索姆斯问题及其解决

Soames' Problem and its Solution

自然语言的意义是当代哲学、逻辑学、语言学、认知科学和人工智能所关心的重要问题之一。迄今为止,人们发展了多种意义理论和学说,其中形式语义学试图用逻辑方法和逻辑模型形式化地定义自然语言的意义。形式语义学内部也有多种不同理论,但蒙塔古等学者所引入的内涵依然是目前关于意义的标准定义。然而,内涵作为自然语言的意义是不充分的,有不少问题无法解决,其中包括哲学家索姆斯提出的一个问题(简称为索姆斯问题)。本文首先介绍内涵概念的形成及索姆斯问题的产生,然后基于结构化命题方法定义两种更为充分的意义——解释义和结构义,从而一般地解决与命题态度相关的许多问题,包括索姆斯问题。

The meaning of natural language is a major problem concerned by contemporary philosophy, logic, linguistics, cognitive science and artificial intelligence. People have developed various kinds of theories or doctrines about meaning, and Formal Semantics attempts to define meaning using logical methods and models. Although there are different theories in Formal Semantics, the mainstream definition of meaning is still intension,which was introduced by Richard Montague and others. Nonetheless, researchers have shown that intension could cause many problems, one of which was introduced by Scott Soames and still lacks a good solution. This article first introduces the concept of intension and the Soames’ problem. Then, based on the method of structured propositions,two kinds of meaning-structured-meaning and explaining-meaning are defined to solve problems related to propositional attitudes reports, including the Soames’ problem.