Ontological Symmetry in Language: A Brief Manifesto

In the tradition of quantified modal logic, it was assumed that significantly different linguistic systems underlie reference to individuals, to times and to 'possible worlds'. Various results from recent research in formal semantics suggest that this is not so, and that there is in fact a pervasive symmetry between the linguistic means with which we refer to these three domains. Reference to individuals, times and worlds is uniformly effected through generalized quantifiers, definite descriptions, and pronouns, and in each domain grammatical features situate the reference of terms as near, far or 'further' from the actual or from a reported speech act. We outline various directions in which a program of ontological symmetry could be developed, and we offer in the Appendix a symmetric fragment developed in a logic that can be seen as a compromise between an extensional and an intensional system. In the influential tradition of quantified modal logic, it was assumed that significantly different linguistic systems underlie reference to individuals, to times and to possible situations or 'possible worlds'. We argue that a variety of results from recent semantic research suggest that this is not so, and that there is in fact a pervasive symmetry between the linguistic means with which we refer to all three domains. We sketch the main arguments in favor of a uniform analysis and we discuss some directions in which a program of 'ontological symmetry' could be developed, as well as some of its broader consequences for cognitive science. One possibility though not the only oneis that a single abstract cognitive system underlies individual, temporal and modal talk in natural language.