Richard Merritt Montague (September 20, 1930 – March 7, 1971) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

who made contributions to

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of for ...

and the

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...

. He is known for proposing

Montague grammar __notoc__ Montague grammar is an approach to natural language semantics, named after American logician Richard Montague. The Montague grammar is based on mathematical logic, especially higher-order predicate logic and lambda calculus, and makes use ...

to formalize the semantics of

natural language In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...

. As a student of Alfred Tarski, he also contributed early developments to

axiomatic set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies Set (mathematics), sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, ...

( ZFC). For the latter half of his life, he was a professor at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

until his early death, believed to be a

homicide Homicide occurs when a person kills another person. A homicide requires only a volitional act or omission that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from accidental, reckless, or negligent acts even if there is no inten ...

, at age 40.

Career

At the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, Montague earned a BA in Philosophy in 1950, an MA in Mathematics in 1953, and a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in Philosophy in 1957, the latter under the direction of the mathematician and logician Alfred Tarski. Montague spent his entire career teaching in the

UCLA Department of Philosophy The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, where he supervised the dissertations of

Nino Cocchiarella Nino Cocchiarella (born 1933) is an American philosopher who is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Indiana University Bloomington. He is best known for his work in formal logic and ontology. Among his important articles are: * "Nominalism and Conc ...

and

Hans Kamp Johan Anthony Willem "Hans" Kamp (born 5 September 1940) is a Dutch philosopher and linguist, responsible for introducing discourse representation theory (DRT) in 1981. Kamp was born in Den Burg. He received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from UCLA in 19 ...

. Montague wrote on the foundations of

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

and

set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory, as a branch of mathematics, is mostly conce ...

, as would befit a student of Tarski. His PhD dissertation, titled ''Contributions to the Axiomatic Foundations of Set Theory'', contained the first proof that all possible axiomatizations of the standard

ZFC must contain infinitely many axioms. In other words, ZFC cannot be finitely axiomatized. He pioneered a logical approach to natural language

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy Philosophy (f ...

that became known as

. This approach to language has been especially influential among certain

computational linguist Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, computational linguistics ...

s—perhaps more so than among more traditional philosophers of language. In particular, Montague's influence lives on in grammar approaches like categorial grammar (such as Unification Categorial Grammar, Left-Associative Grammar, or

Combinatory Categorial Grammar Combinatory categorial grammar (CCG) is an efficiently parsable, yet linguistically expressive grammar formalism. It has a transparent interface between surface syntax and underlying semantic representation, including predicate–argument structure ...

), which attempt a derivation of syntactic and semantic representation in tandem and the semantics of quantifiers, scope and discourse (

, a student of Montague's, co-developed Discourse Representation Theory). Montague was an accomplished organist and a successful real estate investor. He died violently in his own home; the crime is unsolved to this day.

Anita Feferman Anita Burdman Feferman (July 27, 1927 – April 9, 2015) was an American history of mathematics, historian of mathematics and biographer, known for her biographies of Jean van Heijenoort and (with her husband, logician Solomon Feferman) of Alfred T ...

and Solomon Feferman argue that he usually went to bars "cruising" and bringing people home with him.Feferman and Feferman 2004: 332-3 On the day that he was murdered, he brought home several people "for some kind of soirée", but they strangled him.

In popular culture

Three novels have been inspired by the life and death of Richard M. Montague: *'' The Mad Man'' by American science fiction author

Samuel R. Delany Samuel R. "Chip" Delany (, ) (born April 1, 1942), is an American author and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays (on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society). His ...

(1994) * ''Less Than Meets the Eye'' by American philosopher

David Berlinski David Berlinski (born 1942) is an American author who has written books about mathematics and the history of science as well as fiction. An opponent of evolution, he is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture ...

(1994) * ''The Semantics of Murder'' by Irish writer Aifric Campbell (2008)

Notes

References

* Feferman, Anita, and Solomon Feferman, 2004. '' Alfred Tarski: A Life''. Cambridge Univ. Press. * Donald Kalish, and Montague, Richard, 1964. ''Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning''. Harcourt, Brace, and Jovanovich. * Donald Kalish, and Montague, Richard, and Mar, Gary, 1980. ''Logic: Techniques of Formal Reasoning (second edition)''. Oxford University Press. * Montague, Richard, 1974. '' Formal philosophy : selected papers of Richard Montague'' / ed. and with an introd. by Richmond H. Thomason. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press. (1979 printing: ) * Partee, Barbara H., 2006,
Richard Montague (1930 - 1971)
in Brown, Keith, ed., ''

Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics The ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', first published in 1994 (edited by Ronald E. Asher), with a 2nd edition in 2006 (edited by Keith Brown), is an encyclopedia of all matters related to language and linguistics. Reception The ''Jo ...

'', Vol. 8, 2nd ed. Oxford: Elsevier: 255–57. Includes a bibliography of the secondary literature on Montague and his eponymous grammar.

External links

*
"Montague, Richard (1930–1971) ."

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, ''

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.''
Montague Semantics
at

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') combines an online encyclopedia of philosophy with peer-reviewed publication of original papers in philosophy, freely accessible to Internet users. It is maintained by Stanford University. Eac ...

RICHARD MONTAGUE 1930-1971
memorial page by Ivano Caponigro published on the fiftieth anniversary of his death
That’s Just Semantics! (or, the Proper Treatment of Richard Montague in Literary Fiction)
(Archived by

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). {{DEFAULTSORT:Montague, Richard 1930 births 1971 deaths 1971 murders in the United States 20th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American philosophers American logicians LGBT academics LGBT people from California LGBT scientists from the United States Male murder victims People from Stockton, California Philosophers of language Semanticists Unsolved murders in the United States LGBT mathematicians Deaths by strangulation in the United States People murdered in Los Angeles 20th-century LGBT people

Career

In popular culture

See also

Notes

References

External links