Abstract

Abstract. The notion of the logical form of an expression E is shown to be a semantic notion that can be derived from the notion of the structured meaning of E. This simple idea can be traced to categorial grammars, and it is implicitly used by Richard Montague. We argue that a most fine-grained tool for defining structured meaning can be found in Pavel Tichý’s Transparent Intensional Logic (TIL). Structured meanings of expressions are identified with abstract procedures, known as TIL constructions, expressed by the expressions. We construe concepts as closed constructions, and present a method of seeking the best semantic analysis (identical to the structured meaning) of a given expression. The method terminates in a complete lattice over the set of possible analyses; which analysis is the best one must, however, be relativized to a conceptual system. This relativization concerns primitive concepts of the conceptual system within which the semantic analysis is set. Our main thesis is: Every well-formed expression E of the language under analysis can be associated with a logical form that is unambiguously derived from the structured meaning of E. 1 The problem of adequate explication

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