Questions tagged [formal-semantics]
The formal-semantics tag has no usage guidance.
92 questions
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Extensional context: "S believes in x"
I know that there is some research in philosophy on the difference between (A) "S believes that p" and (B) "S believes in x" (e.g. H. H. Price and Gendler Szabó). But I cannot find ...
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How much (formal) semantics does one need to study syntax?
If one were planning studying syntax beyond a beginner level, how much formal semantics would they need? If this is too broad a question, then what is the minimum they need? Is a beginner course ...
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how compatible is optimality theory with formal semantics
I know that several grammatical approaches are compatible with classical formal semantics other than mainstream Chomskyan ones (e.g. HPSG).
But how does Optimality Theory deal with lambdas and so ...
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Formal syntax and semantics for Turkish
as a student of linguistics and admirer of Turkish, I wondered whether there are good introductory books for formal syntax and (Montague) semantics for Turkish. Thanks in advance!
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On colorless green ideas
I’m pretty new here. My main focus is logic, so I spend most of my time on the math and philosophy forums.
Chomsky proposed that while “colorless green ideas sleep furiously” is a well-formed sentence ...
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Having a hard time distinguishing between the simple and perfective aspects
It seems to me that the truth conditions for "David baked cookies" are identical to "David has baked cookies," in that both are true if at some moment of time in the past "...
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An Overview of Mathematical-Logical Approaches in Formalizing Natural Languages
I am an undergraduate mathematics student with a keen interest in pursuing research in the formalization of natural languages (from a more mathematical-logical approach), yet there aren't many ...
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Present participles in a noun phrase
I'm working on a research project on premodufying present participles and I would like to have a native speaker's impression on the grammaticality or frequency of the following options.
There are ...
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What are the semantics of questions and requests/commands?
In linguistics, is it correct that statement i.e. declarative clause (sentence) has a truth value (true or false or maybe other value?) i.e. logic as its semantics?
What does a question (yes-no, or ...
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Reference text on Reichenbach's or Klein's work on the formal semantics of tense
I'm looking for a decent reference text on either Reicehnbach's or, more ideally, Klein's work on the formal semantics of tense with regards to topic time, event time, etc.
Klein's initial text on the ...
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Formal semantics of the coordination of tense and modality
There seems to be a good amount of work on the formal semantics of tense, e.g. statements of the form "Dave ate the cookie," and also of modality, e.g. statements of the form "Dave ...
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Canonical treatment of tense and modality within formal semantics
I'm thinking about expressions like "Ronit must have won the game," where we have an intersection of tense and modality.
Conventional wisdom is to use Kratzer's notion of ordering source and ...
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Should λ-terms all be easily translated back into natural language syntax?
We have encountered this question when we try to read Heim and Kratzer's book. This following picture is taken from Heim & Kratzer (1998: 40).
Our answers are simply based on the subscripts:
(a) ...
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Are argument clauses and verbal expressions individual constants or individual variables (or perhaps individual predicate-argument constants)?
I am studying first order predicate logic in the context of formal semantics for natural language. Propositions are understood in terms of predicates and their arguments. A given predicate takes 0 to ...
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Formal semantics of phrases like “I need to go to the store”
Phrases like “I need to go to the store” do not express logical or contingent necessity. Possible words in which one does not go to the store feasibly exist. These phrases behave more as some kind of ...
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What aspect of meaning is not captured by the translation from natural language to PropL?
So I was given the sentence "I don’t drink and drive", and asked to translate it into PropL and indicate at least one aspect of meaning that the logical translation doesn’t
capture.
To ...
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What are the practical differences between type-logical/categorial and context-free based approaches to semantic parsing?
I am currently reading Bob Carpenter's Type-Logical Semantics, which goes over the Type-Logical approach to natural language semantics. I understand that categorial grammar is technically different ...
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Where can I find an extensive inventory of types of the sort that one encounters in formal semantics (think e, <e,t>, <e,<e,t>>, etc.)?
My exposure so far to type theory in formal semantics has included examples of rather simple phrases and sentences only. Individual constants of are type e (e.g. John, Chicago, etc.), intransitive ...
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Why are these words lacking picturesque meaning?
I was thinking about words that would be as hard as possible to mime (for example, in a game like Charades).
I thought of some words - “the”, “of”, “as”, “a”, “if”, “general”, “abstract”.
Consider how ...
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Do predicates always map to truth values in formal semantics?
I have been informed here What is the difference between function and predicate? that in formal semantics, predicates are always functions that map from individuals (i.e. arguments) to truth values. ...
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What is the difference between function and predicate?
I am currently watching videos on formal semantics in Youtube. I find that the terms function and predicate are used a lot and that what they mean is similar. Functions take one or more arguments, and ...
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How do you write "in" in logical form?
"There is a beer in the fridge."
There exists a beer and there exists a fridge such that the beer is in the fridge.
\exists x [BEER(x)] \exists y [FRIDGE(y)] IN(x,y)
I guess I never ...
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What is the formal semantics approach to predicative adjectives?
I am wondering if there is a standard treatment of expressions such as "x is ready" or "x is proud". It seems to me that something like BE(x,ready) or BE-READY(x) is not enough, ...
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What is the purpose of "x" in the Venn-diagrams depicting categorical propositions?
See the I- and O-diagrams of this article. The "x" does not make sense the way it is formulated. Every member of the intersection is a member of the intersection, obviously.
The "x"...
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Formalizing Natural Languages
I've been interested in the subject of metalanguages [in mathematical logic] and how (if) we can formalize them. Most metalanguages I've encountered use some variation of a natural language (such as ...
