Modifiers and Quantifiers in Natural Language

Abstract

This paper has two parts. In part I, I review two older accounts of the logical forms of modifiers (adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases), and suggest that they may be combined with each other so as to yield a theory that is better than either of its parts taken singly. Part of this theory involves the idea that certain sentences refer to events, states, or processes; Part II of this paper shows how to use this idea to account for tenses and temporal adverbials, and offers a new account of ordinary language quantification.