Logical Form vs. Logical Form: How Does the Difference Matter for Semantic Computationality?

This paper aims at pointing out a range of differences between logical form as used in logic and logical form (LF) as used in the minimalist architecture of language. The differences will be shown from different angles based on the ways in which they differ in form and represent some natural language phenomena. The implications as following on from such differences will be then linked to the issue of whether semantic realization in mind/brain is computational. It will be shown that the differences between logical form as used in logic and logical form (LF) as used in the minimalist architecture of language will help us latch on to the realization that there is no determinate way in which semantics can be computational or computationally realized.

[1]  Emmon Bach,et al.  Informal Lectures on Formal Semantics , 1989 .

[2]  David J. Israel,et al.  Structured Meanings: The Semantics of Propositional Attitudes. , 1987 .

[3]  Jeffrey T. Runner,et al.  When Minimalism Isn't Enough: An Argument for Argument Structure , 2002, Linguistic Inquiry.

[4]  Irene Heim,et al.  Semantics in generative grammar , 1998 .

[5]  C. Boeckx Language in Cognition , 2009 .

[6]  J. Zwart The Minimalist Program , 1998, Journal of Linguistics.

[7]  Stuart M. Shieber,et al.  The Problem of Logical-Form Equivalence , 1993, Comput. Linguistics.

[8]  Mahesh Viswanathan Second Order Logic , 2004 .

[9]  K. Hale,et al.  Ken Hale: A Life in Language , 2001 .

[10]  Oron Shagrir,et al.  Why we view the brain as a computer , 2006, Synthese.

[11]  G. Harman Deep structure as logical form , 1970, Synthese.

[12]  Nir Fresco,et al.  Explaining Computation Without Semantics: Keeping it Simple , 2010, Minds and Machines.

[13]  Routledge,et al.  Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , 1998 .

[14]  J. Searle The Rediscovery of the Mind , 1992 .

[15]  Brendan Jackson Beyond Logical Form , 2007 .

[16]  Mark Steedman,et al.  Is semantics computational? , 2006 .

[17]  D. Hodgson Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will , 2012 .

[18]  David R. Dowty,et al.  Introduction to Montague semantics , 1980 .

[19]  N. Foo Conceptual Spaces—The Geometry of Thought , 2022 .

[20]  P. Materna,et al.  Logical Form , 2005 .

[21]  Sergey Avrutin,et al.  Development of the syntax-discourse interface , 1999 .

[22]  R. May Logical Form: Its Structure and Derivation , 1985 .

[23]  Ivan A. Sag,et al.  Information-based syntax and semantics , 1987 .

[24]  C. Pollard,et al.  Center for the Study of Language and Information , 2022 .

[25]  Dag Westerståhl,et al.  Generalized Quantifiers in Linguistics and Logic , 1997, Handbook of Logic and Language.

[26]  Nir Fresco,et al.  Concrete Digital Computation: What Does it Take for a Physical System to Compute? , 2011, J. Log. Lang. Inf..

[27]  D. Terence Langendoen,et al.  The vastness of natural languages , 1984 .

[28]  Stuart M. Shieber,et al.  An Introduction to Unification-Based Approaches to Grammar , 1986, CSLI Lecture Notes.

[29]  Gualtiero Piccinini,et al.  Information processing, computation, and cognition , 2011, Journal of biological physics.

[30]  W. Quine,et al.  Methodological reflections on current linguistic theory , 1970, Synthese.

[31]  Noam Chomsky Derivation by phase , 1999 .