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Looking for a semantic theory

The path taken by Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (1931–1960)

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  • Author(s): Béatrice Godart-Wendling 1
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    Affiliations:
    1 Laboratoire d’Histoire des Théories Linguistiques CNRS / Université Paris Diderot / Sorbonne Paris Cité
  • Source: History of Linguistics 2011 , pp 137-144
  • Publication Date August 2014

In the early 1930s, the Polish philosopher and logician Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (1890–1963) proposed a new formal approach to natural language which, unlike Chomsky’s, was based on a joint calculus of the grammaticality and meaning of sentences. This methodological choice, which resulted from Ajdukiewicz’s reflections on the nature of language, led him to consider different conceptions of meaning implementable in a syntactical algorithm. The aim of this paper is to retrace the various solutions provided by Ajdukiewicz to meet this challenge that will continue to be a real issue for future categorial grammars.

  • Affiliations: 1: Laboratoire d’Histoire des Théories Linguistiques CNRS / Université Paris Diderot / Sorbonne Paris Cité

References

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Dordrecht & Boston: D. Reidel.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Godart-Wendling, Béatrice
    1998 “Carnap et Ajdukiewicz: deux conceptions mathématisées de la syntaxe”. Le formalisme en question. Le tournant des années 30,ed. by Frédéric Nef & Denis Vernant , 303–316. Paris: Vrin.
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    1958 “The Mathematics of Sentence Structure”. The American Mathematical Monthly65/3, 154–170. doi: 10.2307/2310058
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  17. 1961 “On the Calculs of Syntactic Types”. Structure of Language and its Mathematical Aspects, ed. by Roman Jakobson , 166–178. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society. doi: 10.1090/psapm/012/9972
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References

  1. Ajdukiewicz, Kazimierz
    1931 “On the Meaning of Expressions”. Giedymin1978, 1–34.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. 1931 1934a “Language and Meaning”. Giedymin1978, 35–66.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. 1931 1934b “The World-Picture and the Conceptual Apparatus”. Giedymin1978, 67–89.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. 1931 1935a “On the Problem of Universals” Giedymin1978, 95–110.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. 1931 1935b “The Scientific World-Perspective”. Giedymin1978, 111–117.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. 1931 1935c “Die syntaktische Konnexität”. Studia PhilosophicaI, 1–27. (English translation in Giedymin 1978, 118–139).
     [Google Scholar]
  7. 1931 1960 “Syntactical Connexions between Constituents of Declarative Sentences”. Giedymin1978, 269–281.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Bar-Hillel, Yehoshua
    1953 “A quasi-arithmetical Notation for Syntactic Description”. Language29/1, 47–58. doi: 10.2307/410452
     https://doi.org/10.2307/410452 [Google Scholar]
  9. 1957 “Husserl’s Conception of a Purely Logical Grammar”. Aspects of Language, ed. by Yehoshua Bar-Hillel , 89–97. Amsterdam: The Magnes Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Brandom, Robert
    1994 Making it Explicit. Cambridge & London: Havard University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Frege, Gottlob
    1892 “Sinn und Bedeutung”. Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik100, 25–50.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Giedymin, Jerzy
    ed. 1978 The Scientific World-Perspective and other Essays 1931–1963. 
Dordrecht & Boston: D. Reidel.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Godart-Wendling, Béatrice
    1998 “Carnap et Ajdukiewicz: deux conceptions mathématisées de la syntaxe”. Le formalisme en question. Le tournant des années 30,ed. by Frédéric Nef & Denis Vernant , 303–316. Paris: Vrin.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. ed. 2002  Les grammaires catégorielles . Langages148.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Husserl, Edmund
    1901 Logische Untersuchungen. Halle: Max Niemeyer. (2nd ed. 1913)
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Lambek, Jim
    1958 “The Mathematics of Sentence Structure”. The American Mathematical Monthly65/3, 154–170. doi: 10.2307/2310058
     https://doi.org/10.2307/2310058 [Google Scholar]
  17. 1961 “On the Calculs of Syntactic Types”. Structure of Language and its Mathematical Aspects, ed. by Roman Jakobson , 166–178. Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society. doi: 10.1090/psapm/012/9972
     https://doi.org/10.1090/psapm/012/9972 [Google Scholar]
  18. Montague, Richard
    1970 “English as a Formal Language”. Formal Philosophy. Selected Papers of Richard Montague, ed. by Richmond H. Thomason , 188–221. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Simons, Peter M
    1995 “Meaning and Language”. The Cambridge Companion to Husserl, ed. by Barry Smith & David Woodruff Smith , 106–137. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CCOL0521430232.004
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521430232.004 [Google Scholar]
  20. 2001 “Categories, Construction and Congruence: Husserl’s Tactics of Meaning”. Grammar in Early Twentieth-Century Philosophy, ed. by Richard Gaskin , 54–73. 
London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]

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