Formal Semantics The Essential Readings

by Portner, Paul H.; Partee, Barbara H.

• ISBN13: 9780631215424
• ISBN10: 0631215425
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-11
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The formal semantics approach to the study of natural language semantics was developed through active dialogue between linguistically minded philosophers and philosophically minded linguists and has become increasingly integrated into theoretical linguistics. Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings is a collection of seminal papers that have shaped the field of formal semantics in linguistics. The book covers key central themes and includes both an editorial introduction and extensive references. It is a vital resource for students and scholars of semantics and the philosophy of language.

Author Biography

Paul Portner is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Acting Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science at Georgetown University. He is the author of numerous articles on topics such as mood and modality, tense and aspect, and the syntax/semantics interface.

Barbara H. Partee is Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is the author of several landmark essays in formal semantics. She has written and edited numerous books, including Mathematical Methods in Linguistics (with Alice ter Meulen and Robert Wall, 1990), Montague Grammar (edited, 1976), and Quantification in Natural Languages (edited, with Emmon Bach, Eloise Jelinek, and Angelika Kratzer, 1995).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(16)
Paul Portner
Barbara H. Partee
The Proper Treatment of Quantification in Ordinary English	17	(18)
Richard Montague
A Unified Analysis of the English Bare Plural	35	(40)
Greg N. Carlson
Generalized Quantifiers and Natural Language	75	(52)
Jon Barwise
Robin Cooper
The Logical Analysis of Plurals and Mass Terms: A Lattice-theoretical Approach	127	(20)
Godehard Link
Assertion	147	(15)
Robert C. Stalnaker
Scorekeeping in a Language Game	162	(16)
David Lewis
Adverbs of Quantification	178	(11)
David Lewis
A Theory of Truth and Semantic Representation	189	(34)
Hans Kamp
File Change Semantics and the Familiarity Theory of Definiteness	223	(26)
Irene Heim
On the Projection Problem for Presuppositions	249	(12)
Irene Heim
Toward a Semantic Analysis of Verb Aspect and the English ``Imperfective'' Progressive	261	(28)
David R. Dowty
The Notional Category of Modality	289	(35)
Angelika Kratzer
The Algebra of Events	324	(10)
Emmon Bach
Generalized Conjunction and Type Ambiguity	334	(23)
Barbara H. Partee
Mats Rooth
Noun Phrase Interpretation and Type-shifting Principles	357	(25)
Barbara H. Partee
Syntax and Semantics of Questions	382	(39)
Lauri Karttunen
Type-shifting Rules and the Semantics of Interrogatives	421	(36)
Jeroen Groenendijk
Martin Stokhof
On the Notion Affective in the Analysis of Negative-polarity Items	457	(14)
William A. Ladusaw
Index	471