User:Phlsph7/Formal semantics - Definition
Definition
[edit]Formal semantics is an approach to the study of linguistic meaning that stems from logic and the philosophy of language. As a subfield of semantics—the general study of meaning in language—it seeks to understand the relationship between linguistic expressions and their meanings. It differs from other branches of semantics through its formal method, employing tools from mathematics and logic to give a precise characterization of how different components of language contribute to meaning. These tools include the concepts of truth conditions, model theory, and compositionality.[1] Due to the prominence of these tools, formal semantics is also referred to as truth-conditional semantics and model-theoretic semantics, although these terms are not as general as formal semantics.[2]
Another characteristic of formal semantics is its interpretation of meaning. It understands the meaning of an expression as the entities to which it refers. By emphasizing the relation between language and world, formal semantics differs from other approaches that focus on cognitive processes and mental representations involved in understanding and interpreting language.[3] Formal semantics is related to formal pragmatics since both are subfields of formal linguistics. One key difference is that formal pragmatics centers on how language is used in communication rather than the problem of meaning in general.[4] Formal semanticists examine a wide range of linguistic phenomena, including reference, quantifiers, plurality, tense, aspect, vagueness, conditionals, modality, scope, binding, questions, and imperatives.[5]
The primary focus of formal semantics is the analysis of natural language used in everyday conversation, such as English, Spanish, and Japanese. This enterprise faces challenges due to the complexity and context-dependence of natural language. As a result, theorists sometimes limit their studies to specific fragments or subsets of these languages to avoid these complexities. Understood in a wide sense, formal semantics also includes the study of artificial or constructed languages. This covers the formal languages used in the logical analysis of arguments, such as the language of first-order logic, and programming languages in computer science, such as C++, JavaScript, and Python.[6]
References
[edit]Notes
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^
- Portner & Partee 2002, pp. 1–2
- Partee 2016, pp. 3–4
- Winter 2016, pp. 3–4
- ^
- Portner 2005, pp. 14
- Moeschler 2007, p. 32
- ^
- Portner & Partee 2002, pp. 1–2
- Partee 2016, pp. 3–4
- Lappin 2003, pp. 370–371
- ^
- Moeschler 2007, pp. 31–32
- Griffiths & Cummins 2023, p. 1
- Bezuidenhout 2009, p. 875
- ^
- Cann 1993, pp. ix–xii, 1–3
- Winter 2016, pp. 5–6
- ^
- King 2009, pp. 557–558
- Fox 2014, pp. 85–87
- Portner 2005, pp. 214–216
- Barba 2007, pp. 637–639
Sources
[edit]- Partee, Barbara H. (2016). "1. Formal Semantics". In Aloni, Maria; Dekker, Paul (eds.). The Cambridge Handbook of Formal Semantics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 3–32. ISBN 978-1-316-55273-5.
- King, Jeffrey C. (2009). "Formal Semantics". In Lepore, Ernie; Smith, Barry C. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language (1 ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 557–573. ISBN 978-0-19-955223-8.
- Portner, Paul H.; Partee, Barbara H. (2002). Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-21541-7.
- Portner, Paul H. (2005). What is Meaning?: Fundamentals of Formal Semantics. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4051-0918-5.
- Stokhof, Martin (2007). "Hand or Hammer? On Formal and Natural Languages in Semantics". Journal of Indian Philosophy. 35 (5–6): 597–626. doi:10.1007/s10781-007-9023-7.
- Fox, Chris (2014). "The Meaning of Formal Semantics". In Stalmaszczyk, Piotr (ed.). Semantics and Beyond: Philosophical and Linguistic Inquiries. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. pp. 85–107. ISBN 978-3-11-039114-5.
- Lappin, Shalom (2003). "An Introduction to Formal Semantics". In Aronoff, Mark; Ress-Miller, Janie (eds.). The Handbook of Linguistics (1st ed.). Wiley. pp. 369–393. doi:10.1002/9780470756409.ch15. ISBN 978-0-631-20497-8.
- Cann, Ronnie (1993). Formal Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.
- Winter, Yoad (2016). Elements of Formal Semantics: An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Meaning in Natural Language. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-7777-1.
- Barba, Juan (2007). "Formal semantics in the age of pragmatics". Linguistics and Philosophy. 30 (6): 637–668. doi:10.1007/s10988-008-9031-4.
- Moeschler, Jacques (2007). "Introduction to Semantics". In Rajman, Martin (ed.). Speech and Language Engineering. EPFL Press. ISBN 978-0-824-72219-7.
- Griffiths, Patrick; Cummins, Chris (2023). An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics (3rd ed.). Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-399-50460-7.
- Bezuidenhout, A. (2009). "Semantics–Pragmatics Boundary". In Allan, Keith (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-080-95969-6. Retrieved 2024-02-04.