Relational Syllogisms with Numerical Quantifiers and Beyond
Ka-Fat Chow
October 2021 

In the first half of this paper, we present a fragment of relational syllogisms named RELSYLL consisting of quantified statements with a special set of numerical quantifiers, and introduce a number of concepts that are useful for the later sections, including indirect reduction, quantifier transformations and equivalence of syllogisms. After determining the valid and invalid syllogisms in RELSYLL, we then introduce two Derivation Methods which can be used to derive valid relational syllogisms based on known valid simple syllogisms. We also show that the two Methods are sound and complete for RELSYLL. In the second half of this paper, we discuss ways to extend the Derivation Methods, including the use of more valid syllogisms and the use of existential assumptions. In this way, we are able to derive more relational syllogisms that contain other types of non-classical quantifiers, including "only" and proportional quantifiers. Finally, we state and prove a proposition concerning the relationship between the two Methods.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008954 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Journal of Logic, Language and Information
keywords:	relational syllogisms, simple syllogisms, numerical quantifiers, proportional quantifiers, existential assumptions, semantics
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