Alternative semantics (or Hamblin semantics) is a framework in
formal semantics and
logic. In alternative semantics, expressions
denotealternative sets, understood as sets of objects of the same
semantic type. For instance, while the word "Lena" might denote Lena herself in a classical semantics, it would denote the singleton set containing Lena in alternative semantics. The framework was introduced by
Charles Leonard Hamblin in 1973 as a way of extending
Montague grammar to provide an analysis for
questions. In this framework, a question denotes the set of its possible answers. Thus, if and are
propositions, then is the denotation of the question whether or is true. Since the 1970s, it has been extended and adapted to analyze phenomena including
focus,[1]scope,
disjunction,[2]NPIs,[3][4]presupposition, and
implicature.[5][6]
^Krifka, Manfred (1993). "Focus and presupposition in dynamic interpretation". Journal of Semantics. 10 (4): 269–300.
doi:
10.1093/jos/10.4.269.
^Fox, Danny (2007). "Free choice and the theory of scalar implicatures". In Sauerland, Uli; Stateva, Penka (eds.). Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 537–586.
^Chierchia, Gennaro. "Scalar implicature, polarity phenomena, and the syntax/pragmatics interface". In Belleti, Adriana (ed.). Structures and Beyond. Oxford University Press. pp. 39–103.
^Chierchia, Gennaro. Logic in Grammar: Polarity, Free Choice, and Intervention. Oxford University Press.
^Cross, Charles; Roelofsen, Floris (11 February 2014).
"Questions". In Zalta, Edward (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 2021-01-25.
^Rooth, Mats (2016). "Alternative semantics". In Féry, Caroline; Ishihara, Shinichiro (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Information Structure. Oxford University Press.
doi:
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199642670.013.19.