Montague grammar

Montague grammar is an approach to natural language semantics, named after American logician Richard Montague. The Montague grammar is based on formal logic, especially higher order predicate logic and lambda calculus, and makes use of the notions of intensional logic, via Kripke models. Montague pioneered this approach in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Montague's thesis was that natural languages (like English) and formal languages (like programming languages) can be treated in the same way. "There is in my opinion no important theoretical difference between natural languages and the artificial languages of logicians; indeed, I consider it possible to comprehend the syntax and semantics of both kinds of language within a single natural and mathematically precise theory. On this point I differ from a number of philosophers, but agree, I believe, with Chomsky and his associates." (Universal Grammar 1970)

Montague published what soon became known as Montague grammar^[1] in three seminal papers:

• 1970: "Universal grammar" (= UG)^[2]
• 1970: "English as a Formal Language" (= EFL)^[3]
• 1973: "The Proper Treatment of Quantification in Ordinary English" (= PTQ)^[4]

Montague's treatment of quantification has been linked to the notion of continuation in programming language semantics.^[5]

Further reading

• Richmond Thomason (ed.): Formal Philosophy. Selected Papers by Richard Montague. New Haven, 1974, ISBN 0300024126
• Paul Portner, Barbara H. Partee (eds.): Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings, Blackwell, 2002. ISBN 0631215425
• D.R. Dowty, R.E. Wall and S. Peters: Introduction to Montague Semantics. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1981, ISBN 9027711429
• Emmon Bach: Informal Lectures on Formal Semantics. SUNY Press, 1989, ISBN 0887067719
• B.H. Partee, A.G.B. ter Meulen and R.E. Wall: Mathematical Methods in Linguistics. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1990, ISBN 9027722455
• B.H. Partee with Herman Hendriks: Montague Grammar. In: Handbook of Logic and Language, eds. J.F.A.K. van Benthem and A.G.B. ter Meulen Elsevier/MIT Press, 1997, pp. 5–92. ISBN 0262220539
• Reinhard Muskens Type-logical Semantics to appear in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online (contains an annotated bibliography).

See also

• Categorial grammar
• Continuation-passing style
• Lojban
• Kripke semantics
• Situation semantics

References

1. ^ The linguist Barbara Partee credibly claims to have invented the term in 1971 “for the system spelled out in Montague's“ UG, EFL and “especially in PTQ”. See her essay "Reflections of a Formal Semanticist as of Feb 2005", p. 14, footnote 36.
2. ^ "Universal grammar". Theoria 36 (1970), 373–398. (reprinted in Thomason, 1974)
3. ^ "English as a Formal Language". In: Bruno Visentini (ed.): Linguaggi nella società e nella tecnica. Mailand 1970, 189–223. (reprinted in Thomason, 1974)
4. ^ "The Proper Treatment of Quantification in Ordinary English". In: Jaakko Hintikka, Julius Moravcsik, Patrick Suppes (eds.): Approaches to Natural Language. Dordrecht 1973, 221–242. (reprinted in Thomason, 1974)
5. ^ See Continuations in Natural Language

External links

• A Free Montague Parser in a non-deterministic extension of Common Lisp.
• Montague Grammar in historical context. / The theory and the substance of Montague grammar. Central principles. / Further developments and controversies. by Barbara H. Partee.

This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Grammar Semantics Formal languages Lambda calculus Linguistics stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую Annianus of Alexandria Ted Celeste Look at other dictionaries: Montague grammar — A type of formal language set up by the logician Richard Montague in his seminal ‘The Proper Treatment of Quantification in English’ (1974). A Montague grammar is based on a first order language to which are added powerful logical tools for the… …   Philosophy dictionary Montague grammars — Montague grammar …   Philosophy dictionary Montague — is a French surname derived from Old French Mont Agin (Modern French: Montagne) meaning mountain. The name Montague can refer to the following: Contents 1 People 1.1 Surnames …   Wikipedia Grammar framework — In theoretical linguistics, the following fundamental approaches towards constructing grammar frameworks for natural languages are distinguished:*Generative grammar: algorithmic (phrase structure grammars) **Transformational grammar (1960s)… …   Wikipedia Montague Druitt — c. 1879 Born 15 August 1857(1857 08 15) Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England …   Wikipedia Montague Ainslie — (1790 – 1 February 1884) was an English forester and businessman whose interests included the iron ore company Harrison Ainslie. Ainslie was educated at Hawkshead Grammar School. In the early nineteenth century, he inherited the Grizedale Estate… …   Wikipedia Montague Edward Smith — The Right Honourable Sir Montague Edward Smith PC QC Justice of the Common Pleas In office 7 February 1865 – 3 November 1871 Preceded by Sir Edward Vau …   Wikipedia Categorial grammar — is a term used for a family of formalisms in natural language syntax motivated by the principle of compositionality and organized according to the view that syntactic constituents should generally combine as functions or according to a function… …   Wikipedia Richard Montague — Richard Montague, at UCLA, c. 1967. Born September 20, 1930(1930 09 20) Stockton, Ca …   Wikipedia Role and Reference Grammar — Die Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) ist eine strukturalistische und funktionale Grammatiktheorie, die von den beiden US amerikanischen Sprachwissenschaftlern Robert D. Van Valin Jr. und William A. Foley in den 1980er Jahren entwickelt wurde.… …   Deutsch Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”