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The Withering Away of Formal Semantics? *
Author(s) -
TENNANT NEIL
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
mind and language
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.905
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1468-0017
pISSN - 0268-1064
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0017.1986.tb00328.x
Subject(s) - semantics (computer science) , linguistics , formal semantics (linguistics) , epistemology , cognitive science , computer science , philosophy , psychology , programming language
Why is semantics important? More precisely, why is formal semantics important? What is so special about the subject matter of formal semantics, and its methods, that sets it apart as a necessary component in any account of language? By formal semantics I understand those broadly algebraic endeavours that set out to model the relationship between language and a (usually atomic) reality. The aim is usually to give a truth definition for a language provided with a formal grammar. Then, by appeal to the truth definition and the notion of truth-preservation, one characterizes a semantical relation of logical consequence. Depending on the logico-grammatical resources of the language, the models those algebraic icons of reality are more or less complicated. At the simpler end of the spectrum lies the truth tabular semantics for classical propositional languages. There an interpretation is just a matter of settling a truth value for each of the atomic sentences (propositional variables). The recursion in the truth definition is then simply a matter of carrying out a truth table computation. Nicely in the middle range are models of extensional first order languages with identity. Models there provide referents for names, functions for function signs, and extensions for predicates. Tarski’s well known theory of satisfaction and of truth then provides clauses in an inductive definition of truth. The basis clause exploits the interpretative anchoring of the language in the model. Thus P(a) is true just in case the individual referred to by the name a lies in the extension assigned to the predicate P. More complex sentences and formulae are dealt with by recursive appeal to the characteristic truth-affecting contribution of the dominant connectives and quantifiers.