Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Format of Original

20 p.

Publication Date

2003

Publisher

The Review of Modern Logic

Source Publication

Review of Modern Logic

Source ISSN

1943-7404

Abstract

Our topic is one that involves the interface between natural language and mathematical logic. First-order predicate language/logic does a good job approximating many parts of (English) speech, i.e., nouns, verbs and prepositions, but fails decidedly when it comes to, say, adjectives. In particular, it cannot account for the quite different ways in which the adjectives green and big modify a noun such as chair. In the former case, we can easily view a world in which the class of green chairs is the intersection of the class of green things with the class of chair-things. By contrast, the way big modifies a noun depends on the noun itself: a big chair is microscopic when compared to the smallest of galaxies. We investigate logical languages inspired by this phenomenon; particularly those with variables ranging over individuals and with variable-binding operators akin to generalized quantifiers.

Comments

Published Version. Review of Modern Logic, Vol. 9, No. 1/2 (2003): 9-28. Permalink. © 2003 The Review of Modern Logic. Used with permission.

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