Re: RT list: Logical Form

Dear All,

This is just to point out that the level of logical form has already been
'dropped' in the contextualist theory of Default Semantics where I, among
others, extensively argued for a level of representation (called there
'merger representation') to which all sources of information about
utterance meaning contribute on an equal footing, and hence the information
coming from the processing of the structure of the uttered sentence
(logical form) can be overridden. In relevance-theoretic terms, this would
mean that 'explicatures' are not only 'developments of the logical form'
but can also override the logical form. The terminology will be different
of course, as the distinctions between levels and types of information are
already adjusted in DS to the tenet that there is no syntactic constraint
on the meaning that is modelled as a primary (intended and recovered)
message. There are lots of publications to that effect but see for example:

Jaszczolt, K.M. 2010. 'Default Semantics'. In: B. Heine and H. Narrog
(eds). The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. 193-221.

Jaszczolt, K.M. 2005. 'Default Semantics: Foundations of a Compositional
Theory of Acts of Communication'. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Perhaps, then, it would be worth looking at contextualist theories other
than RT, such as DS, that have reached this conclusion already in the early
years of this millennium? I don't claim DS is the only one as the ideas go
back to late Wittgenstein at least.

With all best wishes,
Kasia

-- K. M. Jaszczolt, Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy of Language,
Head of Department of Linguistics, MML, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick
Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA, and Newnham College, Cambridge CB3 9DA, United
Kingdom, tel. +44 1223 335744; http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/~kmj21

Representing Time: An Essay on Temporality as Modality. Available now
through all good bookshops, or direct from Oxford University Press at:
http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199214440
Received on Thu Feb 17 10:01:14 2011