Séminaire SynSem

Responsable : Giorgio Sbardolini (Université d'Amsterdam)
Titre : The Logic of the Lexicon

Résumé:
The puzzle of lexicalization is to explain why some logical operators (and, or, nor, and all, some, no, but also even) are expressed as primitives in English as well as many other natural languages, while others (nand and nall, but also neven) are never lexical primitives. One view, which goes back to L. Horn, is that the distribution of logical operators in the lexicon is explained by principles of (Neo-)Gricean pragmatics and scalar reasoning. On the view I will present, the puzzle of lexicalization is solved by studying the properties of negation. There is a formal and cognitive difference between the operator expressed by the word not, and the negation responsible for conveying negative lexical meanings. Lexicalization patterns in natural language are explained by the logic of the lexicon. I will conclude with some questions for future research, concerning lexicalizability and complexity.