Meaning Sensitivity and Grammatical Structure

Abstract

The topic of this talk is the semantics of natural language. This is an area of investigation that today merges work in linguistics with work in philosophy. In linguistics there is a going enterprise in the study of the syntax of natural language, coupled with a methodological goal of studying semantics as well. In philosophy there is a going enterprise in the study of semantical issues, without a great deal of regard for the syntax of natural language. The two enterprises — the study of syntax by linguists and the study of semantics by philosophers, or by linguists working within philosophical frameworks — proceed mostly on parallel tracks, informed by one another, but not frequently very tightly linked. Part of the success of Montague Grammar was that Montague’s essays linked them completely. But Montague was a layman in syntax, and so Montague Grammar remains mostly a semantical enterprise. There are a number of people who would try to link these two enterprises more closely. That is the topic of my talk today — a problem about whether and how that linkage might be established. The particular issue I will focus on I call ‘meaning sensitivity’.