19 May 2008, Logic, Language, and Reasoning Seminar, Nina Gierasimczuk and Jakub Szymanik

We discuss the thesis formulated by Hintikka (1973) that there exist natural language sentences which require non-linear (non-Fregean) quantification to express their meaning. Our basic assumption is that a criterion for an adequacy of a meaning representation is its compatibility with sentence truth-conditions. Among others, it can be established by observing linguistic behavior of language users. We investigate sentences with non-Fregean combinations of quantifiers similar to Hintikka's examples and propose a novel alternative reading expressible by linear formulae. The interpretation seems intuitively very solid. Moreover, our empirical research shows that people tend to interpret Hintikka's like sentences in a way consistent with it. We will survey discussion on Hintikka's Thesis and present our experiments and results.

For more information, see http://staff.science.uva.nl/~szymanik/LLR.html