Triviality and grammatical cor­rectess: contemporary issues in intensional semantics

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the semantics of embedded questions (interrogative subordinate clauses), as well as the nature of restrictions on the licensing of declarative and interrogative clauses as complements of propositional attitude verbs. The authors show that this topic goes back to the key aspects of the semantic and cognitive program of G. Frege and is of key importance for the philosophy of language. Using the analytical apparatus of contemporary semantics, the authors investigate this topic on the material of the most recent theoretical works. They show how the semantics of embedded questions contributes to the development of a new perspective on the structure of meaning and the cognitive potential of natural language users. The authors also identify a number of theoretical shortcomings and empirical limitations of several theories of the semantics of embedded questions and point at some directions for future research.