Variable-free semantics for negations with prosodic variation
pp. 49-59
in: Esa Saarinen, Risto Hilpinen, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Merrill Provence Hintikka (eds), Essays in honour of Jaakko Hintikka, Berlin, Springer, 1979Abstract
In several recent publications (Suppes, 1976; Suppes and Macken, 1978) I have argued for a variable-free semantics of quantifiers, attributive adjectives, possessives, and intensifying adverbs. This work is a specialization of my earlier efforts at developing context-free fragments of natural language (1973a, 1973b, 1974). It is also part of my rejection of first-order logic as the appropriate instrument for the analysis of natural language, but I shall not digress here to state in any detail my views on this matter. The central idea is that the syntax of first-order logic is too far removed from that of any natural language, to use it in a sensitive analysis of the meaning of ordinary utterances.