Quantificazione e riferimento plurale. La semantica dei sintagmi nominali

[Autom. eng. transl.] The nominal phrases, together with the verbal ones, constitute one of the fundamental constituents of our sentences and of the languages that are spoken throughout the world. The fundamental idea that is developed in the volume is that the function of the nominal syntagms is to refer to the things that are in the world, while the verbal syntagms have the function of saying something of the entities identified by the nominal syntagms. This idea, in itself quite intuitive, has ended up being somewhat obscured in the context of semantic studies, both philosophical and linguistic, where it is denied that many nominal phrases are referential expressions. The volume criticizes the arguments that are usually brought in favor of the non referentiality of the nominal syntagms and defends the contrary thesis. Particularly intricate in this perspective is the problem of indefinite nominal syntagms whose referentiality does not seem, at least at first sight, to be evident. They are given ample space in the volume.