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Single Idea 11005

[filed under theme 19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 4. Compositionality ]

Full Idea

A problem with compositionality is negative existential propositions. If some of the terms of the proposition are empty, and don't refer, then compositionality implies that the whole will lack meaning too.

Gist of Idea

Negative existentials with compositionality make the whole sentence meaningless

Source

Stephen Read (Thinking About Logic [1995], Ch.5)

Book Ref

Read,Stephen: 'Thinking About Logic' [OUP 1995], p.123

A Reaction

I don't agree. I don't see why compositionality implies holism about sentence-meaning. If I say 'that circular square is a psychopath', you understand the predication, despite being puzzled by the singular term.

The 16 ideas with the same theme [sentence meaning as built up from its components]:

22280 Frege's account was top-down and decompositional, not bottom-up and compositional [Frege, by Potter]
23488 Propositions are understood via their constituents [Wittgenstein]
23511 Propositions use old expressions for a new sense [Wittgenstein]
7772 Compositionality explains how long sentences work, and truth conditions are the main compositional feature [Davidson, by Lycan]
19133 If you assign semantics to sentence parts, the sentence fails to compose a whole [Davidson]
12610 Encountering novel sentences shows conclusively that meaning must be compositional [Peacocke]
18994 The content of an assertion can be quite different from compositional content [Yablo]
11005 Negative existentials with compositionality make the whole sentence meaningless [Read]
21655 Compositonality is a way to build up the truth-conditions of a sentence [Hofweber]
22283 Compositionality should rely on the parsing tree, which may contain more than sentence components [Potter]
22282 'Direct compositonality' says the components wholly explain a sentence meaning [Potter]
22296 Compositionality is more welcome in logic than in linguistics (which is more contextual) [Potter]
18000 Weaker compositionality says meaningful well-formed sentences get the meaning from the parts [Magidor]
17999 Strong compositionality says meaningful expressions syntactically well-formed are meaningful [Magidor]
18014 Understanding unlimited numbers of sentences suggests that meaning is compositional [Magidor]
14695 Semantic theories show how truth of sentences depends on rules for interpreting and joining their parts [Schroeter]