"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."

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.

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,3, University of Münster, language: English, abstract: In the light of de Saussure’s definition of the linguistic sign and Chomskyan generative grammar, a great number of Linguists1 of the second half of the 20th century used to define language primarily in terms of an artificially constructed autonomous sign system. From this traditional point of view, the field of linguistics did not see beyond the construct it had created resulting in the deformation of the object of study, language-in-use. The pragmatic turn of the 1960s brought along what one might call the ‘Copernican revolution’ in linguistics. In this connection, Martinet pointed at one of the most fundamental prerequisites of well-conducted scientific research, in that he rejected firmly any scientific proceeding that sacrifices the integrity of the object of study to methodological exigencies. On the contrary, the object itself, language in use, dictates to a great extent the methodology of the researcher. In the course of this treatise, I discuss, in the context of the above-mentioned assumptions, the issue of the lexical unit. Thereby, I will concentrate on the two conflicting definitions given, on the one hand, in the form of the one-word lexical unit and, on the other, in the form the multi-word unit. During my argumentation, I attempt to provide sufficient evidence in favour of the multi-word lexical unit showing that the equation of the single word with a unit of meaning needs to be overcome ultimately. This treatise comprises both a theoretical and an empirical part. The former lays the theoretical foundation for the empirical investigation put forward in the course of the methodological section. After the obligatory sketch of the research background, I introduce the reader to the basic assumptions of Weigand’s pragmatic model. Looking at lexical semantics, the universal level of contrastive studies is kept in the foreground. In this context, I primarily concentrate on the definition of predicating fields and meaning positions as well as the principle of meaning equivalence. In addition, the theoretical introduction will offer some preliminary remarks on the expression side.

"Twenty-four articles representing a diversity of interests and approaches have been brought together in this revised collection intended to define and develop topics of central interest to language, culture, and society. Opening pieces include enduring, classic writings by Boas, Sapir, Whorf, Mead, and others, giving the volume an important historical orientation. These contributions form the ground-work for the wide sampling of more recent and contemporary works that follows." -- Back cover.

A study of C. S. Peirce's conception of the sign, with a critique of Saussure and Hjelmslev, Dialogic Semiosis presents a semiotics of the production, transmission, and interpretation of signs in human communication. Jørgen Dines Johansen studies the process of sign creation, how signs fulfill their office of transmitting information between human agents, chiefly through a study of human speech. In the first part of the book, Johansen focuses on Hjelmslev's concept of the sign and the study of semiotic systems. In Part II, he undertakes a detailed explication of Peirce's concepts of the process of signification with the intention of inducing readers to think semiotics with Peirce. In the conclusion, Johansen analyzes a specific micro system from both Hjelmslevian and Peircean perspectives and summarizes the basic features of an intentionally produced semiotic.

This text aims to present such dimensions as language policies, cultural expectations and the societal roles of languages to practicising and aspiring teachers in order to raise awareness of the sociopolitical nature of English language teaching.