Formal Languages and Natural Languages

Abstract

The old conception of logical form did not survive the problems that emerged in connection with the dichotomy between natural language and logically perfect language. After Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein, the ideal of logical perfection lost traction. However, the spirit of that conception did not die with its letter. Many philosophical works have been inspired by the thought that sentences must be paraphrased in a suitable language to elucidate their logical form. This chapter explains how the idea of logical form has evolved, as it dwells on two far-reaching developments that marked the analytic tradition. One concerns the characterization of the language that is expected to display logical form, the other concerns the understanding of natural language itself.