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

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 who made contributions to

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of 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 formal ...

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 to formalize the semantics of natural language. As a student of

Alfred Tarski Alfred Tarski (, born Alfred Teitelbaum;School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews ''School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews''. January 14, 1901 – October 26, 1983) was a Polish-American logician a ...

, he also contributed early developments to axiomatic set theory ( 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 S ...

until his early death, believed to be a homicide, 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 in Philosophy in 1957, the latter under the direction of the mathematician and logician

. Montague spent his entire career teaching in the UCLA Department of Philosophy, where he supervised the dissertations of Nino Cocchiarella and

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

. 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 premise ...

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 axiomatic set theory 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, linguistics and comp ...

that became known as Montague grammar. This approach to language has been especially influential among certain computational linguists—perhaps more so than among more traditional

philosophers of language 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 ...

. In particular, Montague's influence lives on in grammar approaches like

categorial grammar Categorial grammar is a family of formalisms in natural language syntax that share the central assumption that syntactic constituents combine as functions and arguments. Categorial grammar posits a close relationship between the syntax and seman ...

(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 structur ...

), 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 In formal linguistics, discourse representation theory (DRT) is a framework for exploring meaning under a formal semantics approach. One of the main differences between DRT-style approaches and traditional Montagovian approaches is that DRT inclu ...

). 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 and

Solomon Feferman Solomon Feferman (December 13, 1928 – July 26, 2016) was an American philosopher and mathematician who worked in mathematical logic. Life Solomon Feferman was born in The Bronx in New York City to working-class parents who had immigrated to th ...

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 (1994) * ''Less Than Meets the Eye'' by American philosopher David Berlinski (1994) * ''The Semantics of Murder'' by Irish writer Aifric Campbell (2008)

Notes

References

* Feferman, Anita, and

, 2004. ''

: 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) ."
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, '' Encyclopedia.com.''
Montague Semantics
at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

). {{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