Branching Quantification v. Two-way Quantification
- NINAN GIERASIMCZUK, Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Science Park 904 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands, e-mail: n.gierasimczuk{at}uva.nl
- JAKUB SZYMANIK, Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, Universiteit van Amsterdam Science Park 904 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands, e-mail: j.szymanik{at}uva.nl
- Received August 25, 2008.
- Revision received January 16, 2009.
- Accepted April 25, 2009.
Abstract
We discuss the thesis formulated by Hintikka (1973) that certain natural language sentences require non-linear quantification to express their meaning. We investigate sentences with combinations of quantifiers similar to Hintikka's examples and propose a novel alternative reading expressible by linear formulae. This interpretation is based on linguistic and logical observations. We report on our experiments showing that people tend to interpret sentences similar to Hintikka sentence in a way consistent with our interpretation.
- © The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.
