Mass nouns and plural logic
@article{Nicolas2008MassNA, title={Mass nouns and plural logic}, author={David Nicolas}, journal={Linguistics and Philosophy}, year={2008}, volume={31}, pages={211-244} }
A dilemma put forward by Schein (1993, Plurals and events. Cambridge MIT Press) and Rayo (2002, Noûs, 36, 436–464) suggests that, in order to characterize the semantics of plurals, we should not use predicate logic, but plural logic, a formal language whose terms may refer to several things at once. We show that a similar dilemma applies to mass nouns. If we use predicate logic and sets when characterizing their semantics, we arrive at a Russellian paradox. And if we use predicate logic and… Expand
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