LEXMEAN

Lexical Meaning and Logical Inference

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The project aims at systematically examining the relationship between three debates in three different disciplines: the problem of logical constants in philosophy of logic, the debate on the functional vs. lexical distinction in linguistics, and the debate on the semantics vs. pragmatics distinction in philosophy of language. Our hypothesis is that these seldom-connected debates actually address the same set of underlying issues. In particular, we will argue that to give an account of semantic content, and to provide a principled answer to the question of where to draw the line between semantics and pragmatics, is correlated, on the one hand, with identifying criteria that distinguish the logically valid inferences from other inference patterns, and, on the other, with an account of the lexical and functional properties of the expressions of a given language. We will further examine whether the distinction between logical vs. non-logical expressions maps onto the distinction between functional vs. lexical (or 'substantive') categories. If our hypotheses are correct, then not only will the language of logic and natural language turn out to be intimately connected, but we will also gain new insight into the distinction between function words and content words. While our main goal is to address conceptual issues, we will flesh out and test our hypotheses through three case studies, involving respectively indexical pronouns, prepositions, and degree modifiers. The latter two will allow us to enrich our dominantly theoretical approach with standard methods from corpus linguistics, as well as statistical methods, such as distribution modelling.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

A better understanding of the ways in which language and grammar encode logical relations is possible via cross-fertilisation between disciplines, providing new advances in the fields of linguistics and philosophy.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The respective roles of logical and non-logical inference in natural language meaning is a longstanding issue at the intersection of logic, philosophy of language, and cognitive science. An EU-funded project, LEXMEAN (Lexical meaning and logical inference), undertook an interdisciplinary approach to examine this connection.

Connections between three debates in three different disciplines were examined. These were the treatment of logical constants in philosophy of logic, the treatment of the functional versus lexical distinction in linguistics, and the analysis of the semantics versus pragmatics distinction in philosophy of language.

Importance was given to the criteria that distinguish logically valid inferences from other inference patterns. Also deemed crucial was understanding the importance between the lexical and the functional properties of expressions. Case studies were carried out involving different classes of expressions.

In addition to scientific objectives, training and career development goals were also emphasised. Research articles have been published in various venues and more are foreseen for the future. The work will have an impact in the fields of linguistics and philosophy.