Japanese and Logic

一个被广泛接受的观点是，任何逻辑标准语言的形式语义学都不能为自然语言提供足够的意义理论。然而，自然语言有各种方面，可以通过标准逻辑机器进行有益的描述。我们的研究旨在确定这些方面的日本，可以处理的谓词逻辑的标准语义，并取得进展，丰富的标准机器的一些设备的语义描述的自然语言。我们已经提出了一种形式语言，对应于日语片段，各种复杂的非短语可以自由地构建。在我们的研究报告中，可以看到对语言及其语义的描述，以及对方法论的一些哲学探讨。如果在标准的一阶谓词逻辑中加入各种限制量化的机制，就可以系统地为日语中的许多复杂名词短语提供语义.我们几乎可以直接将真值条件赋给日语句子。我们的语义学尊重日语的词序。我们的方法可以提供一个正式的框架，研究各种语境因素在确定自然语言表达的意义的贡献。

A widely accepted opinion has it that any formal semantics for the standard language of logic could not supply an adequate theory of meaning for a natural language. However, a natural language has various aspects which can be profitably described by the standard logical machinery. Our research aimed at identifying such aspects of Japanese that can be handled by the standard semantics for predicate logic, and making a progress towards enriching the standard machinery by some devices for the semantic description of a natural language. We have presented a formal language that corresponds to a Japanese fragment in which various complex non phrases can be freely constructed. In the report of our research, one can find the description of the language and its semantics as well as some philosophical discussion about the methodology.Our method has the following features:1. If we add a device for various sorts of restricted quantification to the standard first-order predicate logic, we can supply the semantics for many complex noun phrases of Japanese in a systematic way.2. We can assign a truth condition almost directly to a Japanese sentence. Our semantics respects the word order of a Japanese sentence.3. Our method can provide a formal framework for studying the contributions of various contextual factors in determining the meaning of natural language expressions.