The notion of logical form plays a central role in the philosophy of language and in linguistics. But what logical form is has not been clear. In this paper I first survey the uses of logical form, and show that this notion has no well-defined meaning. I then discuss three main motivations behind invoking logical form, and argue that two of them are unwarranted, and the third can be satisfied by an approach to the logic of ordinary language that is based on the idea of sentence frames, rather than on the traditional idea of subject and predicate.
Braine, M. D. S. 1990. The “natural logic” approach to reasoning [A]. In W. F. Overton (ed.). Reasoning, Necessity, and Logic: Developmental Perspectives [C]. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum. 133-57.
Braine, M. D. S. 1994. Mental logic and how to discover it [A]. In J. Macnamara & G. E. Geyes (eds.). The Logical Foundations of Cognition [C]. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 241-63.
Burge, T. 1992. Philosophy of language and mind: 1950-1990 [J]. Philosophical Review 101: 3-51.
Cheng, P. W. & K. J. Holyoak. 1985. Pragmatic reasoning schemas [J]. Cognitive Psychology 17: 391- 416.
Cheng, P. W., K. J. Holyoak, R. E. Nisbett & L. M. Oliver. 1986. Pragmatic versus syntactic approaches to training deductive reasoning [J]. Cognitive Psychology 18: 293-328.
Chomsky, N. 1986. Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use [M]. New York: Praeger.
Davidson, D. 1967a. The logical form of action sentences [A]. In N. Rescher (ed.). The Logic of Decision and Action [C]. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 81-95.
Davidson, D. 1967b. Truth and meaning [A]. In D. Davidson (ed.). Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation [C]. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 163-80.
Dik, S. C. 1989. The Theory of Functional Grammar (Part Ⅰ): The Structure of the Claus [M]. Simon, C: Dik.
Fillmore, C. 1968. The case for case [A]. In E. Bach & R.T. Harms (eds.). Universals in Linguistic Theory [C]. New York: Rinehart & Winston. 1-88.
Haegeman, L. 1994. Introduction to Government and Binding Theory (2nd ed.) [M]. Oxford: Blackwell.
Halliday, M. A. K. 1994. Introduction of Functional Grammar (Revised ed.) [M]. London: Edward Arnold.
Harman, G. H. 1996. The logic of ordinary language [OL]. www.princeton.edu/~harman/Papers/LogicOL.pdf
Jackendoff, R. 1990. Semantic Structure [M]. London: MIT Press.
Lakoff, G. 1971. On generative semantics [A]. In D. D. Steinberg & L. A. Jakobovits (eds.). Semantics: An Interdisciplinary Reader in Philosophy, Linguistics and Psychology [C]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 232-96.
Lin, Y. 1997. Grammar, semantics, and logic: Towards an “ordinary language” theory of language [J]. Cognitive Systems 5: 57-80.
Lin, Y. 1999. Chomsky on the “ordinary language” view of language [J]. Synthese 120: 151-92.
Lin, Y. 2002. Grammar, Meaning and Understanding: An Inquiry into Grammatical and Semantic Competence [D]. Oxford: St. Hugh’s College.
Lyons, J. 1995. Linguistic Semantics [M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Matthews, P. H. 1981. Syntax [M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rorty, R. M. (ed.). 1992. The Linguistic Turn: Essays in Philosophical Method [M]. London: University of Chicago Press.
Russell, B. 1914. Our Knowledge of the External World [M]. London: Open Court.
Russell, B. 1919. Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy [M]. London: Allen & Unwin.
Russell, B. 1956. On order in time [A]. In B. Russell (ed.). Logic and Knowledge [C]. London: Allen & Unwin. 345-63.
Ryle, G. 1932. Systematically misleading expressions [A]. In G. Ryle (ed.). Collected Papers (vol. Ⅱ): Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (vol. ⅩⅩⅩⅡ) [C]. 39-63.
Schank, R. C. 1975. Conceptual Information Processing [M]. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Sommers, F. 1982. The Logic of Natural Language [M]. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Strawson, P. F. 1974. Subject and Predicate in Logic and Grammar [M]. London: Methuen.
Strawson, P. F. 1992. Analysis and Metaphysics: An Introduction to Philosophy [M]. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Whitehead, A. N. & B. Russell. 1927. Principia Mathematica [M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wittgenstein, L. 1953. Philosophical Investigations [M]. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wittgenstein, L. 1961/21. Tractatus-Logico Philosophicus [M]. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
Wolfram, S. 1989. Philosophical Logic: An Introduction [M]. London: Routledge.
