Attitude problems : an essay on linguistic intensionality / Graeme Forbes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forbes, Graeme.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Transitivity.

English language.

English language--Verb.

Semantics (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

xi, 194 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Clarendon ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

Summary:

Attitude Problems investigates the logic and semantics of intensional transitive verbs, including search verbs such as 'seek', 'hunt', 'look (for)'; requirement verbs such as 'need', 'demand', 'cry out (for)'; transaction verbs such as 'order', 'owe', 'wager'; and depiction verbs such as 'sketch', 'draw', 'sculpt', 'portray'. It focuses mainly on those intensional transitives which can give rise to notional (unspecific, no-particular) readings, as in, for example, 'the police are looking for everyone who witnessed the incident', which is not usually understood to mean that there are specific people they are looking for. Graeme Forbes develops a broadly Montagovian account of notionality, in opposition to a Quinean or 'propositionalist' account, which assimilates intensional transitives to propositional attitude verbs. He argues that the best version of a Montagovian approach is one which is set within a neo-Davidsonian event-based semantics. The topics discussed include compositionality, existence, valid inference forms, disjunctive noun-phrases, creation verbs in the progressive, the definiteness effect with depiction verbs, and substitution-failure in simple sentences. The results support the view that the semantic devices that make notional readings possible are quite different from the ones that generate substitution-failure.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Compositionality 1

1 The age of the universe 1

2 Extensionalism 5

3 Problems for extensionalism 7

4 Intensionalism 9

5 Beyond intensionality 12

6 Hyperintensional logic 13

Chapter 2 A Brief Guide to Type Theory 16

1 Extensional type-theory 16

1.1 Intransitive verbs 16

1.2 Transitive verbs 18

1.3 Binary truth-functions 19

1.4 Common nouns and adjectives 20

1.5 Quantified noun phrases 22

1.6 The lambda operator 23

1.7 Type shifting and systematic ambiguity 26

1.8 Interpretations of L[subscript x] 29

2 Hyperintensional semantics 30

Chapter 3 Intensional Transitives 36

1 A taxonomy of intensional "transitives" 36

2 Relational versus notional readings 40

3 Existence-independence 46

4 Non-relational, anti-relational, notional 47

Chapter 4 Propositionalism 52

1 The Quinean strategy 52

2 Verbs of requirement and desire 55

3 Search verbs 58

4 Depiction verbs 61

5 Verbs of evaluation 64

Chapter 5 Quantifiers and Characterization 69

1 Quantifiers as arguments 69

2 Event semantics for action verbs 73

3 Itv's as predicates of events or states 75

4 The notional as non-thematic 77

5 Deriving interpretations 85

Chapter 6 Unspecificity and Inference 91

1 Simplification 92

2 Weakening 94

3 The disjunction problem 96

4 Outcome postulates 98

5 Possibility as conceivability 102

6 A theory of conjunctive force 107

7 Characterization by compound QNP's 112

8 Compound complements with singular terms 117

9 Applying the postulates 118

10 The serendipity problem 121

11 Negative quantifiers 124

Chapter 7 Verbs of Creation and Depiction 130

1 Parsons' theory 131

2 Characterizing processes of creation 133

3 Verbs of depiction 138

4 Depiction verbs and the definiteness effect 142

5 The pure inventory account 147

Chapter 8 Substitutivity 151

1 Substitution and side-effects 151

2 'so-called' 154

3 'as such' 157

4 Opacity and unspecificity together 164

5 Simple sentences 166.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [175]-187) and index.

ISBN:

0199274940

OCLC:

65202995

Publisher Number:

9780199274949 (hbk.)