Formal Semantics The Essential Readings

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.

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).

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

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Formal Semantics The Essential Readings

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials