Abstract: Introduces the principles of semantics, explains how language works, and how an understanding of semantics is useful in everyday life situations.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-336).

Contents: Book One: The functions of language -- Foreword: Red-Eye and the woman problem: A semantic parable -- 1. Language and survival -- What animals shall we imitate? -- Cooperation -- The pooling of knowledge -- The Niagara of words -- Applications -- 2. Symbols -- The symbolic process -- Language as symbolism -- The pitfalls of drama -- The word is not the thing -- Maps and territories -- Applications -- 3. Reports, inferences, judgments -- Verifiability -- Inferences -- Judgments -- Snarl words and purr words -- How judgments stop thought -- Slanting -- Discovering one's bias -- Applications -- 4. Contexts -- How dictionaries are made -- Verbal and physical contexts -- Extensional and intensional meaning -- The "one word, one meaning" fallacy -- Ignoring contexts -- The interaction of words -- Applications -- 5. The language of social cohesion -- Noises as expression -- Noise for noise's sake -- The value of unoriginal remarks -- maintenance of communication lines -- Presymbolic language in ritual -- Advice to the literal-minded -- Applications -- 6. The double task of language -- Connotations -- Informative connotations -- Affective connotations -- A note on verbal taboo -- Words with built-in judgments -- Everyday uses of language -- Applications -- 7. The language of social control -- Making things happen -- The promises of directive language -- The foundations of society -- Directives with collective sanction -- What are "rights"? -- Directives and disillusionment -- Applications -- 8. The language of affective communication -- Verbal hypnotism -- More affective elements -- Metaphor and simile -- Simile -- Dead metaphor -- Allusion -- Irony, pathos, and humor -- The affectiveness of facts -- Levels of writing -- What literature is for -- Symbolic experience -- Science and literature -- Applications -- 9. Art and tension -- Bearing the unbearable -- Some "symbolic strategies" -- "Equipment for living" -- Art as order -- Applications.

English