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Series of textbooks to learn semantics from beginners' to advanced level
I am not a student of linguistics, but my interest in mathematics, philosophy and computer science inevitably leads me to many terms and concepts used in linguistics, particularly semantics. I have ...
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what's the denotation of the predicate 'exists'?
What denotation do linguists assign to the predicate exists in order to make the right predictions about the truth conditions of sentences like
Santa does not exist.
Unicorns do not exist.
My ...
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A question regarding semantics of "only"
I have a question regarding semantics of only provided by Beaver & Clark (2009) and Chierchia (2013).
for something like "Sandy only met [Bush]F" (let this proposition be called p). ...
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Does simple type theory distinguish between those common nouns that are used as arguments and those that are used as predicates?
Kearns (2011: 58-61) views the common noun dog to be of type <e, t>. This makes sense based upon the predicate use of such a noun, e.g. Those animals are dogs. What happens, though, when the ...
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Is there an approach to quantification theory that construes quantifiers as subset creators?
In formal semantics, the theory of generalized quantifiers analyzes quantifiers (e.g. all, some, no, most, few, etc.) in terms of sets to sets. The meaning of the quantifier some, for instance, is ...
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What's a good second formal semantics book?
I'm almost done reading Heim and Kratzer's Semantics in Generative Grammar and I'm looking for a good "second" book on formal semantics. Ideally, I would like it to emphasize the syntax-...
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Lectures on Semantics in Generative Grammar
I do not know if my question is pertinent, but I would like to ask if you know any places where to find video lectures on formal semantics in linguistics, specifically approaches treated in Heim and ...
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Quantifier clause in Heim's presupposition theory
there is a point in a paper by Irene Heim related to problems with presuppositions in complex sentences that I do not properly get. The article is the following: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10....
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Is there a standard accepted definition of in-situ quantification, and if so what is it?
I'm reading a paper that references Montague being focused on in-situ quantification. I'm not a linguist, so apologies for the naivety, but how does this differ from what is being called bounded ...
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If adjectives denote functions of type <<e,t>,<e,t>>, then what denotation of *be* will allow adjectives to appear in predicative position?
Suppose [[gray]] = λf ∈ D<e,t> . [λx ∈ De . f(x) = 1 and x is gray]. Since this function is of type <<e,t>,<e,t>>, it would seem that sentences like Julius is gray are ...
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Inverse scope reading
It is well known that any sentence with two or more quantifiers will result in in multiple possible readings depending on the ordering of the quantifiers. To take a known example (1), there will be ...
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Know and Factivity
Consider the following sentence:
(1) I don't know that John kissed Mary.
When I assert this sentence, am I contradicting myself? The reason is as follows: following Stalnaker's view on the factivity ...
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Intuitionistic type theory in linguistics
How important is type theory for modern formal linguistics? I am looking for modern references that build on Ranta's (Ranta, Aarne. "Type-theoretical grammar." (1994)) use of type theory for ...
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Can formal linguistics help language learning?
I am interested in the intersection between abstract, formal grammars/semantics of human language and the very concrete task of learning a new language. Are there any books whose presentation assumes ...
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Angelika Kratzer's modal bases
In Kratzer’s theory, for each world w, modal base is the set of propositions p such that the speaker knows in w that p is true, e.g. f(w) = {p1, p2, p3}.
Following the standard assumption in possible ...
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Is formal semantics useful for computational linguistics and NLP?
I browsed the table of content of Cann's Formal Semantics. Cann's book is for linguistics, and am I right that it is helpful for computational linguistics and natural language processing?
But it also ...
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Tools for converting text to logical form
What's the State of the Art in software for converting text to some sort of logical form? Pros and con's of different packages approaches, if more than one exists?
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'some students,' 'many students' etc. in logical formula
'John met the student' would translate as:
(∃x student(x) ⋀ (∀y (student(y) → y = x)) ⋀ met(j,x))
where, j stands for John.
We have the existential quantifier and the universal quantifier; hence, ...
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truth condition of 'uniqueness' in the (neo) Russellian theory
I'm trying to work out how (∀y (student(y) → y = x) represents uniqueness. How come we need that formula there? Doesn't just ∃x student(x) ⋀ met(j,x)) suffice? Or, would it be the expression for I ...
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Is there a way to express a negation modifier in lambda calculus?
I want to model the Middle High German sentence "Ih néhabo niêht in geméitun sô uuîlo geuuêinot" that can be glossed as "I Neg-have not-at-all in vain so much cried" meaning "I have not at all cried ...
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What explanatory advantages does so-called "type theory" have?
Some linguists use a theory called "type theory"; you can see it in a few questions on this site.
Apparently it is based on the "type theory" of maths, logic, and computer science. Wikipedia's ...
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Definite descriptions and essentially indistinguishable participants
In the analysis of definite descriptions there is a problem called "The Problem of Indistinguishable Participants", exemplified by the so-called bishop sentences:
If a bishop meets a bishop, the ...
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Is language "necessarily underspecified"?
I've read an exam question given in a class on Semantics, that was asking
Why is language necessarily underspecified
I did not find much about this at the time, which is surprising because it ...
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What's an Event Argument?
Davidsonian and Neo-davidsonian formal semantics is full of templates containing something labelled as Event Argument. For example, In Kratzer (1996, p.1), discussing severing the external argument ...
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existential force and universal force
I was reading the paper below, and because of my lack of knowledge on the linguistic terms, I have been stuck half way through. If you would be kind enough to enlighten me, I would be very much ...
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