Tag Archives: Graph Theory

The questions about boundary conditions we keep encountering betray a more general issue.  Already by this point in the discussion the limits of a purely syntactic approach to language are becoming visible.  It is not that one cannot go a … Continue reading →

Having broached the distinction between objective propositions and syntactic sentences, its analogy to the distinction between numbers and numerals becomes clear.  What are the implications of that distinction for the realm of reasoning about propositions and its representation in sentential … Continue reading →

The pragmatic theory of sign relations is called for in settings where everything that can be named has any number of other names, that is to say, the usual case.  Of course we’d like to replace the multiplicity of signs … Continue reading →

Expanding our perspective on the options for formal grammar style brings us to questions about the manner in which the abstract theory of formal languages and the pragmatic theory of sign relations interact with each other. Formal language theory can … Continue reading →

Perhaps I ought to comment on the differences between the present and the standard definition of a formal grammar, since I am attempting to strike a compromise with several alternative conventions of usage, and thus to leave certain options open … Continue reading →

Before the capacity of a language to describe itself can be evaluated, the missing link to meaning must be supplied for each of its expressions.  That means opening a dimension of semantics to be navigated by means of interpretation, topics … Continue reading →

The present patch of discussion is concerned with describing a family of formal languages whose typical representative is the painted cactus language   Once we have the abstract forms of cactus languages well enough in hand to grasp their application, … Continue reading →

As a rough illustration of the difference between rhetorical and logical orders, consider the contrasting types of order appearing in the following conjunction of conditionals. The formula exhibits a happy conformity between its rhetorical form and its logical content, in … Continue reading →

In looking at what seems like an incidental issue, the discussion arrives at a critical point.  The question is:  What decides the issue of style?  Taking a given language as the object of discussion, what factors enter into and determine … Continue reading →

As a result, we can hardly conceive of how many possibilities there are for what we call objective reality.  Our sharp quills of knowledge are so narrow and so concentrated in particular directions that with science there are myriads of … Continue reading →