Switch to: References

Add citations

You must login to add citations.
  1. Cross-linguistic insights in the theory of semantics and its interface with syntax.Anna Szabolcsi - 2024 - Theoretical Linguistics 50 (1/2):125-133.
    This paper highlights a small selection of cases where crosslinguistic insights have been important to big questions in the theory of semantics and the syntax/semantics interface. The selection includes (i) the role and representation of Speaker and Addressee in the grammar; (ii) mismatches between form and interpretation motivating high-placed silent operators for functional elements; and (iii) the explanation of semantic universals, including universals pertaining to inventories, in terms of learnability and the trade-off between informativeness and simplicity.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Quantifiers satisfying semantic universals have shorter minimal description length.Iris van de Pol, Paul Lodder, Leendert van Maanen, Shane Steinert-Threlkeld & Jakub Szymanik - 2023 - Cognition 232 (C):105150.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  • Contrafactives and Learnability.Simon Wimmer & David Strohmaier - 2022 - In Marco Degano, Tom Roberts, Giorgio Sbardolini & Marieke Schouwstra (eds.), Proceedings of the 23rd Amsterdam Colloquium. pp. 298-305.
    Richard Holton has drawn attention to a new semantic universal, according to which (almost) no natural language has contrafactive attitude verbs. This semantic universal is part of an asymmetry between factive and contrafactive attitude verbs. Whilst factives are abundant, contrafactives are scarce. We propose that this asymmetry is partly due to a difference in learnability. The meaning of contrafactives is significantly harder to learn than that of factives. We tested our hypothesis by conducting a computational experiment using an artificial neural (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • A Simple Logic of Concepts.Thomas F. Icard & Lawrence S. Moss - 2022 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 52 (3):705-730.
    In Pietroski ( 2018 ) a simple representation language called SMPL is introduced, construed as a hypothesis about core conceptual structure. The present work is a study of this system from a logical perspective. In addition to establishing a completeness result and a complexity characterization for reasoning in the system, we also pinpoint its expressive limits, in particular showing that the fourth corner in the square of opposition (“ Some_not ”) eludes expression. We then study a seemingly small extension, called (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Update rules and semantic universals.Luca Incurvati & Giorgio Sbardolini - 2023 - Linguistics and Philosophy 46 (2):259-289.
    We discuss a well-known puzzle about the lexicalization of logical operators in natural language, in particular connectives and quantifiers. Of the many logically possible operators, only few appear in the lexicon of natural languages: the connectives in English, for example, are conjunction _and_, disjunction _or_, and negated disjunction _nor_; the lexical quantifiers are _all, some_ and _no_. The logically possible nand (negated conjunction) and Nall (negated universal) are not expressed by lexical entries in English, nor in any natural language. Moreover, (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • What’s Positive and Negative about Generics: A Constrained Indexical Approach.Junhyo Lee & Anthony Nguyen - 2022 - Philosophical Studies 179 (5):1739-1761.
    Nguyen argues that only his radically pragmatic account and Sterken’s indexical account can capture what we call the positive data. We present some new data, which we call the negative data, and argue that no theory of generics on the market is compatible with both the positive data and the negative data. We develop a novel version of the indexical account and show that it captures both the positive data and the negative data. In particular, we argue that there is (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   4 citations  
  • An Explanation of the Veridical Uniformity Universal.Shane Steinert-Threlkeld - forthcoming - Journal of Semantics.
    A semantic universal, which we here dub the Veridical Uniformity Universal, has recently been argued to hold of responsive verbs (those that take both declarative and interrogative complements). This paper offers a preliminary explanation of this universal: verbs satisfying it are easier to learn than those that do not. This claim is supported by a computational experiment using artificial neural networks, mirroring a recent proposal for explaining semantic universals of quantifiers. This preliminary study opens up many avenues for future work (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   5 citations  
  • The Logic of Lexical Connectives.Giorgio Sbardolini - 2023 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 52 (5):1327-1353.
    Natural language does not express all connectives definable in classical logic as simple lexical items. Coordination in English is expressed by conjunction and, disjunction or, and negated disjunction nor. Other languages pattern similarly. Non-lexicalized connectives are typically expressed compositionally: in English, negated conjunction is typically expressed by combining negation and conjunction (not both). This is surprising: if $$\wedge $$ ∧ and $$\vee $$ ∨ are duals, and the negation of the latter can be expressed lexically (nor), why not the negation (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  • Computational complexity explains neural differences in quantifier verification.Heming Strømholt Bremnes, Jakub Szymanik & Giosuè Baggio - 2022 - Cognition 223 (C):105013.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Convexity and Monotonicity in Language Coordination: Simulating the Emergence of Semantic Universals in Populations of Cognitive Agents.Nina Gierasimczuk, Dariusz Kalociński, Franciszek Rakowski & Jakub Uszyński - 2023 - Journal of Logic, Language and Information 32 (4):569-600.
    Natural languages vary in their quantity expressions, but the variation seems to be constrained by general properties, so-calleduniversals. Their explanations have been sought among constraints of human cognition, communication, complexity, and pragmatics. In this article, we apply a state-of-the-art language coordination model to the semantic domain of quantities to examine whether two quantity universals—monotonicity and convexity—arise as a result of coordination. Assuming precise number perception by the agents, we evolve communicatively usable quantity terminologies in two separate conditions: a numeric-based condition (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  • Ease of learning explains semantic universals.Shane Steinert-Threlkeld & Jakub Szymanik - 2020 - Cognition 195:104076.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   10 citations  
  • Recursive Numeral Systems Optimize the Trade‐off Between Lexicon Size and Average Morphosyntactic Complexity.Milica Denić & Jakub Szymanik - 2024 - Cognitive Science 48 (3):e13424.
    Human languages vary in terms of which meanings they lexicalize, but this variation is constrained. It has been argued that languages are under two competing pressures: the pressure to be simple (e.g., to have a small lexicon) and to allow for informative (i.e., precise) communication, and that which meanings get lexicalized may be explained by languages finding a good way to trade off between these two pressures. However, in certain semantic domains, languages can reach very high levels of informativeness even (...)
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  • Conjoining Meanings: Semantics without Truth Values.Jakub Szymanik - 2021 - Philosophical Review 130 (1):171-175.
    Download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark