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Informal semantics andphilosophy of language, ameaning postulate is a way of stipulating a relationship between the meanings of two or more words. They were introduced byRudolf Carnap as a way of approaching theanalytic/synthetic distinction.[1] Subsequently,Richard Montague made heavy use of meaning postulates in the development ofMontague grammar,[2] and they have features prominently in formal semantics following in Montague's footsteps.[3]
Meaning Postulate is a formula to express an aspect of the sense of a predicate. The formula is expressed with - so-called - connectives.The used connectives are:
paraphrase ≡ "if and only if" entailment → "if" binary antonomy ~ "not"
Following examples will simplify this:
1. "If and only if X is a man, then X is a human being." In meaning postulate this would look like this:
x MAN ≡ x HUMAN BEING
2. "If X is a girl, then X is female." In meaning postulate this would look like this:
x GIRL → x FEMALE
3. "X is not awake, therefore X is asleep." In meaning postulate this would look like this:
x ASLEEP → ~x AWAKE
