Logical form (linguistics)
In generative grammar and related approaches, the logical form (LF) of a linguistic expression is the variant of its syntactic structure which undergoes semantic interpretation.
These separate representations are postulated in order to explain the ways in which an expression's meaning can be partially independent of its pronunciation, e.g. scope ambiguities.
Three uncontroversial examples of scope affecting some aspect of the interpretation are: quantifier-quantifier, quantifier-pronoun, quantifier-negative polarity item.
[3] These assumptions explain the cases where the direct object of the main clause is not within the domain of the embedded subject.
[2] In syntax, LF exists to give a structural account of certain kinds of semantic ambiguities.
This case exemplifies the general fact that natural language is insufficiently specified for strict logical meaning.
In 1973, Richard Montague argued that a grammar for a small fragment of English contains the logicosyntactic and semantic devices to handle practically any scope phenomenon.
[5] The tool that he mainly relied on is a categorial grammar with functional application; in terms of recent formulations, it can be considered Minimalist syntax with Merge only.
When there is no scope interaction in the relevant portion of the sentence, making either choice shows no difference in semantics.
[citation needed] In contrast to Montague, May did not propose any syntax that generates the surface string.
In contrast to May and Montague, it was suggested that independently motivated phrase structure, such as the relative clause, imposes a limitation on scope options.
[7] A modified version of his past work that QR determines quantifier scope but does not disambiguate it was brought up.
To regulate the interaction, The Scope Principle that if two operators govern each other, they can be interpreted in either scopal order was also brought up.
This includes attempts to eliminate QR as an operation, and analyze its copal effects as by-products of independent grammatical processes.
[9] To understand the Logical Form of these examples, it is important to identify what the basic predicate is and which segments make up the QNPs.
The logical meaning of these sentences indicates that the property of being tall is attributed to some form of the QNP referring to girl.
(2)'s paths are overlapping, violating PCC, therefore in order to obtain a grammatical LF structure, everything needs to join the VP.
[citation needed] 要是Yàoshiif两个liǎnggetwo女人nǚrénwomen读过dúguoread+ASP每本měiběnevery书。。。shū...book要是 两个 女人 读过 每本 书。。。Yàoshi liǎngge nǚrén dúguo měiběn shū...if two women read+ASP every booki.
*"if for every book, there are two women who read it..."要是Yàoshiif两个liǎnggetwo线索xiànsuǒclues被bèiby每个人měigeréneveryone找到。。。zhǎodào...found要是 两个 线索 被 每个人 找到。。。Yàoshi liǎngge xiànsuǒ bèi měigerén zhǎodào...if two clues by everyone foundi.
According to Aoun and Li, Chinese does not have VP-internal subjects, thus, liangge nuren cannot be reconstructed in LF.
