Philippe Schlenker, "What It All Means: Semantics for (Almost) Everything" (MIT Press, 2022)
New Books in Language
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Sign Language and the Semantics of Sign Language
The Milan Congress in 1880 essentially prohibited the use of sign languages in deaf education and it was a complete disaster. Sign language had thrived as a means of deaf education in earlier years starting in basically the late 18th century, early 19th century in France and then in many other countries, including the United States. When it comes to semantics the study of meaning I think there were two specific contributions that sign languages made. The structures that sign languages sometimes make visible, even though they are invisible in spoken language. And one case I mentioned is the issue of variables. So if if I tell you so cozy to Obama then he will be elected. He is ambiguous it can refer to so cozy or
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