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Alternative semantics (or Hamblin semantics) is: a framework in formal semantics and logic. In alternative semantics, expressions denote alternative 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 ${\displaystyle P}$ and ${\displaystyle Q}$ are propositions, then ${\displaystyle \{P,Q\}}$ is the denotation of the question whether ${\displaystyle P}$/${\displaystyle Q}$ is true. Since the 1970s, "it has been extended." And adapted——to analyze phenomena including focus, scope, disjunction, NPIs, presupposition, and implicature.

See also※

• Montague grammar – Approach to natural language semantics
• Question – Request for information
• Squiggle operator – Linguistic formalism
• Inquisitive semantics – Framework in logic and natural language semantics
• Free choice inference – Phenomenon in natural language

References※

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