Logical Form In Natural Language

by William G. Lycan

Logical Form in Natural Language clearly explains and defends the truth-theoretic method in semantics first developed by Donald Davidson to analyze logical forms of sentences of natural language. Lycan examines the history, motivation, and content of the Davidsonian program, offering plausible, even novel, solutions to the well-known technical problems that have plagued it.

In particular, Lycan elaborates the version of Davidson's thesis that a semantics for a particular natural language should take the form of a Tarskistyle truth definition for that language which satisfies certain formal and empirical constraints. In pursuing the anatomy of linguistic meaning and showing how its elements fit together, Lycan explores the interface between "languages" considered as formal systems and the linguistic activities of human beings in speech situations; and he defends the autonomy of linguistic semantics as a branch of psychology.

William G. Lycan is Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A Bradford Book.

360 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 1984

About the author

William G. Lycan is an American philosopher and professor emeritus at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was formerly the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor. Since 2011, Lycan is also distinguished visiting professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, where he continues to research, teach, and advise graduate students.