Analyzing meaning: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics

Reviewed by Elisa Maroney, Professor, Open Oregon Educational Resources on 4/19/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This is a comprehensive textbook on semantics and pragmatics. The approximately 500 pages cover a wide range of topics from the meanings of words to the meanings of grammatical morphemes.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

This text is a survey of topics in semantics and pragmatics, both of which are broad disciplines in and of themselves. As such, the overview of how meanings are made in human languages seems accurate, thorough, and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The references provided in this introductory text range from as early as 1892 to 2017. The text is written in a way that seems relatively easy to update.

Clarity rating: 5

This text seems to be written in a manner that is accessible to a broad readership, upper level undergraduate to graduate level readers. Not only is this text readable by those who are interested in languages and linguistics, but it also seems understandable and accessible to readers in a wide range of subject areas.

Consistency rating: 5

As an introductory text, this book provides a broad range of topics and includes an extensive range of terminology. This breadth makes sense for an introductory textbook.

Modularity rating: 4

The text is written in such a way that references are made to previous chapters. This may be difficult for some instructors who choose to assign chapters out of sequence.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Topics are organized in logical ways. References to other parts of the text are easy to follow.

Interface rating: 5

This book is easy to navigate.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

As a reader, I am extremely sensitive to small grammatical and stylistic errors. I found this text to be mechanically and stylistically easy to read.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This text uses a broad range of linguistic and world language examples.

Comments

At the end of most chapters, there is a list of further readings and discussion or homework exercises. These are time-saving and expeditious for the busy instructor, as well as will be helpful to them in regard to built-in opportunities to assess student comprehension, opportunities for reflection and critical thinking, and to assess teaching effectiveness. These activities are helpful to students by reinforcing and verifying understanding. Students can also use these as study-guides before reading the chapters.