Meaning and Form [Значение и Форма]

In this invited talk, I argue that the opposition of meaning and form as two aspects of language structure should be kept apart from semiotic issues, since grammar cannot be reduced to the combinatorics of signs. Lexical meanings, just like Fregean and Russellian propositions, are atomic and do not project a semantic structure of their own. It is naïve to claim that the meaning of any lexical item, i.e., the verb know, can disintegrated into the meaning of ‘fact’ + meaning of ‘state’ + the meaning of ‘X’. At the same time, lexical and grammatical meanings interact. A major challenge both for lexical and for grammatical semantics is to model the derivation chains like ‘know’ ® ‘get to know’ ® ‘try to get to know’ correctly and to supply all elements with non-contradictory lexicographic descriptions.