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Resolving ambiguities in natural language - Marie Duží

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• published: 02 Mar 2012
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Prof. Duži applied Transparent Intensional Logic to "Resolving ambiguities in natural language". She began with reminding the discussion concerning proper names vs definite descriptions between Russell and Strawson and its continuators (Donnellan, Kripke, Ludlow). Prof. Duži gave a proposition of solving the dilemma. She agreed with Donnellan that sentences of the form "The F is a G" are ambiguous. Their ambiguity does not concern a shift of meaning of the definite description 'the F'. Rather, the ambiguity concerns different topic-focus articulations of these sentences (or different suppositions in which one and the same meaning occurs: de dicto vs. de re). Russell and Strawson took themselves to be at loggerheads; whereas, in fact, they spoke at cross purposes. One theory is excellent at explaining one set of data, but poor at explaining the data that the other theory is excellent at explaining. Description 'the F' may occur in the topic of a sentence and some G (the focus) is predicated about the topic: G(F). The sentence presupposes the existence of a unique F. Thus Strawson's analysis appears to be adequate for 'topic', i.e. de re cases. The other option is 'G' occurring in the topic and 'the F' in the focus of the sentence: F(G). This description occurs with de dicto supposition. The truth-conditions as specified by Russellian analysis. They do not presuppose, but only entail, the existence of a unique F. After the above-mentioned clarification, prof. Duži presented several examples of sentences and of how they can be linguistically disambiguated thanks to TIL formalization. The goal of the seminar was to analyze the language and logic of theological discourse. On typical accounts, only selected linguistic and logical aspects of theology are discussed, such as the problem of analogical terms or the so-called 'proofs' of God's existence. However, as any discourse, the theological one may be subject to more thorough formal scrutiny: it seems potentially fruitful to engage in the analysis of the structure of theological theories, the relationship between theology as a theory and other theories (e.g., science or philosophy), the problem of what kind of logic is suitable to reconstruct theological discourse, the question of the semantic values in theology, etc. In addressing such problems the seminar's participants followed the footsteps of the members of the Kraków Circle (J. Bocheński, J. Salamucha, J.F. Drewnowski), who in the 1930s initiated the research in the formal reconstruction of religious discourse. The "Language - Logic - Theology" seminar was funded from the research grant The Limits of Scientific Explanation, awarded by The John Templeton Foundation. Website: http://logic-theology.philosophyinscience.com Photos: http://www.adamwalanus.pl/2011/cc1c09.html