Word Meaning and Montague Grammar PDF Download

Author: D. R. Dowty
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400994737
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
The most general goal of this book is to propose and illustrate a program of research in word semantics that combines some of the methodology and results in linguistic semantics, primarily that of the generative semantics school, with the rigorously formalized syntactic and semantic framework for the analysis of natural languages developed by Richard Montague and his associates, a framework in which truth and denotation with respect to a model are taken as the fundamental semantic notions. I hope to show, both from the linguist's and the philosopher's point of view, not only why this synthesis can be undertaken but also why it will be useful to pursue it. On the one hand, the linguists' decompositions of word meanings into more primitive parts are by themselves inherently incomplete, in that they deal only in distinctions in meaning without providing an account of what mean ings really are. Not only can these analyses be made complete by a model theoretic semantics, but also such an account of these analyses renders them more exact and more readily testable than they could ever be otherwise.

Author: Barbara H Partee
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483277690
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Montague Grammar is a collection of papers that discusses Richard Montague's work on the syntax and semantics of natural languages. The papers examine the applications of Montague's theory to problems of syntax and semantics, and compares Montague's approach to other theories of language. One paper describes the features in Montague's "The Proper Treatment of Quantification in Ordinary English" (PTQ), namely, the grammatical categories and lexicon, the rules most similar to CF-rules, and the treatment of quantification. Another paper presents mechanisms to Montague's grammatical framework which will allow a variety of English constructions—especially those involving sentence embedding. The paper discusses syntactic rules, such as noun phrases, verb phrases, subject-predicate sentences, variable binding, abstracts, verbs taking infinitive complements, the copula, participles. One paper describes a fragment of English that is a variation and extension of the fragment presented in Montague. It also analyses adjectival phrases, three-place and other kinds of verbs, the passive voice, reflexive pronouns, and sentences using the dummy subject "it." Another paper proposes rules, syntactics, and semantics for use in nonrestrictive clauses in a Montague grammar. One paper analyzes factives, their semantic and syntactic properties using the work of Kiparsky and Kiparsky (1971). Montague's "Universal Grammar" (UG) invokes expositions of Montague syntax, Cooper syntax, theorems on conversion process, semantic interpretation, semantic equivalence of the two systems, and interpretive semantics. The collection is intended for readers of Montague, as well as for linguists, philosophers, and students of language.

Author: Sebastian Loebner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134647158
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
This series provides approachable, yet authoritative, introductions to all the major topics in linguistics. Ideal for students with little or no prior knowledge of linguistics, each book carefully explains the basics, emphasising understanding of the essential notions rather than arguing for a particular theoretical position. Understanding Semantics offers a complete introduction to linguistic semantics. The book takes a step-by-step approach, starting with the basic concepts and moving through the central questions to examine the methods and results of the science of linguistic meaning. Understanding Semantics unites the treatment of a broad scale of phenomena using data from different languages with a thorough investigation of major theoretical perspectives. It leads the reader from their intuitive knowledge of meaning to a deeper understanding of the use of scientific reasoning in the study of language as a communicative tool, of the nature of linguistic meaning, and of the scope and limitations of linguistic semantics. Ideal as a first textbook in semantics for undergraduate students of linguistics, this book is also recommended for students of literature, philosophy, psychology and cognitive science.

Author: Reinhard Muskens
Publisher: Stanford Univ Center for the Study
ISBN: 9781881526797
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
Muskens radically simplifies Montague Semantics and generalises the theory by basing it on a partial higher order logic resulting in a theory which combines important aspects of Montague Semantics and Situation Semantics. Richard Montague formulated the revolutionary insight that we can understand the concept of meaning in ordinary languages much in the same way as we understand the semantics of logical languages. Unfortunately, he formalised his idea in an unnecessarily complex way. The present work does away with unnecessary complexities, obtains a streamlined version of the theory, shows how partialising the theory automatically provides us with the most central concepts of Situation Semantics, and offers a simple logical treatment of propositional attitude verbs, perception verbs and proper names.

