Formal semantics (linguistics)
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In linguistics, formal semantics seeks to understand linguistic meaning by constructing precise mathematical models of the principles that speakers use to define relations between expressions in a natural language and the world which supports meaningful discourse.[1]
The mathematical tools used are the confluence of formal logic and formal language theory, especially typed lambda calculi.
Linguists rarely employed formal semantics until Richard Montague showed how English (or any natural language) could be treated like a formal language.[2] His contribution to linguistic semantics, which is now known as Montague grammar, was the basis for further developments, like the categorial grammar of Bar-Hillel and colleagues, and the more recent type-logical semantics (or grammar) based on Lambek calculus.[3]
Another line of inquiry, using linear logic, is Glue semantics, which is based on the idea of "interpretation as deduction", closely related to the "parsing as deduction" paradigm of categorial grammar.[4]
In 1992 Margaret King argued that few of the proposals from formal semanticists have been tested for empirical relevance, unlike those in computational linguistics.[5]
Cognitive semantics emerged and developed as a reaction against formal semantics.
See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found., chapter 15: An Introduction to Formal semantics.
- ↑ For a very readable and succinct overview of how formal semantics found its way into linguistics, please refer to The formal approach to meaning: Formal semantics and its recent developments by Barbara Abbott. In: Journal of Foreign Languages (Shanghai), 119:1 (January 1999), 2–20.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Further reading
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. An very accessible overview of the main ideas in the field.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Chapter 10, Formal semantics, contains the best chapter-level coverage of the main technical directions
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The most comprehensive reference in the area.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. One of the first textbooks. Accessible to undergraduates.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- based on: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- Reinhard Muskens Type-logical Semantics to appear in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Barbara H. Partee: Reflections of a formal semanticist as of Feb 2005. Ample historical information. (an extended version of the introductory essay in Barbara H. Partee: Compositionality in Formal Semantics: Selected Papers of Barbara Partee. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, 2004.)
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