LogPrag

The semantics and pragmatics of logical words: negation and connectives

Projet Fonds national suisse de la recherche scientifique n° 100012_146093

juin 2014-janvier 2019

requérant principal

Jacques Moeschler

collaboratrices

Joanna Blochowiak, post-doc

Karoliina Lohiniva, candoc

Karo

Joanna

Résumé du projet

This research project is about logical words (LWs) in natural languages with a special focus on French. More precisely, the linguistic counterpart of logical connectives and negation will be studied in the general framework of the semantics-pragmatics interface.

The investigation of LWs is essential for the understanding of some fundamental issues in linguistics and human cognition: (i) all natural languages have words for negation (‘ne…pas’ in French) and logical connectives as ‘et’ (‘and’), ‘ou’ (‘or’) and ‘si’ (‘if’); (ii) all natural languages have pragmatic meanings for these LWs which systematically differ from their logical meanings; (iii) the linguistic properties (mainly syntactic) of LWs are not universal but greatly vary cross-linguistically and intra-linguistically; (iv) human cognition seems to be firmly based on the logical properties of LWs, as supported by reasoning abilities and argumentation usages; (v) for reasons of communication human cognition seems to develop specific pragmatic meanings diverging from logical ones in very systematic ways.

Our main hypothesis is that the pragmatic meanings of LWs are restrictions on their logical meanings, which we assume to constitute their basic semantics. These restrictions in meaning are not specific to a particular language, but they are widespread in natural languages. For instance, in French, 'et' (‘and’) has as semantic meaning the truth-conditions of the logical connective (LC) of conjunction, whereas its pragmatics includes temporal and causal meanings; French 'ou' (‘or’) has as semantic meaning the truth-conditions of the LC of the inclusive disjunction whereas its pragmatics is that of the exclusive disjunction; the French LC 'si' (‘if’) has as semantic meaning the truth-conditions of the conditional LC (material implication) whereas in most cases its pragmatics is the bi-conditional meaning realized in the equivalence LC 'si et seulement si' (‘if and only if’); finally, logical negation has the logical property of taking wide scope, i.e. it scopes over a whole proposition, whereas negation in natural languages is restricted, in its descriptive use, to a local domain in syntax as well as in semantics – for instance the VP domain.

Hence, LogPrag is setup to address the following three issues: (i) to describe how the logical properties of LWs can yield pragmatically more restricted meanings; (ii) to compare the pragmatic behaviors of various LWs in order to confirm the ‘restriction domain hypothesis’ (RDH); (iii) to design a series of experimental studies to test RDH empirically (on negation, conjunction, disjunction and conditionals).

More generally, LogPrag will examine three types of relationships: (a) the code-inference interface, which has been, since the Gricean turn, a pervasive issue in pragmatic theory; (b) the semantics-pragmatics interface, which addresses the issue of how to account for the relationship between logical and pragmatic meanings, as well as the scope of negation and quantifiers; (c) the lexicon-context interface, which addresses the issue of the mutual contribution of lexical information and contextual import in pragmatic interpretation.

Finally, LogPrag will address some issues beyond the semantics-pragmatics interface concerning reasoning and argumentation: logical words play a key role in reasoning (especially the conditional reasoning) and negation plays a crucial role in counter-argumentation. The linguistic and pragmatic properties of metalinguistic negation will be essential in the study of the semantics of negation.

Workshops

LogPrag Workshop on Logical Words, 17-19 Juin 2015, Hôtel du Pillon, Les Diablerets

Programme
Abstracts
Présentations
- Moeschler, Jacques. Introduction
- van der Auwera, Johan. More ado about nothing: the typology of indefinites
- Scappini, Maria, V. Vespignani, Denis Delfitto, S. Savazzi & C.A. Marzi. On the non-incremental processing of negation: A pragmatically licensed sentence-picture verification study with Italian (dyslexic) adults
- Albu, Elena. Description vs. Rejection in the Analysis of Negation
- Moeschler, Jacques. What is (meta)representational in metalinguistic negation?
- Grisot, Cristina & Joanna Blochowiak. Online processing of temporal discourses: verbal tenses and ensuite
- Blochowiak, Joanna. Logical meaning of non-logical connectives and non-logical meaning of logical connectives
- Assimakopoulos, Stavros. Logical connectives: a relevance theory perspective
- Lohiniva, Karoliina. In disjunction(s)
- Miecznikowski, Johanna. Epistemic causality in inferential connectives. The example of Italian come si vede
- Castelain, Thomas. Can reason overcome in the endorsement of testimony? The case of young Maya children
- Rocci, Andrea & Elena Musi. From discursive to argumentative relations: the role of evidential-modal verbs as Connective Predicates
- Fiorin, Gaetano. Reference to Phenomenal Experience in Natural Language
- Moeschler, Jacques. Synthesis

