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Formalizing the IMA Language: Toward the Minimalist Program for Compositional Semantics

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Modality, Semantics and Interpretations

Part of the book series: Logic in Asia: Studia Logica Library ((LIAA))

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Abstract

Computational semantics via logical approach mainly focuses on the composition of meanings. Traditional approaches to it are based on typed logic via categorial grammar, which are not so successful when applied to very different languages than English. Recently, some alternative approaches with flatter types and underspecified semantics have been proposed. This paper is in the same line of these alternatives, but goes further and thoroughly. To avoid the presumed grammatical and semantic rules which are not universal across languages, we give a logic for a hypothetical language called the Isolating-Monocategorial-Associational (IMA) language, which can be assumed to be a prototype of natural languages with minimal grammar and semantics. We also give several extensions of the logic, motivated by different specifications. By formalizing the IMA language, we intend to reveal the universal mechanism of semantic composition in natural languages and to propose a general framework for compositional semantics.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Fund of Social Science (No. 13BZX066) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 13wkpy71).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Logic and Cognition, Department of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Xuefeng Wen

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  1. Xuefeng Wen
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Correspondence to Xuefeng Wen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Logic and Cognition, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Shier Ju

  2. Institute of Logic and Cognition, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Hu Liu

  3. Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Ishikawa, Japan

    Hiroakira Ono

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Wen, X. (2015). Formalizing the IMA Language: Toward the Minimalist Program for Compositional Semantics. In: Ju, S., Liu, H., Ono, H. (eds) Modality, Semantics and Interpretations. Logic in Asia: Studia Logica Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47197-5_8

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