Logic Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Formal semantics of natural language=== {{main|Formal semantics (natural language)}} Formal semantics is a subfield of logic, [[linguistics]], and the [[philosophy of language]]. The discipline of [[semantics]] studies the meaning of language. Formal semantics uses formal tools from the fields of symbolic logic and mathematics to give precise theories of the meaning of [[natural language]] expressions. It understands meaning usually in relation to [[truth condition]]s, i.e. it examines in which situations a sentence would be true or false. One of its central methodological assumptions is the [[principle of compositionality]]. It states that the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its parts and how they are combined. For example, the meaning of the verb phrase "walk and sing" depends on the meanings of the individual expressions "walk" and "sing". Many theories in formal semantics rely on model theory. This means that they employ set theory to construct a model and then interpret the meanings of expression in relation to the elements in this model. For example, the term "walk" may be interpreted as the set of all individuals in the model that share the property of walking. Early influential theorists in this field were [[Richard Montague]] and [[Barbara Partee]], who focused their analysis on the English language.{{sfnm|1a1=Janssen|1a2=Zimmermann|1y=2021|1pp=3β4|2a1=Partee|2y=2016|3a1=King|3y=2009|3pp=557β8|4a1=Aloni|4a2=Dekker|4y=2016|4pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ltSgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT22 22β23]}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page