Abstract
It has proven surprisingly difficult to construct explicit formal semantics for English tenses and temporal adverbs. If evidence is needed, the recent proliferation of attempted formal treatments of English temporal discourse should be testimony enough to the dissatisfaction of linguists and logicians with existing theories.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Much of the early work in game-theoretical semantics is collected in Esa Saarinen, editor, Game-Theoretical Semantics, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1979. For a fuller explanation of how this approach works see chapter 1 above.
This phenomenon is illustrated by the two-barrelled character of English wh-words in their interrogative use. For it, see my monograph The Semantics of Questions and the Questions of Semantics (Acta Philosophica Fennica, vol. 28, no. 4 ), North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1976. As I emphasize there, such a multiplicity of readings must not be identified with ambiguity.
Ibid.
Cf. Donald Davidson, “The Logical Form of Action Sentences”, in Nicholas Rescher, editor, The Logic of Decision and Action, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 1967, pp. 81–95,
For a sketch of the treatment of such “nonstandard” quantifiers see my “Rejoinder to Peacocke”, in Saarinen, Came-Theoretical Semantics, and Lauri Carlson’s forthcoming paper on the subject; cf. section 11 below.
Pavel Tichf, “The Logic of Temporal Discourse”, Linguistics and Philosophy 3 (1980), 343–69.
See chapter 10 below.
Jaakko Hintikka and Lauri Carlson, “Conditionals, Generic Quantifiers, and Other Applications of Subgames”, in Saarinen, Game-Theoretical Semantics, pp. 179–214.
Lauri Carlson, “Focus and Dialogue Games”, in Lucia Vaina and Jaakko Hintikka, editors, Cognitive Constraints on Communication, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1983, pp. 295–333; Dialogue Games, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1983.
For semantical negation, see chapter 4 above.
See “Quantifiers in Natural Languages”, in Saarinen, Game-Theoretical Semantics, pp. 81–117.
See chapter 10 below.
See Esa Saarinen’s own papers in Game-Theoretical Semantics.
In working on this paper, I have greatly profited from discussions with Merrill B. Hintikka, Barry Richards, and Jack Kulas. They are not responsible for my excesses, however. 1 profited likewise from the papers and comments by many of the other participants in the 1980 Groningen Round Table.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1983 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hintikka, J. (1983). Temporal Discourse and Semantical Games. In: The Game of Language. Synthese Language Library, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9847-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9847-2_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-277-1950-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-010-9847-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive