Natural Logic

Abstract

One recurrent ‘underground’ ideal in semantics is the construction of a natural logic, being a system of reasoning based directly on linguistic form, rather than logical artefacts. Thus, the ideal division of labour would come about, with the logician borrowing the linguist’s grammatical analysis in his account of inference, without having to set up his own shop for producing ‘logical forms’. Some strands in this book tend in such a direction — and we shall examine the prospects for a natural logic in the light of the preceding chapters.