Semantics (Palgrave Modern Linguistics)

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It is useful for students and teachersIt is useful for students and teachersIt is useful for students and teachers

good

I'm new to semantics & this book was assigned for a class.The book seems thorough in that it includes the basic concepts of semantics; the book mentions & illustrates the main points. However the book does not flow, so concepts are introduced and abandoned literally paragraph by paragraph. A textbook (in my opinion) should build knowledge from introducing the core concepts and tools and then leading the reader step-by-step into the use of the concepts and tools toward competence in the subject. This book does not do this. Frustrated, I kept flipping back to prior pages and chapters trying to grasp a continuity which simply wasn't there.Instead of definitions and technical examples this book offers chatty paraphrasing which contributed very little to my understanding of semantics. I ended up making lists of the terms/concepts in the book and then looking up their definitions elsewhere.Surely there are better textbooks teaching semantics; if not then someone is missing a golden opportunity to write an accessible technical textbook!

This book is NOT intended as a first introduction to the subject. The author's own caution at the [bottom of p. xi](https://books.google.com/books?id=kK0cBQAAQBAJ&pg=PR11&lpg=PR11&dq=%22the+text+is+intended+to+be+used%22&source=bl&ots=5wUY4Q5DGc&sig=1jb1Ug-TJyN-IZDL9E-d-bZZS6U&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB7IzkmMXRAhUr7YMKHQ9LA8YQ6AEIJDAC#v=onepage&q=%22the%20text%20is%20intended%20to%20be%20used%22&f=false) states:> The text is intended to be used as a coursebook, accompanied by lectureson the topics covered and by discussion of the exercises. This book is not a'teach yourself' text for private, unassisted study. The exercises included are ofvarying difficulty — some are for basic review and are suitable for private revi-sion, but the more demanding of exercises may best be used as the basis of classdiscussion sessions. As always, students are urged to also read other introductions to semanticswhich take a different approach.