• README ⤓ .txt 2026-07-17T121634.146 000000000000792
  Formal logics and calculi built to model the meaning of natural language: systems of compositional interpretation, discourse dynamics, quantification, and the pragmatic phenomena that a truth-conditional theory of meaning must handle. The application is linguistic meaning, using logical machinery as the modeling tool.
• Alternative Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000904
  Hamblin (1973), Rooth (1985). Sets of alternatives. Questions as alternative sets. Focus interpretation. Foundation of question semantics.
• Bilateral Logic ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000856
  Rumfitt (2000), Smiley. Assertion and denial primitive. Two speech acts. Rejection not just negation. Classical logic defended bilaterally.
• Categorial Grammar ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000880
  Ajdukiewicz (1935), Bar-Hillel, Lambek. Categories and slashes. Function-argument structure. Syntax as logic. Foundation of type-logical grammar.
• Continuation Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000912
  Barker, Shan (2006+). Continuations from PL. Scope-taking unified. Tower notation. Foundation of continuation-based NL semantics.
• Degree Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-15T235628.000 000000000014560
  Cresswell, "The semantics of degree" (1976); von Stechow (1984) on comparatives; Kennedy's Projecting the Adjective (1997, published 1999) and his work with McNally (2005); Heim (2000) on degree operators and scope. Gradable adjectives. Degree arguments. Scales and measure functions. Foundation of scalar semantics.
• Discourse Representation Theory ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000984
  Hans Kamp (1981). Discourse referents. DRS structures. Anaphora and scope. Foundation of computational semantics.
• Dynamic Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000880
  Groenendijk, Stokhof, Veltman (1980s-90s). Meaning as context change. Anaphora resolution. Information update. Foundation of discourse semantics.
• Erotetic Logic ⤓ .md 2026-07-15T235811.000 000000000036656
  Nuel Belnap and Thomas Steel, The Logic of Questions and Answers (1976), building on Belnap's An Analysis of Questions (1963); Hamblin (1958) and Åqvist's imperative-epistemic reduction (1965) are the other founding lines. Andrzej Wiśniewski's The Posing of Questions (1995) and Questions, Inferences, and Scenarios (2013) give inferential erotetic logic, in which questions stand in consequence relations to each other.
• Event Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000864
  Davidson (1967), Parsons, Kratzer. Events as arguments. Thematic roles. Modification explained. Foundation of neo-Davidsonian semantics.
• File Change Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000904
  Heim (1982, 1983). Context as file. Indefinites introduce. Definites require. Foundation of dynamic binding.
• Formal Ethics ⤓ .md 2026-07-16T004643.000 000000000044320
  Harry J. Gensler, "A formalized ethical theory" in Symbolic Logic: Classical and Advanced Systems (1990), developed fully in Formal Ethics (1996, Routledge). Builds on Castañeda's insistence that deontic operators attach to imperatives, and on Hare's prescriptivism. Gensler is explicit that it is not a complete ethical theory: the theorems are meant to be the largest common subset of the recognized ethical theories, so that no axiom is controversial.
• Generalized Quantifiers ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000920
  Mostowski (1957), Lindström, Barwise & Cooper (1981). Quantifiers as relations. NP denotations. Conservativity. Foundation of quantifier semantics.
• Glue Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000856
  Dalrymple, Lamping, Saul (1993). LFG interface. Linear logic for meaning assembly. Resource-sensitive composition. Foundation of LFG semantics.
• Imperative Logic ⤓ .md 2026-07-15T235811.000 000000000038672
  Jørgen Jørgensen, "Imperatives and logic" (Erkenntnis, 1937–38), which posed the dilemma the field is named for; Alf Ross, "Imperatives and logic" (1944), which gave it its standard counterexample; Hare's neustic/phrastic analysis (1949, 1952); Segerberg (1990), Hansen (2008), and Vranas (2008, 2011) for the modern treatments.
• Inquisitive Logic ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000872
  Groenendijk, Roelofsen (2000s). Questions in logic. Support semantics. Beyond truth conditions. Foundation for question semantics.
• Montague Grammar ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000872
  Richard Montague (1970). "English as a formal language." Intensional logic for natural language. Compositionality. Foundation of formal semantics.
• Plural Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000864
  Link (1983), Landman, Schwarzschild. Pluralities as sums. Collective vs distributive. Mereology for NL. Foundation of plural predication.
• Possible Worlds Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-15T235628.000 000000000016816
  Carnap's state descriptions and intensions (Meaning and Necessity, 1947); Kripke's model theory for modal logic (1959, 1963); Hintikka's model sets (1961); Montague's intensional logic and "Universal grammar" (1970) and "PTQ" (1973); Lewis, "General semantics" (1970). Intensions as functions. Possible worlds as indices. Foundation of intensional semantics.
• Presupposition ⤓ .md 2026-07-15T235628.000 000000000017792
  Frege (1892) on the presuppositions of definite descriptions; Strawson (1950) against Russell; Karttunen (1973, 1974) on projection and plugs, holes, filters; Stalnaker (1973, 1974) on common ground; Heim's file change semantics (1982, 1983); van der Sandt's anaphoric account (1992). Background entailments. Projection problem. Accommodation. Foundation of pragmatic semantics.
• Proof-Theoretic Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-15T235708.000 000000000044704
  Gentzen's remark (1934–35) that the introduction rules "define" the connectives and the eliminations are consequences of that definition. Prawitz turned it into a programme in Natural Deduction (1965) and "Ideas and results in proof theory" (1971); Dummett gave it the philosophical case in The Logical Basis of Metaphysics (1991). The term is Schroeder-Heister's (1991); Francez's Proof-Theoretic Semantics (2015) is the textbook.
• Scalar Implicature ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000880
  Grice (1975), Horn, Levinson. Quantity maxim. Scalar alternatives. Exhaustification. Foundation of neo-Gricean pragmatics.
• Situation Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000840
  Barwise, Perry (1983). Situations vs possible worlds. Partial information. Constraints and infons. Foundation of situated cognition.
• Speech Act Logic ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000864
  Searle, Vanderveken (1985). Illocutionary logic. Force and content. Speech act theory formalized. Foundation of pragmatic logic.
• Tense and Aspect ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000864
  Reichenbach (1947), Vendler (1957), Kamp, Kratzer. Temporal reference. Aspectual classes. Event structure. Foundation of temporal semantics.
• Type-Logical Grammar ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000752
  Moortgat, Morrill (1990s). Substructural categorial grammar. Resource logics. Multimodal systems. Foundation of logical syntax.
• Update Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000864
  Veltman (1996). Meaning as context change. Epistemic modals. Might and must. Foundation of informational semantics.
• Vector Semantics ⤓ .md 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000864
  Harris (1954), Firth, Turney & Pantel, Mikolov. Distributional hypothesis. Word vectors. Compositional distributional. Foundation of computational semantics.
• CRITERIA ⤓ .txt 2026-07-17T120407.600 000000000000808
  Not sufficient: A pure model theory absent a linguistic target (Metatheory/Model-Theory). A knowledge-representation formalism (Knowledge). A program semantics (Computation).