Abstract
One of the most frequently used notions in linguistics, logical analysis of language, and in logic itself is the notion of scope. The scopes of quantifiers and of other logically active expressions are one of the most important determinants of the logical form of the sentences of both formal and natural languages. Yet in the way this notion is currently employed, it embodies a confusion which makes its use viciously misleading. The first aim of this paper is to expose the flaw in question. In the future no linguist, logician or philosopher should use the notion of scope without having first cleared up its meaning. In linguistics, the concept will even turn out to be worthless as a primitive notion.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Chierchia, Gennaro: 1995, Dynamics of Meaning, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Groenendijk, J., and M. Stokhof: 1991, ‘Dynamic Predicate Logic’, Linguistics and Philosophy 14, 39–100.
Halonen, Ilpo and Jaakko Hintikka: forthcoming, ‘Toward a Theory of the Process of Explanation’.
Higginbotham, J.: 1997, ‘Current Generative Syntax’, in J. van Benthem and Alice ter Meulen (eds.), Handbook of Logic and Language, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
Higginbotham, J. and Robert May: 1981, ‘Questions, Quantifiers and Crossing’, Linguistic Review 1, 41–79.
Hintikka, Jaakko: 1987a, ‘Language Understanding and Strategic Meaning’, Synthese 73, 497–529.
Hintikka, Jaakko: 1987b, ‘Is Scope a Viable Concept in Semantics?’, ESCOL ‘86, Ohio State University, Columbus, pp. 259–270.
Hintikka, Jaakko: 1990, ‘Paradigms for Language Theory’, Acta Philosophica Fennica 49, 181–209.
Hintikka, Jaakko: 1995a, ‘What Is Elementary Logic? Independence-friendly Logic as the True Core Area of Logic’, in K. Gavroglu et al. (eds.), Physics, Philosophy and the Scientific Community, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, pp. 301–326.
Hintikka, Jaakko: 1995b, ‘The Games of Logic and the Games of Inquiry’, Dialectica 49, 229–249.
Hintikka, Jaakko: 1996, The Principles of Mathematics Revisited,Cambridge University Press.
Hintikka, Jaakko, and Jack Kulas: 1983, The Game of Language, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.
Hintikka, Jaakko, and Jack Kulas: 1985, Anaphora and Definite Descriptions: Two Applications of Game-Theoretical Semantics, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.
Hintikka, Jaakko, and Gabriel Sandu: 1991, On the Methodology of Linguistics: A Case Study, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Hintikka, Jaakko and Gabriel Sandu: 1994, ‘What Is a Quantifier?’, Synthese 98, 113–130.
Hintikka, Jaakko, and Gabriel Sandu: 1997, ‘Game-theoretical Semantics’, in J. van Benthem and Alice ter Meulen (eds.), Handbook of Logic and Language, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
May, Robert: 1989, ‘Interpreting Logical Form’, Linguistics and Philosophy 12, 387–435.
May, Robert: 1985, Logical Form: Its Structure and Derivation, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Kamp, Hans, and Uwe Reyle: 1993, From Discourse to Logic, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
Keenan, E.: 1987, ‘Unreducible n-ary Quantification in Natural Language’, in P. Gärdenfors, (ed.), Generalized Quantifers: Linguistic and Logical Approaches, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, pp. 109–150.
Keenan, E. and J. Stavi: 1986, ‘A Semantical Characterization of Natural Language Determiners’, Linguistics and Philosophy 9, 2. 53–326.
Postal, Paul: 1969, ‘On So-called ‘Pronouns’ in English’, in D. A. Reibel and S. A. Schane (eds), Modern Studies in English, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., pp. 201–224.
Quine, W. V.: 1940, Mathematical Logic, Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Sandu, Gabriel: 1997, ‘On the Theory of Anaphora: Dynamic Logic vs GTS’, Linguistics and Philosophy 20, 147–174.
Sells, Peter: 1985, Contemporary Syntactical Theories, CLSI, Stanford.
Westerstdhl, Dag: 1990, ‘Quantifiers in Natural Language: A Survey of Some Recent Work’, in M. Krvnicki, M. Mostowski and L. W. Szczerba, (eds), Quantifiers: Logics, Models and Computation. vol. 1, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 359–408.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hintikka, J. (1998). No Scope for Scope?. In: Paradigms for Language Theory and Other Essays. Jaakko Hintikka Selected Papers, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2531-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2531-6_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4930-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2531-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive