure, No. 38, Cahier Dédié au Souvenir de Robert Godel, Ancien Président de la Société Genevoise de Linguistique, pp 83–97Google Scholar
    3. Harris R (1987) Reading Saussure: a critical commentary on the Cours de linguistique générale. Duckworth, LondonGoogle Scholar
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    Glossing

    1. Becker AL (1993) The elusive figures of Burmese grammar: An essay. In: Foley WA (ed.). The role of theory in language description. Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 69, 61–86. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 2000. reprinted in Beyond Translation: Essays toward a Modern Philology. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, pp 231–258Google Scholar
    2. McDonald E (2008) Meaningful Arrangement: Exploring the Syntactic Description of Texts. London: Equinox. Ch. 2: Processing the Text, pp 20–32Google Scholar

    Meaning

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    2. Firth JR (1935) The technique of semantics. Trans Philol Soc 34:36–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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    7. Halliday MAK (1984) On the ineffability of grammatical categories. In: Manning A, Martin P, McCealla K (eds.) The Tenth LACUS Forum, 3–18. 2002. reprinted in On Grammar: The Collected Works of M.A.K. Halliday Vol. 1. Continuum, London, pp 291–322Google Scholar

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© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

Authors and Affiliations

  • Edward McDonald
    • 1
  1. 1.SydneyAustralia

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