A novel view of the syntax and semantics of quantifier scope that argues for a "combinatory" theory of natural language syntax. In Taking Scope, Mark Steedman considers the syntax and semantics of quantifier scope in interaction with negation, polarity, coordination, and pronominal binding, among other constructions. The semantics is "surface compositional," in that there is a direct correspondence between syntactic types and operations of composition and types and compositions at the level of logical form. In that sense, the semantics is in the "natural logic" tradition of Aristotle, Leibniz, Frege, Russell, and others who sought to define a psychologically real logic directly reflecting natural language grammar. The book reunites the generative-transformational tradition initiated by Chomsky--which views the formal syntactic component as entirely autonomous---with the older, strongly lexicalist, construction-based tradition, which has sought to define a more lingistically transparent theory of meaning representation. Steedman offers a logical formalism that relates directly to the surface form of language and to the process of inference and proof that it must support. Such a natural logic, although formal by definition, should be allowed to grow organically from attested language phenomena rather than be axiomatized a priori in terms of any standard logic. Steedman also considers the application of natural semantic interpretations to practical natural language processing tasks, emphasizing throughout the elimination of traditional quantifiers from semantic formalism in favor of devices such as Skolem terms and structure-sharing among representations in processing.

The present volume is as much a book co-authored by all the contributors as it is an edited collection of their papers. Most of the contributors have been involved in regular discussions over the past years, often inspiring the questions, or some aspects of the proposals, in each other's papers or actually collaborating on co-authored papers. ! For this reason, the contributions make related assumptions and explore highly related issues. The organization of the volume reflects this unity of aims and interests. It starts out with an overview of some of the shared formal background, and the chapters are arranged in a sequence that is intended to invite the reader to proceed from one directly to the next. Nevertheless, there has been no attempt to eliminate individual differences in either assumptions or choice of topic. All the chapters are entirely self-contained, so the reader will find it equally possible to read any of them in isolation. Two members of the UCLA community do not appear in this volume but have been an important source of inspiration for this project: Ed Keenan and Feng-hsi Liu. Many of Keenan's works have drawn attention to the empirically diverse behavior of natural language determiners and developed theoretical tools for studying them. Liu's 1990 dissertation examined the abilities of a representative sample of noun phrases to participate in scopal dependencies and branching, coming up with provocative generalizations and pointing out their significance for then-standard theories in powerful terms.

The second edition of The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory presents a comprehensive introduction to cutting-edge research in contemporary theoretical and computational semantics. Features completely new content from the first edition of The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory Features contributions by leading semanticists, who introduce core areas of contemporary semantic research, while discussing current research Suitable for graduate students for courses in semantic theory and for advanced researchers as an introduction to current theoretical work

"This book addresses the fundamental issues in the phase-based approach to the mental computation of language that have arisen from the recent developments in the Minimalist Program. Leading linguists and promising young scholars from all over the world focus on two topics that are in the centre of current theorizing in syntax - the interaction of syntax with the conceptual-intentional and sensorimotor interfaces, and current formulations of phase theory." "The authors discuss central questions including the degree to which phases are the right way to think about the dynamic system of language. They consider how far the answers are likely to come from conceptual and theoretical considerations or from experimental and empirical research, which key components might be missing, and how the system can be improved." --Book Jacket.

In recent years, the study of formal semantics and formal pragmatics has grown tremendously, showing that core aspects of language meaning can be explained by a few principles. These principles are grounded in the logic that is behind - and tightly intertwined with - the grammar of human language. In this book, some of the most prominent figures in linguistics, including Noam Chomsky and Barbara H. Partee, offer new insights into the nature of linguistic meaning and pave the way for the further development of formal semantics and formal pragmatics. Each chapter investigates various dimensions in which the logical nature of human language manifests itself within a language and/or across languages. Phenomena like bare plurals, free choice items, scalar implicatures, intervention effects, and logical operators are investigated in depth and at times cross-linguistically and/or experimentally. This volume will be of interest to scholars working within the fields of semantics, pragmatics, language acquisition and psycholinguistics.

This volume contains a selection of papers from the 12th International Conference on the Structure of Hungarian (Leiden, 2015). The contributions cover a wide range of topics and their significance in generative theorizing. The papers about morphosyntax focus on the formation of comparative clauses, the behavior of particle verbs, scope taking in deverbal nominal constructions, measure constructions, classifier constructions, the mass/count distinction as well as focus and quantifier scope. The papers about phonology investigate coexisting patterns of variation in vowel harmony, the representational account of vowel harmony and the nature of heteromorphemic vowel sequences. While the focus of the volume is on Hungarian, comparison is made with several other languages, such as English, German and Portuguese among others. The broad range of topics discussed in this volume will appeal both to scholars working on Hungarian and to a general audience of generative linguists.

An investigation into the underlying logic of human languages which looks at how children acquire English and Mandarin.