Word Meaning and Montague Grammar
Word Meaning and Montague Grammar

Author: D. R. Dowty

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 9400994737

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The most general goal of this book is to propose and illustrate a program of research in word semantics that combines some of the methodology and results in linguistic semantics, primarily that of the generative semantics school, with the rigorously formalized syntactic and semantic framework for the analysis of natural languages developed by Richard Montague and his associates, a framework in which truth and denotation with respect to a model are taken as the fundamental semantic notions. I hope to show, both from the linguist's and the philosopher's point of view, not only why this synthesis can be undertaken but also why it will be useful to pursue it. On the one hand, the linguists' decompositions of word meanings into more primitive parts are by themselves inherently incomplete, in that they deal only in distinctions in meaning without providing an account of what mean ings really are. Not only can these analyses be made complete by a model theoretic semantics, but also such an account of these analyses renders them more exact and more readily testable than they could ever be otherwise.

Linguistics, Philosophy, and Montague Grammar
Linguistics, Philosophy, and Montague Grammar

Author: Steven Davis

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2014-07-03

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0292771622

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This volume presents significant developments in the field of Montague Grammar and outlines its past and future contributions to philosophy and linguistics. The contents are as follows: Introduction by Steven Davis and Marianne Mithun Emmon Bach, "Montague Grammar and Classical Transformational Grammar" Barbara H. Partee, "Constraining Transformational Montague Grammar: A Framework and a Fragment" James D. McCawley, "Helpful Hints to the Ordinary Working Montague Grammarian" Terence Parsons, "Type Theory and Ordinary Language" David R. Dowty, "Dative 'Movement' and Thomason's Extensions of Montague Grammar" Muffy E. A. Siegel, "Measure Adjectives in Montague Grammar" Michael Bennett, "Mass Nouns and Mass Terms in Montague Grammar" Jeroen Groenendijk and Martin Stokhof, "Infinitives and Context in Montague Grammar" James Waldo, "A PTQ Semantics for Sortal Incorrectness"

Montague Grammar
Montague Grammar

Author: Barbara H Partee

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2014-05-10

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 1483277690

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Montague Grammar is a collection of papers that discusses Richard Montague's work on the syntax and semantics of natural languages. The papers examine the applications of Montague's theory to problems of syntax and semantics, and compares Montague's approach to other theories of language. One paper describes the features in Montague's "The Proper Treatment of Quantification in Ordinary English" (PTQ), namely, the grammatical categories and lexicon, the rules most similar to CF-rules, and the treatment of quantification. Another paper presents mechanisms to Montague's grammatical framework which will allow a variety of English constructions—especially those involving sentence embedding. The paper discusses syntactic rules, such as noun phrases, verb phrases, subject-predicate sentences, variable binding, abstracts, verbs taking infinitive complements, the copula, participles. One paper describes a fragment of English that is a variation and extension of the fragment presented in Montague. It also analyses adjectival phrases, three-place and other kinds of verbs, the passive voice, reflexive pronouns, and sentences using the dummy subject "it." Another paper proposes rules, syntactics, and semantics for use in nonrestrictive clauses in a Montague grammar. One paper analyzes factives, their semantic and syntactic properties using the work of Kiparsky and Kiparsky (1971). Montague's "Universal Grammar" (UG) invokes expositions of Montague syntax, Cooper syntax, theorems on conversion process, semantic interpretation, semantic equivalence of the two systems, and interpretive semantics. The collection is intended for readers of Montague, as well as for linguists, philosophers, and students of language.

Introduction to Montague Semantics
Introduction to Montague Semantics

Author: D. R. Dowty

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9400990650

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In this book we hope to acquaint the reader with the fundamentals of truth conditional model-theoretic semantics, and in particular with a version of this developed by Richard Montague in a series of papers published during the 1960's and early 1970's. In many ways the paper 'The Proper Treatment of Quantification in Ordinary English' (commonly abbreviated PTQ) represents the culmination of Montague's efforts to apply the techniques developed within mathematical logic to the semantics of natural languages, and indeed it is the system outlined there that people generally have in mind when they refer to "Montague Grammar". (We prefer the term "Montague Semantics" inasmuch as a grammar, as conceived of in current linguistics, would contain at least a phonological component, a morphological component, and other subsystems which are either lacking entirely or present only in a very rudi mentary state in the PTQ system. ) Montague's work has attracted increasing attention in recent years among linguists and philosophers since it offers the hope that semantics can be characterized with the same formal rigor and explicitness that transformational approaches have brought to syntax. Whether this hope can be fully realized remains to be seen, but it is clear nonetheless that Montague semantics has already established itself as a productive para digm, leading to new areas of inquiry and suggesting new ways of conceiving of theories of natural language. Unfortunately, Montague's papers are tersely written and very difficult to follow unless one has a considerable background in logical semantics.

Type Logical Grammar
Type Logical Grammar

Author: G.V. Morrill

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9401110425

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This book sets out the foundations, methodology, and practice of a formal framework for the description of language. The approach embraces the trends of lexicalism and compositional semantics in computational linguistics, and theoretical linguistics more broadly, by developing categorial grammar into a powerful and extendable logic of signs. Taking Montague Grammar as its point of departure, the book explains how integration of methods from philosophy (logical semantics), computer science (type theory), linguistics (categorial grammar) and meta-mathematics (mathematical logic ) provides a categorial foundation with coverage including intensionality, quantification, featural polymorphism, domains and constraints. For the first time, the book systematises categorial thinking into a unified program which is at once both logically secured, and a practical tool for pure lexical grammar development with type-theoretic semantics. It should be of interest to all those active in computational linguistics and formal grammar and is suitable for use at advanced undergraduate, postgraduate, and research levels.

Speculative Grammar, Universal Grammar, and Philosophical Analysis of Language
Speculative Grammar, Universal Grammar, and Philosophical Analysis of Language

Author: Dino Buzzetti

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1987-01-01

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9027245258

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This volume brings together papers originally presented at a seminar series on Speculative Grammar, Universal Grammar, and Philosophical Analysis, held at the University of Bologna in 1984. The seminars aimed at considering various aspects of the interplay between linguistic theories on the one hand, and theories of meaning and logic on the other. The point of view was mainly historical, but a theoretical approach was also considered relevant. Theories of grammar and related topics were taken as a focal point of interest; their interaction with philosophical reflections on languages was examined in presentations dealing with different authors and periods, ranging from the Middle Ages to the present day.

The Meaning of Language, second edition
The Meaning of Language, second edition

Author: Heidi Savage

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2020-01-21

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0262348624

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A new edition of a comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of language, substantially updated and reorganized. The philosophy of language aims to answer a broad range of questions about the nature of language, including “what is a language?” and “what is the source of meaning?” This accessible comprehensive introduction to the philosophy of language begins with the most basic properties of language and only then proceeds to the phenomenon of meaning. The second edition has been significantly expanded and reorganized, putting the original content in a contemporary context and offering substantial new material, with extended discussions and entirely new chapters. After establishing the basics, the book discusses general criteria for an adequate theory of meaning, takes a first pass at describing meaning at an abstract level, and distinguishes between meaning and other related phenomena. Building on this, the book then addresses various specific theories of meaning, beginning with early foundational theories and proceeding to more contemporary ones. New to this edition are expanded discussions of Chomsky's work and compositional semantics, among other topics, and new chapters on such subjects as propositions, Montague grammar, and contemporary theories of language. Each chapter has technical terms in bold, followed by definitions, and offers a list of main points and suggested further readings. The book is suitable for use in undergraduate courses in philosophy and linguistics. Some background in philosophy is assumed, but knowledge of philosophy of language is not necessary.