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Meaning postulate
In formal semantics and philosophy of language, a meaning postulate is a way of stipulating a relationship between the meanings of two or more words. They were introduced by Rudolf Carnap as a way of approaching the analytic/synthetic distinction.[1] Subsequently, Richard Montague made heavy use of meaning postulates in the development of Montague grammar,[2] and they have features prominently in formal semantics following in Montague's footsteps.[3] ExamplesMeaning Postulate is a formula to express an aspect of the sense of a predicate. The formula is expressed with - so-called - connectives. The used connectives are: paraphrase ≡ "if and only if" entailment → "if" binary antonomy ~ "not" Following examples will simplify this: 1. "If and only if X is a man, then X is a human being." In meaning postulate this would look like this: x MAN ≡ x HUMAN BEING 2. "If X is a girl, then X is female." In meaning postulate this would look like this: x GIRL → x FEMALE 3. "X is not awake, therefore X is asleep." In meaning postulate this would look like this: x ASLEEP → ~x AWAKE See alsoReferences
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