A Chronicle of Type Logical Grammar: 1935–1994

Abstract

Categorial grammar predated Syntactic Structures by two decades. While dramatic linguistic revolutions occupied centre stage, it tended to be the preserve of formal philosophy and philosophical linguistics: the philosophers' grammar. Fashions change but style endures. The 1980s saw the rediscovery of the categorial calculus of Lambek (1958) and the advent of linear logic and substructural logic generally providing a context for categorial grammar so-construed, since named type logical grammar (TLG). I think the history of the genesis and evolution of type-logical ideas is not widely known, but that the interpretation of the past is important to give direction to the future. This is the story of how a field came to a new pass.The point of departure for categorial grammar can be seen as Frege's position that there are certain 'complete expressions' which are the primary bearers of meaning, and that the meanings of 'incomplete expressions' (including words) are derivative, being their contribution to the meanings of the expressions in which they occur.Work partially funded by the DGICYT project TIN2005-08832-C03-03 (MOISES-BAR). I thank a RoLC reviewer for most useful comments and suggestions, and Mario Fadda, Oriol Valentín and David Weir. This account reports my experience and interests; the opinions are mine and all errors are my own.