Emmon W. Bach - Informal lectures on formal semantics
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Informal Lectures On Formal Semantics SUNY Series in Linguistics
author
:
Bach, Emmon W.
publisher
:
State University of New York Press
isbn10 | asin
:
0887067727
print isbn13
:
9780887067723
ebook isbn13
:
9780585063614
language
:
English
subject
Semantics, Semantics (Philosophy)
publication date
:
1989
lcc
:
P325.B27 1989eb
ddc
:
415
subject
:
Semantics, Semantics (Philosophy)
Page i
Informal Lectures on Formal Semantics
Page ii
SUNY Series in Linguistics Mark Aronoff, Editor
Page iii
Informal Lectures on Formal Semantics
Emmon Bach
State University of New York Press
Page iv
Published by State University of New York
1989 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, N.Y., 12246
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bach, Emmon W., 1929 Informal lectures on formal semantics.
Based on lectures presented at a Summer Institute of Linguistics at Tianjin Normal University in 1984. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Semantics. 2. Semantics (Philosophy) I. Title. P325.B27 198941587-26719 ISBN 0-88706-771-9 ISBN 0-88706-772-7 (pbk.)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
Page v
Contents
Foreword
ix
Lecture I Background and Beginning
1
Lecture II Worlds Enough and Time
19
Lecture III Nouns and Noun Phrases
33
Lecture IV Generalized Quantifiers
51
Lecture V Kinds of Things
69
Lecture VI Properties and Other Matters
85
Lecture VII Situations and Other Smaller Worlds
101
Lecture VIII Odds and Endings
119
Notes
131
References
135
Index
143
Page vii
Words are not just blown air. They have a meaning. if you are not sure what you are talking about, are you saying anything, or are you saying nothing? Words seem different from the chirping of birds. Is there a difference or isn't there? How can Dao be so obscure and yet admit of truth and falsehood? How can words be so obscure and yet admit of right and wrong? How can Dao cease to exist? How can words not be heard? Zhuang* Zi*
Page ix
Foreword
In the summer of 1984, I was invited to take part in a Summer Institute of Linguistics at Tianjin Normal University and gave a series of six lectures on current issues in formal semantics. This book is based on those lectures. Although the number of chapters has been increased, I have retained the form and style of lectures in order to help keep my goals clearly in mind.
Formal semanticsbetter, model-theoretic semanticsfor natural language is a field that has risen rapidly in the last decade and a half. I believe it is an exciting area of study which has produced a large body of interesting results and new questions. Yet, because of the rather formidable technical apparatus it commands, it has remained something of a closed book for many linguists and others interested in the phenomenon of natural language. In designing my Tianjin lectures, and in turning them into this book, I have been guided by three self-imposed constraints: first, I presuppose nothing at all in the way of previous work in formal semantics; second, I have tried to tell no lies; third, I have endeavored to keep strange formalism to the minimum. Within these constraints, my aim has been to provide a groundwork in model-theoretic semantics and a sampling of issues, results, and open questions that workers in formal semantics are currently concerned with.
Rather than beginning with a possibly daunting presentation of
Page x
introductory matter, I have chosen to introduce technical material gradually as it is needed. The first three lectures amount to a rather condensed presentation of possible world semantics as it was used by Richard Montague. Subsequent lectures take up a number of topics of current interest. Naturally, I could not hope to survey all currently "live" topics. The choice of topics is obviously influenced by my own interests and the current research being conducted in my home environment at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. I would like to thank those who have helped to make that environment what it is, both past and present, as well as the many friends and colleagues in other places from whom I have learned, above all my "relations-in-intention" here, Angelika Kratzer and Barbara H. Partee. I also acknowledge gratefully the help of Angelika Kratzer, Polly Jacobson, and two anonymous reviewers, who gave me many valuable comments on the manuscript. Special thanks to Kathy Adamczyk, who not only typed up the tapes from the actual lectures given in Tianjin but added immeasurably to their interest by her uproarious interpolations and additions, unfortunately not contained herein, and to Molly Diesing for help with proof-reading and the index.
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