TLDR: Most sentences can be translated to simple predicate logic. There are some very important cases where natural languages are recursive, but those cases are limited to a few particular connectives (like causation and attitude verbs). I propose the hypothesis that, contrary to mainstream formal semantics, events should not be treated as basic entities, and rather as ways to organize information which can already be expressed without events.

Motivations for this investigation:

Better understanding how language works as an angle for better understanding minds.
(To a lesser extent, as a starting angle for creating a good language for reasoning more effectively.)^[1]

There's a tight correspondence between sentences and logical statements. Roughly speaking, when we hear a sentence, our minds very likely parse it into a logical statement, along with inferring other details that are not captured by the coarseness of sentences in human languages (like imagining a visual scene), and then apply inferences (e.g. about what is likely going to happen next).

In theory, one could have a language where all the sentences are just statements in predicate logic, bypassing the first parsing step. Creating such a simple system may be a useful investigation that may move us closer to better understanding how language works.

This post proposes a partially-formal system based on predicate logic, which could be seen as a very low-level language. I think everything that can be meaningfully said in natural languages can also be said in this simple system, although a translated statement sometimes look not closely analogous to the original sentence. To be clear, I definitely don't claim that this system explains how most of the meaning of sentences gets parsed, though it is a small step into that direction.

In many respects, the framework presented here aligns with traditions in formal semantics, though it diverges in its treatment of events.

This work focuses on the structure of the logical representation itself rather than the processes by which natural language sentences are translated into such representations. The primary concern is with the formal target representation, not the translation mechanism.

(Basic familiarity with predicate logic is assumed.)

Objects

What are objects?

On the logic side, objects (sometimes also called "individuals" or "constants") are the basic entities of w...

Towards_Keeperhood's Shortform

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Towards_Keeperhood's Shortform

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