时态论面临的语义解读问题

摘要

时态论认为语言中的时态表述单位不但表述了时态化思想，而且表述了世界的时态化事实，这导致了时态语义的现存论立场：认为关于世界的思想和事实的元语言表述也是时态化的，世界的思想和事实基于时态化立场而得到描写和理解。这一立场引发了时态语义解读的困境：首先，它基于主观视角的唯一性，排斥了当前之外事态的存在，从而拒绝了事态的偏序关系；其次，时态化的元语言不能准确反映其时态提升为算子的对象语言的含义。我们认为，问题的根源在于现存论没有区分认识论和本体论两种意义上的参照视角，也不恰当地排斥了量词（如兰姆达算子）的组合计算方法。解决相关语义困境依赖于区分两种意义上的参照视角和使用合适的组合性方法。%According to tensism,the form that expresses tense in natural languages conveys not only the tensed thoughts but also the tensed facts about the world,which leans to presentism and causes relevant semantic quandary,in that the metalanguage is tensed in which the thoughts and facts of the world are described and understood.The quandary results from at least two problems:Presentism commits to the existence of eventualities at present and rejects the order of them;and the tensed metalanguage does not equal the description for the utterance with its tense and aspect shifted into operator position.We contend that the quandary arises from the unintentionally mixed two types of reference perspectives-the epis-temological and ontological;and from the inappropriate constraints over quantifier/lambda-binding method formulating the semantic interpretation.It's feasible to leave out the quandary by fair treatment on the two types of reference perspectives with the help of compositional method.