Chapter 9 On Language Adequacy

Abstract

AbstractThe paper concentrates on the problem of adequate reflection of fragments of reality via expressions of language and inter-subjective knowledge about these fragments, called here, in brief, language adequacy. This problem is formulated in several aspects, the most general one being: the compatibility of the language syntax with its bi-level semantics: intensional and extensional. In this paper, various aspects of language adequacy find their logical explication on the ground of the formal-logical theory of syntax T of any categorial language L generated by the so-called classical categorial grammar, and also on the ground of its extension to the bi-level, intensional and extensional semantic-pragmatic theory ST for L. In T, according to the token-type distinction of Ch. S. Peirce, L is characterized first as a language of well-formed expression-tokens (wfe-tokens)—material, concrete objects—and then as a language of wfe-types—abstract objects, classes of wfetokens. In ST the semantic-pragmatic notions of meaning and interpretation for wfe-types of L of intensional semantics and the notion of denotation of extensional semantics for wfe-types and constituents of knowledge are formalized. These notions allow formulating a postulate (an axiom of categorial adequacy) from which follow all the most important conditions of the language adequacy, including the above, and a structural one connected with three principles of compositionality.Key wordsToken-type distinctionCategorial grammarIntensional semanticsMeaningInterpretationConstituent of knowledgeExtensional semanticsReferringOntological objectDenotationCategorizationCompatibility of syntax and semanticsAlgebraic modelsTruthCompositionalityCommunication