I have research interests both in linguistics and in philosophy.
Linguistics
My linguistic research concerns primarily formal natural language semantics.
1.1 Background
1.1.1 What is formal natural language semantics?
The idea of formal natural language semantics is to do for natural languages what semantics in logic, or model theory, does for the expressions of the notations of logic. Model theory investigates, among other things, how values are assigned to the expressions of a logical notation through the assignment of values to its minimal expressions, or symbols, as well as how the values assigned to the non-minimal expressions changes with changes in the assignment of values to its minimal expressions. Analogously, formal natural language semantics investigates how values are assigned to the expressions of a natural language through the assignment of values to its minimal expressions and how the values assigned to the non-minimal expressions changes with changes in the assignment of values to the minimal expressions.
1.1.2 Semantics, syntax and pragmatic
Formal natural language semantics presupposes that expressions, whether expressions of the notation of a logic or expressions of a natural language, are structured in some definite way, that is, that they have a syntax. Hence, there is no study of formal natural language semantics without the study of natural language syntax. Moreover, one's understanding of any expression in natural language depends in part on the context in which it is used. For this reason, there is no study of formal natural language semantics without the study of the pragmatics of natural language.
1.2 My interests in linguistics
1.2.1 Noun: in English and in other languages
My point of departure was the study of English count nouns, a salient property of which is their distinction as singular and plural. This interest has expanded to include of other kinds of nouns, for example proper nouns, pronouns and relational nouns, whether underived (mother, father, etc.) or derived (employ-er, employ-ment). It also has expanded to include nouns in languages such as French, Sanskrit and Chinese.
1.2.2 Implicit arguments
I have become interested in implicit arguments, especially optional complements. The latter are complements of words, typically but not exclusively verbs, whose complements may be omitted and, if omitted, receive a special construal, depending on the word in question. In English, four construals are found: indefinite (eat vs eat something), definite or contextual (arrive vs arrive here), reflexive (wash vs wash oneself) and reciprocal (meet vs meet each other).
2. Philosophy
I also have an interest in philosophy. After all, my doctoral degree is in philosophy. My philosophical training includes philosophy of language and philosophy of science as well as extensive training training in Indian philosophy.
2.1 Logic in India
My interest in Indian philosophy has been primarily in its logic embedded in its epistemology. For a number of years, I have been engaged in charting out the development of logic in India as well as the early stages of its transmission to China.
2.2 Differences with logic in Europe
My interest in Indian logic has led me to think about the similarities and differences between the development of logic in India and the development of logic in Europe. One crucial difference is the use of notation, which goes back to Aristotle's Prior Analytics, where he uses schematic letters to identify the forms of statements and the syllogisms formed from them.
2.3 Notation vs natural language
This difference has led me to wonder about the differences between the syntax and semantics of notation, on the one hand, and the syntax and semantics of natural language, on the other.
2.4 The Indian grammatical tradition
One cannot study natural language semantics and have an interest in India without an interest in its grammatical tradition, which, as it happens, is at the root of the field of linguistics.
2.5 The foundations of natural language semantics
Finally, one cannot have studied philosophy and history of science without wondering about what kind of empirical undertaking linguistics is.