Customer Reviews

Understanding Semantics (Understanding Language)

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First of all, reading a book - of whatever subject - and liking it, basically requires one thing: interest in its topic. This may sound trivial but with regard to the previous comment it seems anything but self-evident. No offense [really!], but as far as I can see it the previous review has been written by someone who is not at all eager to truly understand the contents of Loebner's work.

Fair enough, semantics is one of the more difficult subfields of our discipline, but isn't it exactly THIS what makes it so fascinating? If your answer to this question is 'yes', the acquisition of this volume might be an option for you to consider. If it's 'no' you should probably refrain from commenting negatively. Imagine I say: 'This meat tastes horrible.' A person who doesn't know my nutritional habits will probably deduce that the meat is of inferior quality...Logical, huh? Taking into consideration, however, that I am a vegetarian my comment is to be viewed entirely different. There ya go...;-)

Back to the book: It comes well-structured into ten chapters, which are, contrary to what has been said before, a pleasure to read. A jovial and cheerful tone encourages the lecture; a wide variety of examples complete the theoretical part. [Has the first reviewer reviewed the right book?? And if so, did he read it??]

Some passages might appear a little redundant, if only occasionally, but that doesn't - by no means - narrow the density of Loebner's work. And this is, after all, an introductory work, aimed at students who have no or only little previous knowledge of semantics. So, probably better to say something twice than explaining to briefly, right?

Anways, a great book that has kindled my interst to further pursue semantics! Totally recommendable.

Ok, so semantics isn't the sexiest thing in linguistics (if you think it is, you might like this book), so could they really make it any drier? Hardly any examples, boring tone, unclear explanations... pure sleep-inducing material. I wish someone would write a better semantics text - I might have slept less and gotten a higher grade...