Formal Semantics Unisaarland

Journal of Logic, Language and Information, 2018

Elements of Formal Semantics (EFS) has already been reviewed twice (Rett in Glossa 1(1):42, 2016; Erlewine in Comput Linguist 42(4):837–839, 2017). As well, the website for the work is accompanied by evaluative quotes by noted scholars. All are very positive concerning its clarity and its utility as an introduction to formal semantics for natural language. As I agree with these evaluations my interest in reiterating them in slightly different words is limited. So my reviews of the content chapters will be accompanied by a Reflections section consisting of my own reflections on the foundations of model theoretic semantics for natural language as laid out in EFS. The issues I address—alternate ways of accomplishing the tasks Winter treats—should not be included in an introductory work but they may be helpful for those who teach classes for which EFS is an appropriate text. They might also help with queries about the content of the text by those using it. I note that a mark of a clear ...

2014

The purpose of this symposium, held in conjunction with MoDELS 2006, was to present the current state of research of the UML 2 Semantics Project. Equally important to receiving feedback from an audience of experts was the opportunity to invite researchers in the field to discuss their own work related to a formal semantics for the Unified Modeling Language. This symposium is a follow-on to our first workshop, held in conjunction with ECMDA 2005.

2006

The purpose of this symposium, held in conjunction with MoDELS 2006, was to present the current state of research of the UML 2 Semantics Project. Equally important to receiving feedback from an audience of experts was the opportunity to invite researchers in the field to discuss their own work related to a formal semantics for the Unified Modeling Language. This symposium is a follow-on to our first workshop, held in conjunction with ECMDA 2005.

Formal semantics and pragmatics as they have developed since the late 1960's have been shaped by fruitful inter-disciplinary collaboration among linguists, philosophers, and lo-gicians, among others, and in turn have had noticeable effects on developments in syntax, philosophy of language, computational linguistics, and cognitive science. In this paper I describe the environment in which formal semantics was born and took root, highlighting the differences in ways of thinking about natural language semantics in linguistics and in philosophy and logic. With Montague as a central but not solo player in the story, I reflect on crucial developments in the 1960's and 70's in linguistics and philosophy, and the growth of formal semantics and formal pragmatics from there. I discuss innovations, key players, and leading ideas that shaped the development of formal semantics and its relation to syntax, to prag-matics, and to the philosophy of language in its early years, and some central aspects of its early impact on those fields.

This practical coursebook introduces all the basics of semantics in a simple, step-bystep fashion. Each unit includes short sections of explanation with examples, followed by stimulating practice exercises to complete the book. Feedback and comment sections follow each exercise to enable students to monitor their progress. No previous background in semantics is assumed, as students begin by discovering the value and fascination of the subject and then move through all key topics in the field, including sense and reference, simple logic, word meaning, and interpersonal meaning. New study guides and exercises have been added to the end of each unit (with online answer key) to help reinforce and test learning. A completely new unit on non-literal language and metaphor, plus updates throughout the text, significantly expand the scope of the original edition to bring it up-to-date with the modern teaching of semantics for introductory courses in linguistics as well as intermediate students.

Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca Julio de Urquijo, 1993

Información del artículo Formal semantics for natural language.

A basic starting point of generative grammar: there are infinitely many sentences in any natural language, and the brain is finite, so linguistic competence must involve some finitely describable means for specifying an infinite class of sentences. That is a central task of syntax. Semantics: A speaker of a language knows the meanings of those infinitely many sentences, is able to understand a sentence he/she has never heard before or to express a meaning he/she has never expressed before. So for semantics also there must be a finite ...

2015

Anna Wierzbicka’s ‘Natural Semantic Metalanguage’ (NSM), and ‘Formal Semantics’ as pioneered by Richard Montague, becoming the majority approach to semantics in generative grammar, are usually seen as mutually exclusive research programs. Here, I will argue that they can and should be regarded as complementary to at least some extent, although this might require some rethinking of foundational assumptions. There are at least two major foundational issues, one being the role of mathematical formulation, the other the adoption of a ‘realist’ as opposed to ‘antirealist’ view of meaning. Mathematical formulation is fundamental to formal semantics, but traditionally avoided in NSM. So one of the goals of this paper is to show how one can begin to apply some of the mathematical methods of formal semantics to NSM (emphasis on ‘begin’). This enterprise should be of some interest to formal semanticists for at least two reasons, one ‘good news’, the other, ‘bad news’. The bad news reason is t...