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Quantization (linguistics)
In formal semantics, a predicate is quantized if it being true of an entity requires that it is ''not'' true of any proper subparts of that entity. For example, if something is an "apple", then no proper subpart of that thing is an "apple". If something is "water", then many of its subparts will also be "water". Hence, the predicate "apple" is quantized, while "water" is not. Formally, a quantization predicate ''QUA'' can be defined as follows, where U is the universe of discourse, F is a variable over sets, and p is a mereological part structure on U with <_p the mereological part-of : ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formal Semantics (natural Language)
Formal semantics is the study of grammatical meaning in natural languages using formal tools from logic and theoretical computer science. It is an interdisciplinary field, sometimes regarded as a subfield of both linguistics and philosophy of language. It provides accounts of what linguistic expressions mean and how their meanings are composed from the meanings of their parts. The enterprise of formal semantics can be thought of as that of reverse-engineering the semantic components of natural languages' grammars. Overview Formal semantics studies the denotations of natural language expressions. High-level concerns include compositionality, reference, and the nature of meaning. Key topic areas include scope, modality, binding, tense, and aspect. Semantics is distinct from pragmatics, which encompasses aspects of meaning which arise from interaction and communicative intent. Formal semantics is an interdisciplinary field, often viewed as a subfield of both linguistics and ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Predicate (grammar)
The term predicate is used in one of two ways in linguistics and its subfields. The first defines a predicate as everything in a standard declarative sentence except the subject, and the other views it as just the main content verb or associated predicative expression of a clause. Thus, by the first definition the predicate of the sentence ''Frank likes cake'' is ''likes cake''. By the second definition, the predicate of the same sentence is just the content verb ''likes'', whereby ''Frank'' and ''cake'' are the arguments of this predicate. Differences between these two definitions can lead to confusion. Syntax Traditional grammar The notion of a predicate in traditional grammar traces back to Aristotelian logic. A predicate is seen as a property that a subject has or is characterized by. A predicate is therefore an expression that can be ''true of'' something. Thus, the expression "is moving" is true of anything that is moving. This classical understanding of predicates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universe Of Discourse
In the formal sciences, the domain of discourse, also called the universe of discourse, universal set, or simply universe, is the set of entities over which certain variables of interest in some formal treatment may range. Overview The domain of discourse is usually identified in the preliminaries, so that there is no need in the further treatment to specify each time the range of the relevant variables. Many logicians distinguish, sometimes only tacitly, between the ''domain of a science'' and the ''universe of discourse of a formalization of the science''.José Miguel Sagüillo, Domains of sciences, universe of discourse, and omega arguments, History and philosophy of logic, vol. 20 (1999), pp. 267–280. Examples For example, in an interpretation of first-order logic, the domain of discourse is the set of individuals over which the quantifiers range. A proposition such as is ambiguous, if no domain of discourse has been identified. In one interpretation, the domain of di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Set (mathematics)
A set is the mathematical model for a collection of different things; a set contains '' elements'' or ''members'', which can be mathematical objects of any kind: numbers, symbols, points in space, lines, other geometrical shapes, variables, or even other sets. The set with no element is the empty set; a set with a single element is a singleton. A set may have a finite number of elements or be an infinite set. Two sets are equal if they have precisely the same elements. Sets are ubiquitous in modern mathematics. Indeed, set theory, more specifically Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, has been the standard way to provide rigorous foundations for all branches of mathematics since the first half of the 20th century. History The concept of a set emerged in mathematics at the end of the 19th century. The German word for set, ''Menge'', was coined by Bernard Bolzano in his work ''Paradoxes of the Infinite''. Georg Cantor, one of the founders of set theory, gave the following defin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mereology
In logic, philosophy and related fields, mereology ( (root: , ''mere-'', 'part') and the suffix ''-logy'', 'study, discussion, science') is the study of parts and the wholes they form. Whereas set theory is founded on the membership relation between a set and its elements, mereology emphasizes the meronomic relation between entities, which—from a set-theoretic perspective—is closer to the concept of inclusion between sets. Mereology has been explored in various ways as applications of predicate logic to formal ontology, in each of which mereology is an important part. Each of these fields provides its own axiomatic definition of mereology. A common element of such axiomatizations is the assumption, shared with inclusion, that the part-whole relation orders its universe, meaning that everything is a part of itself ( reflexivity), that a part of a part of a whole is itself a part of that whole ( transitivity), and that two distinct entities cannot each be a part of the othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematical Structure
In mathematics, a structure is a set endowed with some additional features on the set (e.g. an operation, relation, metric, or topology). Often, the additional features are attached or related to the set, so as to provide it with some additional meaning or significance. A partial list of possible structures are measures, algebraic structures (groups, fields, etc.), topologies, metric structures (geometries), orders, events, equivalence relations, differential structures, and categories. Sometimes, a set is endowed with more than one feature simultaneously, which allows mathematicians to study the interaction between the different structures more richly. For example, an ordering imposes a rigid form, shape, or topology on the set, and if a set has both a topology feature and a group feature, such that these two features are related in a certain way, then the structure becomes a topological group. Mappings between sets which preserve structures (i.e., structures in the domain a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Relation (mathematics)
