Abstract Objects and the Semantics of Natural La

Abstractobjectshavebeenacentraltopicinphilosophysinceantiquity.Philosophershavedefendedvariousviewsaboutabstractobjectsbyappealingtometaphysicalconsiderations，considerationsregardingmathematicsorscience，and，notinfrequently，intuitionsaboutnaturallanguage.Thisbookpursuesthequestionofhowandwhethernaturallanguageallowsforreferencetoabstractobjectsinafullysystematicway.Bymakingfulluseofcontemporarylinguisticsemantics，itpresentsamuchgreaterrangeoflinguisticgeneralizationsthanhaspreviouslybeentakenintoconsiderationinphilosophicaldiscussions，anditarguesforanontologicalpictureisverydifferentfromthatgenerallytakenforgrantedbyphilosophersandsemanticistsalike.Referencetoabstractobjectssuchasproperties，numbers，propositions，anddegreesisconsiderablymoremarginalthangenerallyheld.Instead，naturallanguageisrathergenerousinallowingreferencetoparticularizedproperties(tropes)，theuseofnonreferentialexpressionsinapparentreferentialposition，andtheuseof"nominalizingexpressions，"suchasquantifierslike"something."Referencetoabstractobjectsisachievedgenerallyonlybytheuseof'reifyingterms'，suchas"thenumbereight."