Logical Form In Natural Language (Bradford Books)

Lycan, William G.

ISBN 10: 0262620537 / ISBN 13: 9780262620536

Published by Mit Pr, 1986

About this Item

Seller Inventory # U9780262620536

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Logical Form In Natural Language (Bradford Books)
• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262620537
• ISBN 13: 9780262620536
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1749558308.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: 47030163
• Signed: 6/10/2025 12:25:08 PM
• Seller catalogs:
  • 1
  • U
  • 9780262620536

About this title

Synopsis

Logical Form in Natural Language clearly explains and defends the truth-theoretic method in semantics first developed by Donald Davidson to analyze logical forms of sentences of natural language. Lycan examines the history, motivation, and content of the Davidsonian program, offering plausible, even novel, solutions to the well-known technical problems that have plagued it.

In particular, Lycan elaborates the version of Davidson's thesis that a semantics for a particular natural language should take the form of a Tarskistyle truth definition for that language which satisfies certain formal and empirical constraints. In pursuing the anatomy of linguistic meaning and showing how its elements fit together, Lycan explores the interface between "languages" considered as formal systems and the linguistic activities of human beings in speech situations; and he defends the autonomy of linguistic semantics as a branch of psychology.

William G. Lycan is Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A Bradford Book.

About the Author

William G. Lycan is Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.