Hintikka Chapter On. Semantic Meaning

J A AKKO H INTI KKA
Q U ANTI FIE RS VS. O U ANTI FI CAT ION THE O RY
The syntax and semantics of quantifiers is of crucial significance in

current linguistic theorizing for more than one reason. The last state-
ment of his grammatical theories by the late Richard Montague (1973)
is modestly entitled ‘The Proper Treatment of Quantification in Ordi-
nary English’. In the authoritative statement of his ‘Generative Seman-
tics’, George Lakoff (1971, especially pp. 238—267) uses as his first and
foremost testing-ground the grammar of certain English quantifiers. In
particular, they serve to illustrate, and show need of, his use of global
constraints governing the derivation of English sentences. Evidence
from the behavior of quantifiers (including numerical expressions l) has
likewise played a major role in recent discussions of such vital prob-
lems as the alleged meaning-preservation of transformations,° co-
reference,° the role of surface structure in semantical interpretation,^
and so on.
In all these problems, the behavior of natural-language quantifiers is
one of the main issues. Ouantifiers have nevertheless entered the
Methodenstreit of contemporary linguistics in another major way, too.
(These two groups of problems are of course interrelated.) This is the
idea that the structures studied in the so-called quantification theory of
symbolic logic — otherwise known as first-order logic, (lower)
predicate calculus, or elementary logic — can serve and suffice’ as
semantical representations of English sentences. Views of this general
type have been proposed by McCawley (1971)‘ and Lakoff (1972) 7
(among others). A related theory of ‘Deep Structure as Logical Form’
has been put forward and defended by G. Harman (1972). Theories of
this general type may be compared with the traditional idea that
quantification theory can be viewed as an abstraction from the
behavior of natural-language quantifiers (as a representation of their
‘logical form") and with W. V. Ouine's (1960) view of quantification
theory as the ‘canonical notation’ of all scientific discourse. It is not
clear precisely how much is gained or lost linguistically according to
these last two types of views in the transition from ordinary discourse
to the language of first-order logic, but obviously some sufficiently loose
‘congruence of meaning’ is being assumed.
49
2S. Saarinen (ed.), Game -Theoretical Semantics, 49—79. All Rights Heseroed.
Copynght @ 1974 by DIALS MCA and The Mossnciiusetts Institute o{ Technology.
50 JAAKKOHINI]KKA
It will be shown in this paper that these views are seriously inade-
quate as they are usually formulated. (I shall not examine whether, and
if so how, they can perhaps be repaired.) For this purpose, I will first
sketch a more satisfactory semantical theory of certain English quan-
tifiers, viz. those corresponding most closely to logicians’ familiar
universal quantifier and existential quantifier.' O I shall indicate the
range of problems that can apparently be dealt with by means of this
theory, and go on to show how it naturally leads us to consider certain
English quantifier expressions whose semantical representations go
beyond first-order logic and hence are beyond the purview of the
competing theories just mentioned. Indeed, we obtain in this way
interesting specific results concerning the logical strength of quantifica-
tion in English as compared with various kinds of logical systems.
Finally, these results will prompt certain conjectures concerning the
methodological asymmetry of syntax and semantics.
The semantics of English quantifiers I am about to sketch is formu-
lated in terms borrowed from the mathematical theory of games, and
might be referred to as game-theoretical semantics. (For the basic
ideas of game theory, see e.g. Luce and Raiffa, 1957 or Davis, 1970.)
The concepts involved are so straightforward, however, that they can
be appreciated without any knowledge of game theory. This theory is a
direct analogue to a corresponding game-theoretical semantics for
formal (but interpreted) first-order languages, sketched in Hintikka
(1968a) and (1973, Ch. 3)." Its leading ideas can perhaps be best seen
from this somewhat simpler case, which I will therefore first outline
briefly.
Let's assume we are dealing with a language with a finite list of
predicates (properties and relations). That we are dealing with an
interpreted language means that some (non-empty) domain D of
entities, logicians’ ‘individuals’, has been given and that all our predi-
cates have been interpreted on D. This interpretation means that the
extentions of our predicates on D are specified. This specification in
turn implies that each atomic sentence, i.e., sentence in which one of
our n-place predicates is said to apply to an n-tuple (sequence) of
individuals, has a determinate truth-value, true or false. In a sense,
what we are doing here is to extend this definition of truth to all the
other (first-order) sentences. They are obtained from atomic sentences
by propositional operations, for instance, by applying (negation),
(conjunction), and ‘v’ (disjunction),i2 and/or by applying existential
or universal generalization, i.e., by replacing a number of occurrences

Hintikka Chapter On. Semantic Meaning

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hintikka Chapter On. Semantic Meaning

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hintikka Chapter On. Semantic Meaning

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

J A AKKO H INTI KKA

Q U ANTI FIE RS VS. O U ANTI FI CAT ION THE O RY

The syntax and semantics of quantifiers is of crucial significance in

You might also like