Japanese Formal Semantics and Its Philosophical Implications

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24520028
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Philosophy/Ethics
• Research Institution: Nihon University
• Principal Investigator: IIDA Takashi 日本大学, 文理学部, 教授 (10117327)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 日本語意味論 / 形式意味論 / 複数論理 / 言語哲学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It has been said sometimes that Japanese is not suitable for a logically articulate expression of a thought. Among the reasons that have been cited for claiming this are (1) the absence of mass/count distinction, (2) the absence of a systematic distinction between singular and plural, (3) the absence of grammatical indices for definite/indefinite distinction. One purpose of this study is to show that such a claim is based on a too narrow conception of "logic" which has been standard since 1930's. According to this conception, the basic form of predication is singular and all plural and mass predications should be reduced to singular ones. The recent development of plural logic has made such a conception obsolete. In this study of Japanese semantics, I have adopted plural logic as a metalanguage and tried to give a unified account of Japanese noun phrases. I believe that this study has shown the falsity of a claim of "illogicality" of Japanese.

Free Research Field

哲学