| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
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| Research Abstract |
We have mainly investigated the following three aspects of constructivistic theory of meaning, and got some results.
1.Realism vs.anti-realism debate, which can be regarded as a background of constructivistic meaning theories, is analyzed by way of simple formalization in the framework of quantified propositional logic. Anti-realism is characterized in terms of the "manifestation principle", which is in turn formalized as "truth-assertibility principle", using the additional operators of truth-assertion and possibility. In the course of the exploration, we arrive at some results concerning undecided and undecidable statements, which play crucial roles in the constructivistic meaning theories.
2.Intuitionistic Type Theory (ITT), which is a promising candidate for the formal framework of constructivistic meaning theory, is explored. ITT is proved to be workable as a paradigmatic theory, not only about languages of logic and mathematics, but also about natural languages. We focus on material inferences in the ordinary contexts of natural languages, and see if they are accommodated in the ITT framework. In the process, we get some views on the ontological commitments of ITT-based constructivistic meaning theories.
3.Anaphoric theory of truth, which is most commonly regarded as a kind of deflationary theory of truth, is shown to be by no means deflationary. On the deflationary conception of truth, the scheme "'A' is true iff A" is basic and without further justifications. In contrast to this, in the anaphoric theory, the scheme is justifiable on the basis of a function of the truth predicate, which is called "prosentence formation". So the question is what substantial content can be given to the function of prosentence formation. In answer to this, we show that there is a good prospect of characterizing the substantial content of the function from the viewpoint of constructivistic theory of meaning.
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