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Strawson Entailment
In formal semantics, Strawson entailment is a variant of the concept of entailment which is insensitive to presupposition failures. Formally, a sentence ''P'' Strawson-entails a sentence ''Q'' iff ''Q'' is always true when ''P'' is true and ''Q''s presuppositions are satisfied. For example, "Maria loves every cat" Strawson-entails "Maria loves her cat" because Maria could not love every cat without loving her own, assuming that she has one. This would not be an ordinary entailment, since the first sentence could be true while the second is undefined on account of a presupposition failure; loving every cat would not guarantee that she owns a cat. Strawson entailment has played an important role in semantic theory since some natural language expressions have been argued to be sensitive to Strawson-entailment rather than pure entailment. For instance, the textbook theory of weak negative polarity items holds that they are licensed only in Strawson-downward entailing environments. Oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formal Semantics (natural Language)
Formal semantics is the scientific study of linguistic meaning through formal tools from logic and mathematics. It is an interdisciplinary field, sometimes regarded as a subfield of both linguistics and philosophy of language. Formal semanticists rely on diverse methods to analyze natural language. Many examine the meaning of a sentence by studying the circumstances in which it would be true. They describe these circumstances using abstract mathematical models to represent entities and their features. The principle of compositionality helps them link the meaning of expressions to abstract objects in these models. This principle asserts that the meaning of a compound expression is determined by the meanings of its parts. Propositional and predicate logic are formal systems used to analyze the semantic structure of sentences. They introduce concepts like singular terms, predicates, quantifiers, and logical connectives to represent the logical form of natural language expres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entailment
Logical consequence (also entailment or logical implication) is a fundamental concept in logic which describes the relationship between statements that hold true when one statement logically ''follows from'' one or more statements. A valid logical argument is one in which the conclusion is entailed by the premises, because the conclusion is the consequence of the premises. The philosophical analysis of logical consequence involves the questions: In what sense does a conclusion follow from its premises? and What does it mean for a conclusion to be a consequence of premises?Beall, JC and Restall, Greg, Logical Consequence' The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2009 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). All of philosophical logic is meant to provide accounts of the nature of logical consequence and the nature of logical truth. Logical consequence is necessary and formal, by way of examples that explain with formal proof and models of interpretation. A sentence is said to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Presupposition
In linguistics and philosophy, a presupposition is an implicit assumption about the world or background belief relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in discourse. Examples of presuppositions include: * ''Jane no longer writes fiction.'' ** Presupposition: Jane once wrote fiction. * ''Have you stopped eating meat?'' ** Presupposition: you had once eaten meat. * ''Have you talked to Hans?'' ** Presupposition: Hans exists. A presupposition is information that is linguistically presented as being mutually known or assumed by the speaker and addressee. This may be required for the utterance to be considered appropriate in context, but it is not uncommon for new information to be encoded in presuppositions without disrupting the flow of conversation (see accommodation below). A presupposition remains mutually known by the speaker and addressee whether the utterance is placed in the form of an assertion, denial, or question, and can be associated with a specific lexi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semantics And Pragmatics
''Semantics and Pragmatics'' (abbreviated ''S&P'') is a peer-reviewed diamond open access academic journal covering research pertaining to meaning in natural language. A highly prestigious journal, it is one of the most important venues in formal semantics, alongside Natural Language Semantics, Linguistics and Philosophy, and the Journal of Semantics. It was established by David Beaver and Kai von Fintel in 2007 and has been published by the Linguistic Society of America since 2013. The journal is funded by MIT and UT Austin, eliminating the need for article processing fees faced by many other open access initiatives. Its current editors-in-chief are Louise McNally and Kjell Johan Sæbø. The journal's establishment has been viewed as part of a trend towards a tighter integration between formal semantics and formal pragmatics. Work published in the journal includes papers from the ongoing debate regarding whether implicatures are computed within the grammar or via post-c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Language
A natural language or ordinary language is a language that occurs naturally in a human community by a process of use, repetition, and change. It can take different forms, typically either a spoken language or a sign language. Natural languages are distinguished from constructed and formal languages such as those used to program computers or to study logic. Defining natural language Natural languages include ones that are associated with linguistic prescriptivism or language regulation. ( Nonstandard dialects can be viewed as a wild type in comparison with standard languages.) An official language with a regulating academy such as Standard French, overseen by the , is classified as a natural language (e.g. in the field of natural language processing), as its prescriptive aspects do not make it constructed enough to be a constructed language or controlled enough to be a controlled natural language. Natural language are different from: * artificial and constructed la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Negative Polarity Item
