Formal Semantics of Natural Language

by Edward L. Keenan

Overview

A volume of studies in natural language semantics which brings together work by philosophers, logicians and linguists. The main topics treated are: quantification and reference in natural language; the relations between formal logic, programming languages and natural language; pragmatics and discourse meaning; surface syntax and logical meaning. The volume derives from a colloquium organised in 1973 by the Kings College Research Centre, Cambridge and the papers have been edited for publication by Professor Keenan. It is hoped that the collection will make available some of the best work in this fast-moving field and will stimulate further progress by juxtaposing the different approaches and interests represented here.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521111119
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/07/2009
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	492
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.40(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Quantification in natural language: 1. Adverbs of quantification David Lewis; 2. Deletion and variable binding Barbara Hall Partee; 3. A semantics for superficial and embedded questions in natural language R. D. Hull; 4. Sortal quantification J. E. J. Altham and Neil W. Tennant; Part II. Reference and Cross Reference: 5. Deixis as the source of reference John Lyons; 6. Referential constraints on lexical items Pieter Seuren; 7. On generics Osten Dahl; 8. Quantifiers, definite descriptions and reference Colin Biggs; Part III. Intensional Logic and Syntactic Theory: 9. Two theories about adjectives J. A. W. Kamp; 10. Partial interpretations Franz Von Kutschera; 11. Subcategorisation of adnominal and adverbial modifiers Renate Bartsch; 12. Should generative semantics be related to intensional logic? Carl H. Heidrich; 13. Transformational semantics Arnim von Strechow; Part IV. Questioning Model Theoretic Semantics: 14. Model theoretic semantics and natural language Nicholas Jardine; 15. Model theory and linguistics Timothy C. Potts; Part V. Pragmatics and Sentences in Context: 16. Pragmatics in natural logic George Lakoff; 17. Changing the context Stephen Isard; 18. Conditions of the use of sentences and a semantic representation of topic and focus Petr Sgall; 19. Topics, sentence accent, ellipsis: a proposal for their formal treatment Theo Vennemann; 20. Preference semantics Yorick Wilks; Part VI. Semantics and Surface Syntax: 21. Arguments for assigning tense meanings after certain syntactic transformations apply Joseph Emonds; 22. Towards a formal treatment of the phenomenon of aspect Catherine Fuchs and Jacques Rouault; 23. On the relations between syntax and semantics Maurice Gross; 24. Logical expressive power and syntactic variation in natural language Edward L. Keenan; 25. Clausematiness John R. Ross.