Author: Steven Davis
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292740727
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
This volume presents significant developments in the field of Montague Grammar and outlines its past and future contributions to philosophy and linguistics. The contents are as follows: Introduction by Steven Davis and Marianne Mithun Emmon Bach, "Montague Grammar and Classical Transformational Grammar" Barbara H. Partee, "Constraining Transformational Montague Grammar: A Framework and a Fragment" James D. McCawley, "Helpful Hints to the Ordinary Working Montague Grammarian" Terence Parsons, "Type Theory and Ordinary Language" David R. Dowty, "Dative 'Movement' and Thomason's Extensions of Montague Grammar" Muffy E. A. Siegel, "Measure Adjectives in Montague Grammar" Michael Bennett, "Mass Nouns and Mass Terms in Montague Grammar" Jeroen Groenendijk and Martin Stokhof, "Infinitives and Context in Montague Grammar" James Waldo, "A PTQ Semantics for Sortal Incorrectness"

Author: Claudia Maienborn
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110589249
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
Now in paperback for the first time since its original publication, the material gathered here is perfect for anyone who needs a detailed and accessible introduction to the important semantic theories. Designed for a wide audience, it will be of great value to linguists, cognitive scientists, philosophers, and computer scientists working on natural language. The book covers theories of lexical semantics, cognitively oriented approaches to semantics, compositional theories of sentence semantics, and discourse semantics. This clear, elegant explanation of the key theories in semantics research is essential reading for anyone working in the area.

Author: Nicholas Asher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139501313
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
This is a book about the meanings of words and how they can combine to form larger meaningful units, as well as how they can fail to combine when the amalgamation of a predicate and argument would produce what the philosopher Gilbert Ryle called a 'category mistake'. It argues for a theory in which words get assigned both an intension and a type. The book develops a rich system of types and investigates its philosophical and formal implications, for example the abandonment of the classic Church analysis of types that has been used by linguists since Montague. The author integrates fascinating and puzzling observations about lexical meaning into a compositional semantic framework. Adjustments in types are a feature of the compositional process and account for various phenomena including coercion and copredication. This book will be of interest to semanticists, philosophers, logicians and computer scientists alike.

Author: James Pustejovsky
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401119724
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
The goal of this book is to integrate the research being carried out in the field of lexical semantics in linguistics with the work on knowledge representation and lexicon design in computational linguistics. Rarely do these two camps meet and discuss the demands and concerns of each other's fields. Therefore, this book is interesting in that it provides a stimulating and unique discussion between the computational perspective of lexical meaning and the concerns of the linguist for the semantic description of lexical items in the context of syntactic descriptions. This book grew out of the papers presented at a workshop held at Brandeis University in April, 1988, funded by the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. The entire workshop as well as the discussion periods accom panying each talk were recorded. Once complete copies of each paper were available, they were distributed to participants, who were asked to provide written comments on the texts for review purposes. VII JAMES PUSTEJOVSKY 1. INTRODUCTION There is currently a growing interest in the content of lexical entries from a theoretical perspective as well as a growing need to understand the organization of the lexicon from a computational view. This volume attempts to define the directions that need to be taken in order to achieve the goal of a coherent theory of lexical organization.

Author: Pauline Jacobson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400977077
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 495

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Book Description
The work collected in this book represents the results of some intensive recent work on the syntax of natural languages. The authors' differing viewpoints have in common the program of revising current conceptions of syntactic representation so that the role of transformational derivations is reduced or eliminated. The fact that the papers cross-refer to each other a good deal, and that authors assuming quite different fram{:works are aware of each other's results and address themselves to shared problems, is partly the result of a conference on the nature of syntactic representation that was held at Brown University in May 1979 with the express purpose of bringing together different lines of research in syntax. The papers in this volume mostly arise out of work that was presented in preliminary form at that conference, though much rewriting and further research has been done in the interim period. Two papers are included because although they were not given even in preliminary form at the conference, it has become clear since then that they interrelate with the work of the conference so much that they cannot reasonably be left out: Gerald Gazdar's statement of his program for phrase structure description of natural language forms the theoretical basis that is assumed by Maling and Zaenen and by Sag, and David Dowty's paper represents a bridge between the relational grammar exemplified here in the papers by Perlmutter and Postal on the one hand and the Montague

Author: J. Kulas
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400927274
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
This series will include monographs and collections of studies devoted to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information and data-processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other) animal or machine. Its scope is intended to span the full range of interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and phi losophical psychology through issues in cognitive psychology and socio biology (concerning the mental capabilities of other species) to ideas related to artificial intelligence and computer science. While primary emphasis will be placed upon theoretical, conceptual and epistemologi cal aspects of these problems and domains, empirical, experimental and methodological studies will also appear from time to time. Among the most challenging and difficult projects within the scope of artificial intelligence is the development and implementation of com puter programs suitable for processing natural language. Our purpose in compiling the present volume has been to contribute to the foundations of this enterprise by bringing together classic papers devoted to crucial problems involved in understanding natural language, which range from issues of formal syntax and logical form to those of possible-worlds and situation semantics. The book begins with a comprehensive introduc tion composed by Jack Kulas, the senior editor of this work, which pro vides a systematic orientation to this complex field, and ends with a selected bibliography intended to promote further research. If our efforts assist others in dealing with these problems, they will have been worthwhile. J. H. F.