Predicative nets and lexical inferences (An alternative to formal logic in the analysis of natural languages)

Abstract

This paper gives a brief account of the main ideas of our book on “Lexical inferences and net-interpretation of predicates”. In their applications of modern formal logic in their work, linguists naturally adopt two typical options: sententialism (sentences as the primary units in the analysis of inferences), and the clear-cut distinction between “logical” and “extra-logical” vocabulary. The paper tries to show first that this is only a choice, not a necessary theoretical or technical attitude. Secondly, that this kind of choice will considerably weaken both logical and linguistic analysis of inferences based on lexical connections, which are common in natural language. In the constructive part, new technical tools of formal analysis of inferences are introduced, such as categories of thought, modes of predicative connections and nets. All these instruments serve also to provide definitions of some of the main traditional semantic notions, such as sense, synonymy, analytic, synthetic, etc. In the theoretical part, the authors take a position concerning other approaches to lexical connections in the classical literature (Carnap, Wittgenstein, Grice, Speech Acts theory and Jerrold Katz).

Key words: Inference, lexical, net, logic.