Quantification and Intensionality in Situation Semantics

Abstract

In this paper we present a type-driven interpretation approach to semantic theory. We will introduce a formalization of the notion of the speaker’s references in a context, and a semantical storage mechanism for resolving the quantificational and de re/de dicto scope ambiguities. In Montague Grammar (PTQ) all verbs are initially treated as intensional, and then the extensional translations, whenever they exist, are derived from the intensional ones by the use of meaning postulates. Such a treatment of the extensional verbs, besides of being counterintuitive, increases dramatically the complexity of the computations of the semantical representations of the sentences, which exponentially propagates to the text processing. The paper introduces a lexicalized situation semantics treatment of the quantifiers and the intensional verbs. The approach is illustrated by a grammar, which uses a semantical storage. Primarily, the semantic storage targets the anaphoric and quantificational relations and related scope ambiguities, but it also facilitates the represention of the de re/de dicto “reading” capacities of the intensional verbs. The grammar accounts for the difference between extensional and intensional verbs by the means of appropriateness conditions for filling the semantical argument roles of the relations denoted by the verbs. The semantical rules for the verb phrases result in type-driven calculations triggered by discourse information.