J. van Benthem – författare

This Handbook documents the main trends in current research between logic and language, including its broader influence in computer science, linguistic theory and cognitive science.The history of the combined study of Logic and Linguistics goes back a long way, at least to the work of the scholastic philosophers in the Middle Ages. At the beginning of this century, the subject was revitalized through the pioneering efforts of Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, and Polish philosophical logicians such as Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz. Around 1970, the landmark achievements of Richard Montague established a junction between state-of-the-art mathematical logic and generative linguistic theory. Over the subsequent decades, this enterprise of Montague Grammar has flourished and diversified into a number of research programs with empirical and theoretical substance.This appears to be the first Handbook to bring logic-language interface to the fore. Both aspects of the interaction between logic and language are demonstrated in the book i.e. firstly, how logical systems are designed and modified in response to linguistic needs and secondly, how mathematical theory arises in this process and how it affects subsequent linguistic theory.The Handbook presents concise, impartial accounts of the topics covered. Where possible, an author and a commentator have cooperated to ensure the proper breadth and technical content of the papers.The Handbook is self-contained, and individual articles are of the highest quality.

This monograph began life as a series of papers documenting five years of research into the logical foundations of Categorial Grammar, a grammatical paradigm which has close analogies with Lambda Calculus and Type Theory. The technical theory presented here stems from the interface between Logic and Linguistics and, in particular, the theory of generalized quantification. A categorical framework with lambda calculus-oriented semantics is a convenient vehicle for generalizing semantic insights (obtained in various corners of natural language) into one coherent theory.The book aims to demonstrate to fellow logicians that the resulting applied lambda calculus has intrinsic logical interest. In the final analysis, the idea is not just to `break the syntactic code'' of natural languages but to understand the cognitive functioning of the human mind.

This monograph began life as a series of papers documenting five years of research into the logical foundations of Categorial Grammar, a grammatical paradigm which has close analogies with Lambda Calculus and Type Theory. The technical theory presented here stems from the interface between Logic and Linguistics and, in particular, the theory of generalized quantification. A categorical framework with lambda calculus-oriented semantics is a convenient vehicle for generalizing semantic insights (obtained in various corners of natural language) into one coherent theory.

The book aims to demonstrate to fellow logicians that the resulting applied lambda calculus has intrinsic logical interest. In the final analysis, the idea is not just to `break the syntactic code' of natural languages but to understand the cognitive functioning of the human mind.