Abstract
The compositional interpretation of structures in discourse has raised the question whether some level of representation is indispensable in the analysis of the semantics of natural language. In this paper we formulate and motivate three notions of representationalism (a strong, a medium or midweak, and a weak one) and discuss to what extent existing formal semantic frameworks qualify as (strongly, midweakly or weakly) representational.
The research for this paper was supported by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), and by the ESPRIT basic research project DYANA. For their stimulating ideas I am glad I can thank Irene Heim, Hans Kamp, Fred Landman and Ede Zimmermann, besides, of course, Jeroen Groenendijk, Martin Stokhof and Frank Veltman.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cooper, R. 1979. The Interpretation of Pronouns. In: F. Heny & H. Schnelle (eds.). Syntax and Semantics 10: Selections from the Third Groningen Round Table. New York: Academic Press, 61–92.
Dekker, P. 1994. Predicate Logic with Anaphora. Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT 4). Ithaca/NY: DMLL Publications, 79–95.
Dekker, P. 1996. The Values of Variables in Dynamic Semantics. Linguistics and Philosophy 19, 211–257.
Dekker, P. 1997. On Context and Identity. In: H. Kamp & B. Partee (eds.). Proceedings of the Workshop “Context Dependence in the Analysis of Linguistic Meaning ”. Vol. I: Papers. Universität Stuttgart, Institut für maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung, 87-115.
Evans, G. 1977. Pronouns, Quantifiers and Relative Clauses (I). Canadian Journal of Philosophy 7, 467–536. [Reprinted in: Evans, G. 1985. Collected Papers. Dordrecht: Foris, 76-152.]
Frege, G. 1892. Über Sinn und Bedeutung. Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik 50, 25–50. [Translated as “On Sense and Reference”. In: P. Geach & M. Black (eds.) 1952. Translations from the Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege. Oxford: Blackwell, 56-78.]
Gawron, J. & Peters, S. 1990. Anaphora and Quantification in Situation Semantics. Stanford/CA: CSLI Publications.
Groenendijk, J. & Stokhof, M. 1990. Dynamic Montague Grammar. In: L. Káimán & L. Polos (eds.). Papers from the Second Symposium on Logic and Language. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 3–48.
Groenendijk, J. & Stokhof, M. 1991. Dynamic Predicate Logic. Linguistics and Philosophy 14, 39–100.
Groenendijk, J. & Stokhof, M. (this volume). Meaning in Motion. In: K. von Heusinger & U. Egli (eds.). Reference and Anaphoric Relations. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Groenendijk, J. & Stokhof, M. & Veltman, F. 1996. Coreference and Modality. In: S. Lappin (ed.). The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory. Oxford: Blackweil, 179–213.
Heim, I. 1982. The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Distributed by Ann Arbor: University Microfilms.
Heim, I. 1983. File Change Semantics and the Familiarity Theory of Definiteness. In: R. Bäuerle & C. Schwarze & A. von Stechow (eds.). Meaning, Use, and Interpretation of Language. Berlin: de Gruyter, 164–189.
Heim, I. 1990. E-Ttype Pronouns and Donkey Anaphora. Linguistics and Philosophy 13, 137–178.
Janssen, T. 1986. Foundations and Application of Montague Grammar. Part I: Philosophy, Framework, Computer Science. Amsterdam: Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI).
Kadmon, N. 1990. Uniqueness. Linguistics and Philosophy 13, 273–324.
Kamp, H. 1981. A Theory of Truth and Semantic Representation. In: J. Groenendijk & T. Janssen & M. Stokhof (eds.). Formal Methods in the Study of Language. Amsterdam: Mathematical Centre, 277–322. [Reprinted in: J. Groenendijk & T. Janssen & M. Stokhof (eds.) 1984. Truth, Interpretation and Information. Dordrecht: Foris, 1-41.]
Kamp, H. & Reyle, U. 1993. From Discourse to Logic. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Kaplan, D. 1989. Demonstratives. An Essay on the Semantics, Logic, Metaphysics, and Epistemology of Demonstratives and Other Indexicals. In: J. Almog & J. Perry & H. Wettstein (eds.). Themes from Kaplan. New York: Oxford University Press, 481–563.
Landman, F. 1986. Towards a Theory of Information. Dordrecht: Foris.
Lewis, D. 1979. Attitudes de dicto and de se. The Philosophical Review 88, 513–545.
Milward, D. 1996. Integrating Situations into a Theory of Discourse Anaphora. In: P. Dekker & M. Stokhof (eds.). Proceedings of the Tenth Amsterdam Colloquium. Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), University of Amsterdam, 519-538.
Muskens, R. 1996. Combining Montague Semantics and Discourse Representation. Linguistics and Philosophy 19, 143–186.
Peregrin, J. & von Heusinger, K. 1995. Dynamic Semantics with Choice Functions. In: U. Egli & K. von Heusinger (eds.). Choice Functions in Natural Language Semantics. Arbeitspapier 71. Fachgruppe Sprachwissenschaft, Universität Konstanz. [Also in: H. Kamp & B. Partee (eds.) 1997. Proceedings of the Workshop “Context Dependence in the Analysis of Linguistic Meaning ”. Vol. I: Papers. Institut für maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung, Universität Stuttgart, 329-353.]
Perry, J. 1979. The Problem of the Essential Indexical. Noûs 13, 3–21.
Stalnaker, R. 1984. Inquiry. Cambridge/MA: MIT Press.
Stalnaker, R. 1998. On the Representation of Context. Journal of Logic, Language and Information 7, 3–19.
Tarski, A. 1956. The Concept of Truth in Formalized Languages. In: A. Tarski (ed.). Logic, Semantics, Metamathematics. Transi, by J. Woodger. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 152–278.
Zeevat, H. 1996. A Neoclassical Analysis of Belief Sentences. In: P. Dekker & M. Stokhof (eds.). Proceedings of the Tenth Amsterdam Colloquium. Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC), University of Amsterdam, 723-741.
Zimmermann, T. “E”. 1998. Remarks on the Epistemic Role of Discourse Referents. In: L. Moss & J. Ginzburg & M. de Rijke (eds.). Logic, Language and Computation, II. Stanford/CA: CSLI Publications, 364–368.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dekker, P. (2000). Coreference and Representationalism. In: von Heusinger, K., Egli, U. (eds) Reference and Anaphoric Relations. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, vol 72. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3947-2_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3947-2_15
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-0291-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-3947-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive