Chris Cummins & Napoleon Katsos (eds.). 2019. The Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. xxi + 661pp.
Chris Cummins & Napoleon Katsos (eds.). 2019. The Oxford Handbook of Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. xxi + 661pp

Summary/Abstract: The Handbook consists of thirty-two chapters. Except for the Introduction, the volume is organized thematically into six parts, and each chapter is well-structured with an introduction to the fundamental concepts, a discussion of important topics or theoretical controversies, experimental evidence, and concluding remarks. Chapter 1, “Introduction” (pp. 1-6), explains why contemporary experimental semantics and pragmatics is flourishing by sketching the inevitable combination of experimental methods and linguistics, and highlights the aim of handbook is “to capture a snapshot of the questions and methods used in the field, to synthesize the existing findings and to identify under-researched questions or under-utilized techniques” (p.1). Although scalar inference triggered the outgrowth of experimental research and stimulated discussion on semantic-pragmatic interface in previous studies, more theoretically motivated topics should be emphasized in semantics and pragmatics (e.g. word meaning, reference). As such, this long-awaited handbook focuses on experimental work on classic research topics of semantics and pragmatics and aims to showcase best practice in this field.

• Details
• Contents