In grammar and linguistics, a polarity item is a lexical item that is associated with affirmation or negation. An affirmation is a positive polarity item, abbreviated PPI or AFF. A negation is a negative polarity item, abbreviated NPI or NEG. The linguistic environment in which a polarity item appears is a licensing context. In the simplest case, an affirmative statement provides a licensing context for a PPI, while negation provides a licensing context for an NPI. However, there are many complications, and not all polarity items of a particular type have the same licensing contexts. In English As examples of polarity items, consider the English lexical items ''somewhat'' and ''at all'', as used in the following sentences: # I liked the film somewhat. # I didn't like the film at all. # *I liked the film at all. # *I didn't like the film somewhat. As can be seen, ''somewhat'' is licensed by the affirmative environment of sentence (1), but it is forbidden (anti-licensed) by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Downward Entailing
In linguistics, linguistic semantics, a downward entailing (DE) propositional operator is one that constrains the meaning of an expression to a lower number or degree than would be possible without the expression. For example, "not," "nobody," "few people," "at most two boys." Conversely, an Upward entailing, upward-entailing operator constrains the meaning of an expression to a higher number or degree, for example "more than one." A context that is neither downward nor upward entailing is ''non-monotone'', such as "exactly five." A downward-entailing operator reverses the relation of ''semantic strength'' among expressions. An expression like "run fast" is semantically ''stronger'' than the expression "run" since "John ran fast" entailment (pragmatics), entails "John ran," but not conversely. But a downward-entailing context reverses this strength; for example, the proposition "At most two boys ran" entails that "At most two boys ran fast" but not the other way around. An upward-en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scalar Implicature
In pragmatics, scalar implicature, or quantity implicature, is an implicature that attributes an ''implicit'' meaning beyond the explicit or ''literal'' meaning of an utterance, and which suggests that the utterer had a reason for not using a more informative or ''stronger'' term on the same scale. The choice of the weaker characterization suggests that, as far as the speaker knows, none of the stronger characterizations in the scale holds. This is commonly seen in the use of 'some' to suggest the meaning 'not all', even though 'some' is logically consistent with 'all'. If Bill says 'I have some of my money in cash', this utterance suggests to a hearer (though the sentence uttered does not logically imply it) that Bill does not have all his money in cash. Origin Scalar implicatures typically arise where the speaker qualifies or scales their statement with language that conveys to the listener an inference or implicature that indicates that the speaker had reasons not to use a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linguistics And Philosophy
''Linguistics and Philosophy'' is a peer-reviewed journal which publishes work addressing meaning and structure in natural language. It is one of four top journals in formal semantics, alongside Natural Language Semantics, the Journal of Semantics, and Semantics and Pragmatics. Papers in the journal tend to emphasize concerns shared by linguists and philosophers, and are intended to be accessible to readers from both fields. The journal is a continuation of the earlier ''Foundations of Language'' which had been founded by Frits Staal in order to encourage interaction between linguists, philosophers, and logicians. The current Editors-in-Chief are philosopher Michael Glanzberg (Rutgers University) and linguist Yael Sharvit (UCLA). References External links Linguistics and Philosophy— official website @ Springer Science+Business Media Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homogeneity (semantics)
In formal semantics, homogeneity is the phenomenon where plural expressions that seem to mean "all" negate to "none" rather than "not all". For example, the English sentence "Robin read the books" requires Robin to have read all of the books, while "Robin didn't read the books" requires her to have read none of them. Neither sentence is true if she read exactly half of the books. Homogeneity effects have been observed in a variety of languages including Japanese, Russian, and Hungarian. Semanticists have proposed a variety of explanations for homogeneity, often involving a combination of presupposition, plural quantification, and trivalent logics. Because analogous effects have been observed with conditionals and other modal expressions, some semanticists have proposed that these phenomena involve pluralities of possible worlds. Overview Homogeneous interpretations arise when a plural expression seems to mean "all" when asserted but "none" when negated. For example, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Law Of Excluded Middle
In logic, the law of excluded middle or the principle of excluded middle states that for every proposition, either this proposition or its negation is true. It is one of the three laws of thought, along with the law of noncontradiction and the law of identity; however, no system of logic is built on just these laws, and none of these laws provides inference rules, such as modus ponens or De Morgan's laws. The law is also known as the law/principle of the excluded third, in Latin ''principium tertii exclusi''. Another Latin designation for this law is ''tertium non datur'' or "no third ossibilityis given". In classical logic, the law is a tautology. In contemporary logic the principle is distinguished from the semantical principle of bivalence, which states that every proposition is either true or false. The principle of bivalence always implies the law of excluded middle, while the converse is not always true. A commonly cited counterexample uses statements unprovable n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trivalent Logic
In logic, a three-valued logic (also trinary logic, trivalent, ternary, or trilean, sometimes abbreviated 3VL) is any of several many-valued logic systems in which there are three truth values indicating ''true'', ''false'', and some third value. This is contrasted with the more commonly known bivalent logics (such as classical sentential or Boolean logic) which provide only for ''true'' and ''false''. Emil Leon Post is credited with first introducing additional logical truth degrees in his 1921 theory of elementary propositions. The conceptual form and basic ideas of three-valued logic were initially published by Jan Łukasiewicz and Clarence Irving Lewis. These were then re-formulated by Grigore Constantin Moisil in an axiomatic algebraic form, and also extended to ''n''-valued logics in 1945. Pre-discovery Around 1910, Charles Sanders Peirce defined a many-valued logic system. He never published it. In fact, he did not even number the three pages of notes where he defined ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