De gauche à droite: Denis Delfitto, Karoliina Lohiniva, Thomas Castelain, Elena Albu, Johan van der Auwera, Joanna Blochowiak, Cristina Grisot, Gaetano Fiorin, Jacques Moeschler, Elena Musi, Stavros Assimakopoulos, Johanna Miecznikowski

SLE 2015, Workshop

Theoretical and experimental approaches to the procedural and conceptual meaning of tense, aspect and connectives, 2 September 2015, Leiden

SLE 2016, Workshop

Negation at the syntax, semantics and pragmatics interfaces: theoretical, empirical and experimental approaches, 31 August, Naples

Workshop LogPrag, L'expression des mots logiques en langue naturelles: approches théoriques et expérimentales, Université de Genève, 16-17 janvier 2019

Programme
Abstracts
Présentations
- Jacques Moeschler, Introduction
- Julien Musolino, Rethinking logical nativism
- Jacques Moeschler, Logic, semantics and pragmatics
- Joanna Blochowiak & Cristina Grisot, Cognitive treatment of descriptive and metalinguistic negation
- Denis Delfitto, Some thoughts on non-standard negation
- Teresa Guasti & Elena Pagliarini, The acquisition of negated disjoint sentences
- Nicole Gotzner & Diana Mazzarella, Politeness and negative strengthening
- Ira Noveck, Getting at the roots of logical terms
- David Beaver, How to do more things with words
- Penka Stateva, Quantifiers and pragmatic enrichment
- Karoliina Lohiniva, Disjunction in Finnish alternative unconditionals
- Stavros Assimakopoulos, Logical connectives as procedural encoding
- Joanna Miecznikowski, Conjectural readings of the Italian possibility modal potrebbe and argumentative explicitness across discourse genres
- Caterina Mauri, Logical lists and category construction

Publications

Blochowiak, Joanna & Cristina Grisot (éds.). 2015. De la forme logique à la forme propositionnelle. Nouveaux cahiers de linguistique française 32.
Blochowiak, Joanna & Cristina Grisot (éds.). 2018. Beyond descriptive and metalinguistic negation. Glossa: A journal of general linguistics 3(1). https://www.glossa-journal.org/collections/special/beyond-descriptive-and-metalinguistic-negation/.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2019. Representation and metarepresentation in negation. In Kate Scott, Billy Clark & Robyn Carston (eds.), Relevance Theory. Pragmatics and Interpretation, 80-92. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A paraître.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2019. Non-lexical pragmatics: Time, causality and logical words. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. A paraître.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2019. Logique, sémantique, pragmatique. Nouveaux cahiers de linguistique française 33.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2018. On the pragmatics of logical connectives. Are connectives truth-functional? In Daniel van Olmen, Tanja Mortelmans & Frank Brisard (eds.), Aspects of Linguistic Variation, 211-236. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. A paraître.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2018. Conventional implicatures and presuppositions. In Frank Liedtke (ed.), Handbuch Pragmatik, 198-206, Stuttgart: Metzler.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2018. Présupposition et implicature: où passe la frontière? In Amir Biglari & Marc Bonhomme (éds.), La Présupposition entre théorisation et mise en discours. Paris: Classiques Garnier. A paraître.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2018. A set of semantic and pragmatic criteria for descriptive vs. metalinguistic negation. Glossa: A journal of general linguistics 3(1): 58. 1–30. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.439.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2018. The semantics-pragmatics interface: How it works, why we need it, and where it is? in Pierre Saint-Germier, (ed.), Language, Evolution and Mind. Essays in Honour of Anne Reboul, 3-27. London: College Publications.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2017. How speaker meaning, explicature and implicature work together. In Rachel Giora & Michael Haugh (eds.), Doing Pragmatics Interculturally. Cognitive, Philosophical, and Sociopragmatic Perspectives, 215-232. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2017. Back to negative particulars. A truth-conditional account, in Stavros Assimakopoulos (ed.), Pragmatics at its Interfaces, 7-32. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2017. Formal and natural languages: What does logic tell us about natural language? In Anne Barron A., Yueguo Gu & Gerard Steen (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics, 241-256. London, Routledge.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2016. Where is procedural meaning? Evidence from discourse connectives and tenses. Lingua 175-176: 122-138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2015.11.006.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2015. Qu'y a-t-il de représentationnel dans la négation métalinguistique? Nouveaux cahiers de linguistique française 32: 11-26.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2015. La frontière sémantique-pragmatique existe-t-elle? La question des présuppositions et des implicatures revisitée. In Alain Rabatel, Alice Ferrara-Léturgie & Arnaud Léturgie (éds.), La sémantique et ses interfaces. Actes du colloque 2013 de l'Association des Sciences du langage, 263-288. Limoges: Ed. Lambert-Lucas, 263-288.
Moeschler, Jacques. 2015. Êtes-vous logique ou pragmatique? Une perspective pragmatique sur les relations entre logique et langage. Swiss Academies Communications 10 (1).

