Single Idea 22296

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

Full Idea

The principle of compositionality is more popular among philosophers of logic than of language, because the subtle context-sensitivity or ordinary language makes providing a compositional semantics for it a daunting challenge.

Gist of Idea

Compositionality is more welcome in logic than in linguistics (which is more contextual)

Source

Michael Potter (The Rise of Analytic Philosophy 1879-1930 [2020], 21 'Lang')

Book Reference

Potter,Michael: 'The Rise of Anaytic Philosophy 1879-1930' [Routledge 2020], p.142


A Reaction

Logicians love breaking complex entities down into simple atomic parts. Linguistics tries to pin down something much more elusive.