In
formal semantics, existential closure is an operation which introduces
existential quantification
In predicate logic, an existential quantification is a type of quantifier, a logical constant which is interpreted as "there exists", "there is at least one", or "for some". It is usually denoted by the logical operator symbol ∃, which, whe ...
. It was first posited by
Irene Heim
Irene Roswitha Heim (born in Munich, Germany, on October 30, 1954) is a linguist and a leading specialist in semantics. She was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and UCLA before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology i ...
in her 1982 dissertation, as part of her analysis of
indefinite
Indefinite may refer to:
* the opposite of definite in grammar
** indefinite article
** indefinite pronoun
* Indefinite integral, another name for the antiderivative
* Indefinite forms in algebra, see definite quadratic forms
* an indefinite matr ...
s. In her formulation, existential closure is a form of ''unselective binding'' which
binds any number of variables of any semantic type. In
alternative semantics and related frameworks, the term is often applied to a closely related operation which existentially quantifies over a set of
propositional
In logic and linguistics, a proposition is the meaning of a declarative sentence. In philosophy, " meaning" is understood to be a non-linguistic entity which is shared by all sentences with the same meaning. Equivalently, a proposition is the no ...
alternatives.
See also
*
Alternative semantics
*
Irene Heim
Irene Roswitha Heim (born in Munich, Germany, on October 30, 1954) is a linguist and a leading specialist in semantics. She was a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and UCLA before moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology i ...
*
Free variable
*
Scope (formal semantics) In formal semantics, the scope of a semantic operator is the semantic object to which it applies. For instance, in the sentence "''Paulina doesn't drink beer but she does drink wine''," the proposition that Paulina drinks beer occurs within the sco ...
References
Semantics
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