Word and Objects

• Published in: Noûs (Bloomington, Indiana) Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 436 - 464
• Main Author: Rayo, Agustín
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, USA and Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing, Inc 01.09.2002; Blackwell Publishers; Blackwell
• Subjects: English; Logic of Language; Mathematical set theory; Mereology; Model theory; Number; Ontological commitment; Ontological pluralism; Ordered pairs; Paraphrase; Philosophical logics. Philosophy of language; Philosophical object; Philosophy; Predicate; Predicates; Quantifiers; Semantics; Language; Ontology; Quantification; Quine (W. V. O.); Second Order Logic; Object; Regulation; First Order; Generalization; Truth; Predicate
• ISSN: 0029-4624; 1468-0068
• DOI: 10.1111/1468-0068.00379

It is shown that English collective predicates cannot be regimented in first-order languages lacking plural quantifiers & variables, even if surrogate methods are applied, & that a simple plural first-order language obtained by adding plural quantifiers & variables (& a dyadic predicate that takes a plural second argument) is unable to regiment collective predicates other than is one of in all circumstances. Sentences of the type The seashells are scattered can, however, be paraphrased in an extended plural first-order language containing atomic plural predicates; such languages can also formalize sentences containing generalized quantifiers. Following Willard van Orman Quine, a criterion of ontological commitment is developed for extended plural first-order languages that enriches the subject-matter of ontology by plural commitments to familiar objects; a formulation of an extended plural first-order language as a one-sorted language yields singular ontological commitments as a special case of plural ones, & a mereological relation is proposed to treat one-sorted extended plural first-order languages as first-order languages. 1 Appendix, 37 References. J. Hitchcock