Monday, July 26, 2004

Quantification papers

There's been a fantastic run of draft papers on quantification and (formal) semantics available via semantics etc.:

  • a review article covering generalised quantifiers from a philosophical perspective by Michael Glanzberg
  • the slides for a talk Angelika Kratzer gave this summer arguing for hidden situation variables where Stanley and Szabo want hidden variables - and elsewhere besides
  • Bart Geurts arguing that:
    Conditional sentences with quantifying expressions are systematically ambiguous. In one reading, the if -clause restricts the domain of the overt quantifier; in the other, the if -clause restricts the domain of a covert quantifier, which defaults to epistemic necessity.
  • and Geurts again on why unary quantification is fine for most, often etc. if you use Belnap-style conditional assertion.
Very useful for me, since Hiroyuki Uchida and I are thinking of running our informal formal semantics course next year on quantification. Now all I have to do is understand it all...

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