Generalized Quantifiers and Natural Language

Abstract The work on generalized quantifiers referred to above has led to new insights into the nature of quantifiers, insights which permit logical syntax to correspond more closely to natural language syntax. These insights, we argue, may also make a significant contribution to linguistic theory. Section 1 discusses the nature of generalized quantifiers and their relationship to the syntax of English in general terms. Section 2 develops a logic containing generalized quantifiers. Section 3 shows how this logic may be formally related to a fragment of a syntax for English. Section 4 is the main section of the paper. In it we discuss some of the general implications of the notion of generalized quantifier for a theory of natural language of the kind that is interesting to linguists.