présentations

2017

Colloque Le Cours de Linguistique Générale 1916-2016, Genève, 9-13 janvier 2017
- Atelier La pragmatique et le paradigme saussurien: différence, convergence, complémentarité ou incompatibilité?
  - Jacques Moeschler, Introduction: Code et inférence, fonction sociale et cognitive du langage
  - Jacques Moeschler, Les limites de la convention sémantique: une linguistique de la langue est-elle possible?
ComCog 2017, Communication and cognition, Miscommunication: Getting lost in language(s), University of Fribourg, 8-10 February 2017
- Joanna Blochowiak, Cristina Grisot, Jacques Moeschler, Is negation ambiguous? Descriptive and metalinguistic uses of negation under experimental and theoretical perspectives
  - Abstract
Colloque international "Le triple visage du langage: forme, sens, expression", Université de Banja Luka, Bosnie Herzégovine, 7 avril 2017
- Jacques Moeschler, Pourquoi la pragmatique? Signification linguistique et sens du locuteur revisités
  - Abstract
- Joanna Blochowiak, Deux sortes de négation: au-delà du renversement de la valeur de vérité. Une approche expérimentale
  - Abstract
Rencontre des linguistes suisses et serbes, Université de Belgrade, Faculté de philologie, 20-21 juin 2017
- Jacques Moeschler, Signification linguistique, sens du locuteur et l'interface sémantique-pragmatique
  - Abstract
- Joanna Blochowiak, Perspectives théorique et expérimentale des connecteurs causaux
  - Abstract
Les Discours Programmateurs, ENS Lyons, 9-10 octobre 2017
- Jacques Moeschler, Qu’est-ce que la signification procédurale? Où, pourquoi, quand?
  - Abstract

2018

INPRA 8, Nicosie, 8-10 juin 2018
- Jacques Moeschler, Types of meaning: the semantics-pragmatics interface issue (keynote lecture)
  - Abstract
- Joanna Blochowiak & Cristina Grisot, How usages influences processing: the example of French causal connectives parce que and car
  - Abstract
Rencontres Recherches et Création, La règle et le jeu, ANR/Festival d'Avignon, 10-11 juillet 2018
- Jacques Moeschler, Pourquoi le langage n'est pas la communication? Règles linguistiques vs principes pragmatiques
- Abstract

2019

Workshop LogPrag, Genève, 16-17 janvier 2019
- Jacques Moeschler, Logic, semantics, pragmatics
- Abstract

Résultats de la recherche

La recherche a porté principalement sur la négation et les connecteurs logiques. L"hypothèse initiale, selon laquelle la sémantique de la négation et des connecteurs logiques est leur signification logique (donnée par le calcul des propositions) a pu être vérifiée, à la fois descriptivement, théoriquement et expérimentalement (négation et conjonction).

La pragmatique est essentiellement le résultat d'un processus inférentiel, mais le rôle de la signification procédure a été démontrée dans Moeschler (à paraître).

Une thèse de doctorat (Karoliina Lohiniva) a été soutenu en juillet 2018.

Quatre workshops ont été organisés: l'un sur les mots logiques (juin 2015), le 2e sur la signification procédurale (SLE 2015), le troisième sur la négation (SLE 2016), et le 4e sur les mots logiques dans les langues naturelles (approches théoriques et expérimentales, Genève, janvier 2019). Deux articles ont résulté de ces rencontres (Blochowiak & Grisot 2018; Moeschler 2018), dans un numéro spécial de Glossa (https://www.glossa-journal.org/collections/special/beyond-descriptive-and-metalinguistic-negation/ ). Un ouvrage collectif est prévu pour le 4e workshop de 2019.

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