Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 931being generalized into complex propositions that indicate to how many individuals thepredicate of the simple proposition applies. In such cases, the names of the simplepropositions are replaced by variables and the variables are connected by quantifiers (operator). For example: Philip daydreams (x(x daydreams), read as ‘there is at leastone x, for which it is true that x daydreams.’ This type of quantification is carried out bythe existential quantifier or the universal quantifier (‘for all x it is true that y’). Naturallanguagesentences are frequently ambiguous when quantified owing to the differentscope of the quantifier. This ambiguity can be translated into unambiguous readings inpropositional logic, cf. Everybody loves somebody in the sense x y (x is a person andy loves x) or in the sense of y x (y loves x and x is a person). Based on thesuppositions that the system of predicate logic corresponds to the underlying logicalstructure of natural-language sentences and that this ‘semantic deep structure,’ in turn,corresponds to the structure of extralinguistic states of affairs, predicate logic can beconsidered a fundamental metalanguage among more current semantic models (such ascategorial grammar, generative semantics, Montague grammar, natural generativegrammar).ReferencesGamut, L.T.F. 1991. Logic, language, and meaning, vol. 1: Introduction to logic. Chicago, IL.Marciszewski, W. 1992. Logic from a rhetorical point of view. Berlin and New York.formal logicpredicate nounpredicative complementpredication1 Process and result of assigning properties to objects or states of affairs. Objects arespecified by predication according to quality, quantity, space, time, etc. or are placed inrelation to other ob jects. Predication is the basis of all forms of proposition.Linguistically it is realized by predicates.2 In J.R.Searle’s speech act theory, part of the speech act which, together withreference, forms a propositional speech act ( propositional act). While the speakerrefers to objects and states of affairs in the real world with reference acts, predication isused to assign these referents certain properties.3 Relationship between subject and predicate (in linguistics) or between argumentsand predicate in (formal) logic.4 topic vs comment.