Subject And Predicate In Logic And Grammar

Subject and Predicate in Logic and Grammar

P.F. Strawson has supplied a new introduction for this reissue of his modern classic originally published in 1974. Subject and Predicate in Logic and Grammar explores two conceptions of subject and predicate, one of which lies at the core of standard logic and the other more closely relates to surface forms of natural language. Strawson renders these two conceptions, and their divergences, intelligible by relating them both to the 'basic case' in which the subject-term designates a substantial spatio-temporal individual. Through his treatment of these conceptions, Strawson added to our understanding of both logic and general grammar, helping us trace formal characteristics of logic and its grammar to their roots in general features of thought and experience, and observing how the grammatical structure of a large group of non-formalized languages naturally develops in various ways, along other lines. This book, based originally on seminar material used at Oxford and Princeton and a series of lectures delivered at Irvine and University College London, has become an enduring landmark in the literature of logic and the philosophy of language.

Subject and Predicate in Logic and Grammar

Strawson sets out to explain the foundation of the basic combination of predication on which logic rests, and to reveal the general character of any adequate explanation of the grammatical structure of any type of natural language. The first part is largely devoted to discussing the types of linguistic expression that can be used to designate individual particulars in the basic subject-predicate forms, with the case of proper names being singled out for extensive examination. In the second part he describes a certain general idea of grammar, then within that tries gradually to develop another notion of subject and predicate that is different from and in a sense more comprehensive than the first. The first edition was published in 1974. Annotation : 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Foundations of Logic and Language