In mathematics, a relation on a set may, or may not, hold between two given set members. For example, ''"is less than"'' is a relation on the set of natural numbers; it holds e.g. between 1 and 3 (denoted as 1 is an asymmetric relation, but ≥ is not. Again, the previous 3 alternatives are far from being exhaustive; as an example over the natural numbers, the relation defined by is neither symmetric nor antisymmetric, let alone asymmetric. ; : for all , if and then . A transitive relation is irreflexive if and only if it is asymmetric. For example, "is ancestor of" is a transitive relation, while "is parent of" is not. ; : for all , if then or . This property is sometimes called "total", which is distinct from the definitions of "total" given in the section . ; : for all , or . This property is sometimes called "total", which is distinct from the definitions of "total" given in the section . ; : every nonempty subset of contains a minimal element with respect to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manfred Krifka
Manfred Krifka (born 26 April 1956 in Dachau) is a German linguist. He is the director of the Leibniz Centre for General Linguistics (Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, ZAS) in Berlin, a professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin, and editor of the academic journal ''Theoretical Linguistics (journal), Theoretical Linguistics''. See staff bio and journal web pages in External links below. Career and education Krifka graduated from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 1986 in Theoretical Linguistics, Philosophy and Theory of Science, and Psycholinguistics. He consequently held positions at the University of Tübingen 1986 - 1989, at the University of Texas at Austin 1990 - 2000, and at Humboldt University of Berlin 2000 - current. He has been the director of the Leibniz Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS) since 2001. Work Krifka's main areas of research are linguistic semantics, pragmatics, language typology and Melanesian languages, especially langua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telicity
In linguistics, telicity (; ) is the property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as having a specific endpoint. A verb or verb phrase with this property is said to be ''telic''; if the situation it describes is ''not'' heading for any particular endpoint, it is said to be ''atelic''. Testing for telicity in English One common way to gauge whether an English verb phrase is telic is to see whether such a phrase as ''in an hour'', in the sense of "within an hour", (known as a ''time-frame adverbial'') can be applied to it. Conversely, a common way to gauge whether the phrase is atelic is to see whether such a phrase as ''for an hour'' (a ''time-span adverbial'') can be applied to it. This can be called the ''time-span/time-frame test''. According to this test, the verb phrase ''built a house'' is telic, whereas the minimally different ''built houses'' is atelic: : Fine: "John built a house in a month." : Bad: *"John built a house for a month." :: → ''buil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fewer Vs
''Fewer'' versus ''less'' is the debate revolving around grammatically using the words ''fewer'' and ''less'' correctly. The common perspective of today is that ''fewer'' should be used (instead of ''less'') with nouns for countable objects and concepts (discretely quantifiable nouns, or count nouns). On the other hand ''less'' should be used only with a grammatically singular noun (including mass nouns). This distinction was first expressed by grammarian Robert Baker in 1770, and has been supported as a general rule since then by other notable grammarians. However, a more recent perspective based on current usage notes that, while the rule for ''fewer'' stands, the word ''less'' is used more fluidly. Controversy This rule can be seen in the examples "there is less flour in this canister" and "there are fewer cups (grains, pounds, bags, etc.) of flour in this canister", which are based on the reasoning that flour is uncountable whereas the unit used to measure the flour (cup, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mass Noun
In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elements. Non-count nouns are distinguished from count nouns. Given that different languages have different grammatical features, the actual test for which nouns are mass nouns may vary between languages. In English, mass nouns are characterized by the impossibility of being directly modified by a numeral without specifying a unit of measurement and by the impossibility of being combined with an indefinite article (''a'' or ''an''). Thus, the mass noun "water" is quantified as "20 litres of water" while the count noun "chair" is quantified as "20 chairs". However, both mass and count nouns can be quantified in relative terms without unit specification (e.g., "so much water", "so many chairs"). Mass nouns have no concept of singular and plural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mereology
In logic, philosophy and related fields, mereology ( (root: , ''mere-'', 'part') and the suffix ''-logy'', 'study, discussion, science') is the study of parts and the wholes they form. Whereas set theory is founded on the membership relation between a set and its elements, mereology emphasizes the meronomic relation between entities, which—from a set-theoretic perspective—is closer to the concept of inclusion between sets. Mereology has been explored in various ways as applications of predicate logic to formal ontology, in each of which mereology is an important part. Each of these fields provides its own axiomatic definition of mereology. A common element of such axiomatizations is the assumption, shared with inclusion, that the part-whole relation orders its universe, meaning that everything is a part of itself ( reflexivity), that a part of a part of a whole is itself a part of that whole ( transitivity), and that two distinct entities cannot each be a part of the othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
