Abstract:

Situation semantics sees the meaning of sentences as a relationship between the discourse situation & the described situation. Advantages to such an approach in solving many problems in semantics are described by the originators of the theory, J. Barwise & J. Perry (Situations and Attitudes, Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983). The phenomenon referred to as "complex discourse" clearly indicates the need to add a third factor to this relationship: point of view. The analysis presented here shows that there is no upper limit on the number of points of view that may affect the meaning of the sentence. Addition of this factor increases the flexibility of situation meaning of a given sentence & makes clarification of problems of reference in complex discursive sentences possible. Examples are taken from modern Israeli literature. It is suggested that this approach is also a contribution to literary analysis. 8 References. A. Paris