This book is the outgrowth of years of work on propositional attitudes, the hardest problem in semantics.
M. J. Cresswell is a logician and philosopher of language who has been a major continuing influence on the growth and development of formal semantics over the past 15 years or more. This book is the outgrowth of years of work on propositional attitudes, the hardest problem in semantics. In it, he traces the problem to the foundations of semantics and solves it by distinguishing between the result of the composition of the simple parts of complex expressions and structure consisting of the uncomposed parts.Cresswell explains the basis of the great intuitive appeal of structured meanings, and why previous attempts, from Carnap's notion of intensional isomorphism on, to use them to solve the propositional attitudes problem have been unsuccessful. His own formalization is integrated into a model-theoretic framework which is capable of incorporating and extending all the insights obtained from Montague's semantics.
A Bradford Book.

Structured Meanings: The Semantics of Propositional Attitudes

Science & Math

Cresswell, M.J.

Behavioral Sciences

Bradford Books

A New Introduction to Modal Logic

This long-awaited book replaces Hughes and Cresswell's two classic studies of modal logic: An Introduction to Modal Logic and A Companion to Modal Logic. A New Introduction to Modal Logic is an entirely new work, completely re-written by the authors. They have incorporated all the new developments that have taken place since 1968 in both modal propositional logic and modal predicate logic, without sacrificing tha clarity of exposition and approachability that were essential features of their earlier works. The book takes readers from the most basic systems of modal propositional logic right up to systems of modal predicate with identity. It covers both technical developments such as completeness and incompleteness, and finite and infinite models, and their philosophical applications, especially in the area of modal predicate logic.

Politics & Social Sciences

Hughes, G.E.

Philosophy

Routledge

A Companion to Modal Logic

Routledge& Kegan Paul

Originally published in 1973, this book shows that methods developed for the semantics of systems of formal logic can be successfully applied to problems about the semantics of natural languages; and, moreover, that such methods can take account of features of natural language which have often been thought incapable of formal treatment, such as vagueness, context dependence and metaphorical meaning.  Parts 1 and 2 set out a class of formal languages and their semantics. Parts 3 and 4 show that these formal languages are rich enought to be used in the precise description of natural languages.  Appendices describe some of the concepts discussed in the text.

Logics and languages

Methuen [Distributed in the U.S.A. by Harper & Row

What makes the words we speak mean what they do? Possible-worlds semantics articulates the view that the meanings of words contribute to determining which possible worlds would make a sentence true, and which would make it false.  In the first book-length examination from this viewpoint, M.J. Cresswell argues that the nonsemantic facts on which semantic facts supervene are facts about the causal interactions between the linguistic behavior of speakers and the facts in the world that they are speaking about.

Language in the World: A Philosophical Enquiry (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)

Cambridge University Press

What makes the words we speak mean what they do? Possible-worlds semantics articulates the view that the meanings of words contribute to determining which possible worlds would make a sentence true, and which would make it false. In the first book-length examination from this viewpoint, M.J. Cresswell argues that the nonsemantic facts on which semantic facts supervene are facts about the causal interactions between the linguistic behavior of speakers and the facts in the world that they are speaking about.

What makes the words we speak mean what they do? Possible-worlds semantics articulates the view that the meanings of words contribute to determining which possible worlds would make a sentence true, and which would make it false. In the first book-length examination from this viewpoint, M.J. Cresswell argues that the nonsemantic facts on which semantic facts supervene are facts about the causal interactions between the linguistic behavior of speakers and the facts in the world that they are speaking about.

In ordinary discourse we appear to ta1k about many things that have seemed mysterious to philosophers. We say that there has been a hitch in our arrangements or that the solution to the problem required us to examine all the probable outcomes of our action. So it would seem that we speak as if in addition to eloeks, mountains, queens and grains of sand there are hitches, arrangements, solutions, probiems, and probable outcomes. It is not immediately obvious when we must take such ta1k as really assuming that there are such to develop tests for things, and one of the tasks in this book is discerning what has eome to be called ontological commitment, in naturallanguage. Among the entities that natural language appears to make reference to are those connected with temporal and modal discourse, times, possibilities, and so on. Such entities play a crueial role in the kind of semantieal theories that I and others have defended over many years. These theories are based on the idea that an essential part of the meaning of a sentence is constituted by the conditions under whieh that sentenee is true. To know what a sentence says is to know what the world would have to be !ike for that sentence to be true.

Entities and Indices (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 41)

Computers & Technology

Computer Science

Springer

In ordinary discourse we appear to ta1k about many things that have seemed mysterious to philosophers. We say that there has been a hitch in our arrangements or that the solution to the problem required us to examine all the probable outcomes of our action. So it would seem that we speak as if in addition to eloeks, mountains, queens and grains of sand there are hitches, arrangements, solutions, probiems, and probable outcomes. It is not immediately obvious when we must take such ta1k as really assuming that there are such to develop tests for things, and one of the tasks in this book is discerning what has eome to be called ontological commitment, in naturallanguage. Among the entities that natural language appears to make reference to are those connected with temporal and modal discourse, times, possibilities, and so on. Such entities play a crueial role in the kind of semantieal theories that I and others have defended over many years. These theories are based on the idea that an essential part of the meaning of a sentence is constituted by the conditions under whieh that sentenee is true. To know what a sentence says is to know what the world would have to be !ike for that sentence to be true.

Semantic Indexicality shows how a simple syntax can be combined with a propositional language at the level of logical analysis. It is the adoption of such a base language which has not been attempted before, and it is this which constitutes the originality of the book. Cresswell's simple and direct style makes this book accessible to a wider audience than the somewhat specialized subject matter might initially suggest.

Semantic Indexicality (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 60)

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cresswell, M.J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cresswell, M.J.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cresswell, M.J.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Structured Meanings: The Semantics of Propositional Attitudes

A New Introduction to Modal Logic

A Companion to Modal Logic

Logics and languages

Language in the World: A Philosophical Enquiry (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)

Language in the World: A Philosophical Enquiry (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)

Language in the World: A Philosophical Enquiry (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)

Entities and Indices (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 41)

Entities and Indices (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 41)

Semantic Indexicality (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, 60)