This collection of 10 essays (6 of which had been published earlier) is divided into 3 parts. In Part I, “orthodox” possible-worlds-semantics is used as a tool to explain the meaning of counterfactuals (ch. 1), to give an account of semantic competence (ch. 2), to answer the question of whether semantics should be based on logic (ch. 3), and to enrich the language of physical theories by modal operators (ch. 4). Part II contains critical discussions of two “unorthodox” semantics that had been developed to cope with the problems of propositional attitudes: so- called situation-semantics (ch. 5) and quotational (or insriptional) theories (ch. \(6+7)\). In Part III the author deals with some issues concerning quantification and reference, viz. with so-called “intensional objects” (postulated to solve the problem of referential opacity of intensional contexts) (ch. 8) and with “game-theoretical semantics” (developed for the sake of formalizing ordinary language sentences involving “branching quantifiers”) (ch. \(9+10)\). These approaches are refuted in favor of the author’s own semantics which is based on a so-called \(\lambda\)-categorical base language.
Contents: Chapter 1: “Possible worlds” (pp. 3-11) [Studia Poetica 2, 6- 16 (1980)]; Chapter 2: “Semantic competence” (pp. 12-33) [Meaning and translation (F. Guenthner and M. Guenthner-Reutter (eds.)), 9-27 (London, 1978)]; Chapter 3: “Semantics and logic” (pp. 34-46) [Theor. Linguist. 5, 19-30 (1978)]; Chapter 4: “Physical theories and possible worlds” (pp. 47-62) [Logique Anal., Nouv. Sér. 16, 495-511 (1973; Zbl 0287.02009)]; Chapter 5: “The world situation (It’s a small world after all)” (pp. 65-77) [Written for this volume]; Chapter 6: “Quotational theories of propositional attitudes” (pp. 78-103) [J. Philos. Logic 9, 17-40 (1980; Zbl 0424.03005)]; Chapter 7: “More about inscriptionalism” (pp. 104-114) [Written for this volume]; Chapter 8: “Identity and intensional objects” (pp. 117-133) [Philosophia 5, 47-68 (1975)]; Chapter 9: [The Greek-Turkish imbroglio (Do we need game-theoretical semantics?)” (pp. 134-161) [Written for this volume]; Chapter 10: “Some recent theories of anaphora” (pp. 162-197) [Written for this volume]; Bibliography; Index.