Chapter 2 - Categorial Type Logics

Abstract

This chapter describes the framework of categorial type logic—that is, grammar architecture that can be seen as the logical development of the categorial approach to natural language analysis initiated in the 1930s. For the reader with a background in linguistics, it tries to provide a useful compendium of the logical tools and results one needs to appreciate the categorial research. The reader with a logic background is justified in classifying the grammar formalism discussed in the chapter under the rubric applied logic. In organizing the material, one can opt for a “historical” mode of development or for a state-of-the-art presentation of the internal dynamics of the field. The chapter presents an interpretation of the categorial formalism in terms of structural composition of grammatical resources. The central objective of the type-logical approach is to develop a uniform deductive account of the composition of form and meaning in natural language: formal grammar is presented as logic—a system for reasoning about structured linguistic resources.