A Few More Remarks on Logical Form

• Published in: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Vol. 99; pp. 247 - 272
• Main Author: Oliver, Alex
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: London Aristotelian Society 01.01.1999; Methuen
• Subjects: Grammar; Grammatical clauses; Lexical quantifiers; Noun phrases; Nouns; Philosophical logics. Philosophy of language; Philosophy; Phrases; Predicates; Sentences; Traditional logic; Category; Quantification; Logics; Conversation; Grammar; Ulysses; Subject-Predicate; Name; Hilbert (D.); Meinong (A.); English; Davidson (D.); Russell (B.); Absurd; Semantics; Chomsky (N.); Homer; Dummett (M.); Person; Sentence
• ISSN: 0066-7374; 1467-9264
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9264.00059

Yah boo sucks to the grammer wot we lernt in skool! Grammar (and the bad old traditional logic) says that quantifier phrases such as 'nobody', 'everyone', 'all women', 'some men' and 'a man' are in the same category as names such as 'Milly', 'Molly' and 'Mandy'. So, prior to their first corrective lessons, students are awfully muddled, the first and fundamental problem being the Woozle hunt for somebody called 'nobody'. Hoorah for modern logic and logic teachers! The story used to justify our current logics is entirely fictional. The claims about names and quantifier phrases in English are wildly false. Two of the heroes of modern logic, Russell and Hilbert, make the very mistakes which are falsely blamed on traditional logic. The villain, Meinong, turns out to have been working a different patch. Ideas ascribed to traditional grammar are modern inventions. Neither logicians nor grammarians can be trusted to tell the history of either grammar or logic.