The Science of Meaning. Essays on the Metatheory of Natural Language Semantics

摘要

Formal semantics has arguably been one of the most successful research programs in modern theoretical linguistics: it originated from a unique combination of ideas from the philosophy of language and formal results from mathematical logic; it has seamlessly latched onto research programs in syntax, chiefly generative grammar; and it has spawned theories for many semantic (and some pragmatic) phenomena across languages, influencing neighboring fields, like computer science, logic, and philosophy. Yet, in spite of its measurable successes, formal semantics (henceforth FS) has never quite established itself as the science of meaning, failing to convince scholars, even in close adjacent areas of linguistics (e.g., in generative syntax), that the analysis of meaning must involve suitable blends of logic-based representation and model-theoretic interpretation. Parallel ventures, such as cognitive semantics, conceptual semantics, and various pragmatic theories, and recent developments in computational linguistics, like distributional and vector-space semantics, testify to the continuing search for alternative formats and frameworks to study meaning. A collection of 'Essays on the Metatheory of Natural Language Semantics' titled The Science of Meaning (edited by Derek Ball and Brian Rabern) is then likely to arouse the curiosity and expectation of readers: what, if anything, justifies the uniqueness claim implied by the book's title?