User:Phlsph7/Formal semantics - History
History
[edit]Formal semantics has its roots in the development of modern logic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Gottlob Frege laid the foundations of predicate logic and examined how this logical system can be used to analyze natural language arguments. He engaged in this analysis using a small number of basic concepts of formal semantics, such as individual terms, predicates, quantifiers, and logical connectives. Frege also formulated the principle of compositionality and introduced the distinction between sense and reference.[1]
Following Frege's work, Alfred Tarski developed a rigorous theory of truth in formal languages starting in the 1930s. He provided a precise analysis of truth conditions and clarified the concept of logical consequence. His work formed a cornerstone of model theory.[2] Rudolf Carnap synthesized and generalized many of Frege's and Tarski's ideas. To overcome problems associated with extensional definitions of meaning, Carnap pioneered the study of intensional semantics, defining intensions as functions from possible worlds to denotations.[3]
Donald Davidson was influenced by Tarski's approach and emphasized the role of truth conditions as a key component of semantic theory and the analysis of sentence meaning. He also proposed an event-based formalism to translate action sentences into predicate logic.[4] Noam Chomsky's work on generative grammar inspired Jerrold Katz and Jerry Fodor to explore the relation between syntactic rules and semantic content through the principle of compositionality.[5]
Many of these contributions prepared the work of Richard Montague, usually considered the main founding figure of formal semantics. One of his key achievements, starting in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was the development of a systematic formalism for analyzing significant portions of the English language using tools from formal logic. This stood in contrast to many earlier approaches, which addressed some aspects of natural language but were skeptical of broader applications and had their main focus on the analysis of formal languages. Relying on type theory and the principle of compositionality, Montague analyzed complex natural language expressions as nested functions with precisely defined input and output types.[6] This development happened against the background of the "linguistic wars"—a debate between proponents of generative semantics and interpretive semantics about whether syntax and semantics are deeply integrated or independent aspects of language. Montague's approach aimed to provide a unified perspective by explaining the relationship between syntactic and semantic rules.[7] His system also covers intensional sentences such as modal expressions and propositional attitude reports through the concept of possible worlds.[8]
In the following decades, Montague's work influenced many scholars, who sought to refine or modify his insights and apply them to diverse linguistic phenomena.[10] Barbara Partee was instrumental in explaining and popularizing Montague's ideas, helping formal semantics grow into a subfield of linguistics by integrating Montague's insights into linguistic theory.[11] In response, various theorists focused on the relation between syntax and semantics, proposing diverse grammatical theories to explain the interface, such as Generalized phrase structure grammar and Head-driven phrase structure grammar. They also include the contributions of Irene Heim and Angelika Kratzer to the semantics of generative grammar.[12] A parallel development was a rising interest in pragmatics, which examines how the use of an expression affects its meaning, encompassing topics like context dependence, presupposition, and indexicality.[13]
The work of Robert Stalnaker and David Lewis prepared the development of dynamic semantics, which analyzes the meaning of a sentence as the information contribution it makes. Their theories inspired later developments by Hans Kamp, Heim, Jeroen Groenendijk, and Martin Stokhof.[14] Stalnaker and Lewis, together with Saul Kripke, also made influential contributions to possible world semantics.[15] Jon Barwise and John Perry proposed situation semantics as another influential framework. It incorporates many insights from possible worlds semantics but takes a more fine-grained approach, analyzing meaning in terms of situations rather than possible worlds.[16] Both David Kaplan and Pauline Jacobson made various contributions to the study of context-sensitive expressions, such as deictic and anaphoric terms. Jacobson also explored the principle of direct compositionality, which suggests a particularly close link between syntax and semantics.[17]
References
[edit]Notes
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^
- Lappin 2008, pp. 371–373
- King 2009, pp. 557–558
- Harris 2017, pp. 149–150, 161–162
- Partee 2010, pp. 16–17
- ^
- Harris 2017, p. 162
- King 2009
- Partee 2010, p. 17
- Magee 2011, pp. 39–40
- ^
- Harris 2017, pp. 162–163
- Partee 2010, p. 17
- Lappin 2008, pp. 373–374
- ^
- Lappin 2008, pp. 375–376
- Harris 2017, pp. 151–152
- Kearns 2011, pp. 241–245
- ^ Partee 2010, pp. 6–8
- ^
- Harris 2017, pp. 172–175
- Partee 2010, pp. 3–4, 26–27
- Portner & Partee 2002, pp. 3–4
- Lappin 2008, p. 390
- Barwise & Cooper 2002, pp. 114–115
- ^
- Portner & Partee 2002, pp. 3–4
- Partee 2010, pp. 14–15
- Magee 2011, pp. 40–41
- ^
- Harris 2017, pp. 172–175
- Partee 2010, pp. 3–4, 26–27
- Portner & Partee 2002, pp. 3–4
- ^ Partee 2010, pp. 15, 31, 34–36
- ^
- Portner & Partee 2002, pp. 3–6
- Partee 2010, pp. 36–38
- ^ Partee 2010, pp. 15, 31, 34–36
- ^
- Portner & Partee 2002, pp. 4–5
- Partee 2010, p. 36
- ^
- Portner & Partee 2002, pp. 5
- Partee 2010, pp. 38–40
- ^
- ^
- Partee 2010, pp. 19–20
- King 2009
- ^ Portner & Partee 2002, pp. 6
- ^
- Harris 2017, pp. 158–159
- Dowty 2007, p. 48
- King 2009
Sources
[edit]- Harris, Daniel W. (2017). "The History and Prehistory of Natural-Language Semantics". In Lapointe, Sandra; Pincock, Christopher (eds.). Innovations in the History of Analytical Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 149–194. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-40808-2_6. ISBN 978-1-137-40807-5.
- Partee, Barbara H (2010). "Formal Semantics: Origins, Issues, Early Impact". Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication. 6 (1): 1–52. doi:10.4148/biyclc.v6i0.1580.
- Dowty, David (2007). "Compositionality as an Empirical Problem". In Barker, Chris; Jacobson, Pauline (eds.). Direct Compositionality. Oxford University Press. pp. 23–101. ISBN 978-0-19-152540-7.
- Magee, Liam (2011). "The Meaning of Meaning: Alternative Disciplinary Perspectives". In Cope, Bill; Kalantzis, Mary; Magee, Liam (eds.). Towards A Semantic Web: Connecting Knowledge in Academic Research. Elsevier. pp. 35–80. ISBN 978-1-78063-174-5.
- Barwise, Jon; Cooper, Robin (2002). "Generalized Quantifiers and Natural Language". In Portner, Paul H.; Partee, Barbara H. (eds.). Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings. Blackwell Publishers. pp. 75–126. ISBN 0-631-21541-7.