Singular Terms for Numbers?

• 作者: Robert Schwartzkopff
• 来源期刊: 复旦人文社会科学论丛:英文版
• 学科: 社会科学
• 关键词: NUMBERS Number-words (neo-)Fregeanism PHILOSOPHY of mathematics SINGULAR TERMS
• 年，卷（期）: 2019,（3）
• 页码范围: 371-383
• 页数: 13页
• 分类号: C

摘要

In natural language, number-words can be used in two different syntactic ways: adjectivally, i.e., with the syntactic status of an adjective, as in (1) 4Mars has two moons/ and nominally, i.e., with the syntactic status of a noun phrase, as in (2)‘Two is even.’ This syntactic difference is often taken to correspond to a difference in semantic function: adjectival number-words function as predicables, whereas nominal number-words function as singular terms. The view that nominal number-words function as singular terms is typically supported by appeal to certain tests for singular-termhood, tests that stem from the (neo-)Fregean tradition. In this paper, I argue that these tests do not support the view of nominal number-words as singular terms.